Adventures, Musings, Commentary, and Associated Fun

he's...ALIVE!

Believe it or not, I am.  I'd offer my sincere apologies for incommunicado for so long, if I thought anyone was actually too hard-done by...instead, you just know a few less details about ultimate frisbee and/or soccer in Australia.  With the presidential election heating up (about time too, if you ask me; "only" 21 months until November 2008!), I figure I would offer a brief update of my happenings over the past few months - in quick-hitting, short attention span, 24-hours news style.

-Becca Kurtzig came to visit in December.  That girl rocks, and though I didn't think it possible, I think I enjoyed her second visit to Melbourne even more than her first.  Where are the rest of you slackers?

-Rog and Barb, aka les parents extraordinaires, arrived into Sydney mid-December for the beginning of what would be a month long trip around Australia.  In addition to making friends at every instance - the hotel receptionist, the waiter at dinner, random guy they met at the pub that turned into Dad's best friend - they managed to see quite a bit of the real Australia, rather than the touristy, check-in-the-box tourism that unfortunately gets enforced on most Americans due to the "tyranny of distance", as they call it over here.  Sydney, Melbourne, and Tasmania, with a couple of road trips thrown in for good measure; I feel safe saying that I, like most of Australia, are just now recovering from their stay here (in the best possible way, of course).  They left 3 weeks ago.

-went to see the Boxing Day test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground between Australia and England on Dec. 27.  If you don't know about the Ashes, think of what it would be like to the World Series, with each game lasting up to 5 days, between two hated rivals (Red Sox-Yankees, anyone?), played every 18 months...and it representing a REAL "World Series".  Multiply that by a factor of 50 and you might have an inkling of what it was like.  It was special.

-as a wonderful Christmas present, I managed to get two scholarships for the upcoming year: one that takes care of my tuition, and one that actually pays me a stipend while I am a student.  It's a huge turnaround from this year, and to deny that it makes my life enormously easier and is a huge burden off my shoulders would be a lie of truly ridiculous proportions.

-I've been appointed a Resident Tutor at Trinity College.  I won't go into detail about what exactly Trinity (or college life generally here at Melbourne Uni) is about, but if you're familiar with the system at Oxford and Cambridge, you would have a good start.  It's a residential college at University, part dorm, part fraternity/sorority, part Princeton-style eating club, and mostly the residents' primary social identification.  You'll no doubt hear many more details about it over the course of the year.  Suffice to say, I am excited.

-Ben Flood and Stacey Benzel are engaged to be married, and Ben has asked me to be his Best Man.  Big mistake.  I guess they figure they have a better chance of controlling my antics and general inappropriateness from within the wedding party than if I was left outside.  To say that I am excited for them would, suffice to say, be an understatement.  Sometime around Christmas, in Charlottesville, you're likely to find me howling at the moon, and soaking up with every bit of self-awareness the feeling of being in one of my favorite places in the world with some of my favorite people in the world.

-Assuming I get my act together and stop writing (supposedly) short and impressionistic blog posts, if all goes according to plan I will officially be a confirmed PhD student at Melbourne University by the end of next week.  This basically means the Faculty of Arts is confident that I have been doing reasonable amounts of work this year, and they think my project is both of academic interest and (arguably more important) that it is capable of being finished within the 3 year timeframe afforded to PhD students.  It also means that the next stop in my academic progression is the submission of my thesis.  Yikes.

-and let you think you were getting away Scott-free, ultimate frisbee is going very well. :)  We've started up our training (following a 6 week break after Worlds) again for the National Championships, which are being held in Melbourne this year.  We (Chilly) will be gunning for our third straight National Championship, which would be a first in Australian ultimate history.  I'll keep you posted, to be sure!

A few random thoughts...

Things are continuing apace here as I prepare for the fam's imminent arrival.  Rog and Barb, aka les parents extraordinaires, will be arriving in Sydney this Friday, while Stephen gets into Melbourne on Dec 23.  While seeing the 'rents is OF COURSE my first priority...there happens to be a beach ultimate tournament in Sydney this weekend as well.  Might as well play in it, right?  LeedsLeedsLeeds is the team fortunate enough to garner my services for the weekend (ha ha).  Quite a few of the international players that played at Worlds and at the uber-fun Hat tournament here in Melbourne weekend before last will be there as well.  In a lot of ways, its been one extended party, with lots of individuals (many of them American) still floating around, making a nice long holiday out of their Australian trip.  As for me, Chilly is taking a break before training starts again for Nationals (to be held in April)...which means I only need to survive a few more weeks without ultimate.  I think I can make it.

Also, Becca Kurtzig is here!  Thanks to a work commitment - her 2nd one here in 4 months, yippee! - I'll get to show her around for a few days before my parents get here.  (There's at least as much a chance that she'll be showing me around by the end of her stay, but nevermind that.)  We'll have a good time, no doubt.

On a completely different note, the recent weather in Melbourne has been seriously messed up.  Melbourne has a reputation for having very temperamental weather under the best of circumstances - the inspiration for Crowded House's song "Four Seasons in One Day" (Even when you're feeling warm, The temperature could drop away, Like four seasons in one day...).

I'm not sure if word has made it to the US, but we are currently in the midst of one of the worst droughts even recorded.  Australia doesn't get much rain under the best of circumstances, but this year has been woefully bad even by Aus standards.  Bushfires have been raging for some time already, even as its only the beginning of summer.  Temperatures hit over 40 degrees Celsius (100+ F) over the weekend, and Melbourne woke up to a thick, smoky haze Saturday and Sunday mornings.  Apparently, there was 10 times the healthy limit of particles in the air.  Some of the pictures were quite dramatic, and while things have cooled down since then the fear is that this is just the beginning of a very bad fire season.  That the fires were visible from space doesn't augur well, needless to say.  If there's a silver lining, it is that most of the affected area was National Forest, which has at least limited economic damage so far.

And then, within a 40 minute span on Sunday - the temperature dropped to 25C (around 70F).  I went from the oppressive, oven-like street into a bookshop around 3 PM, and while I came out half an hour later, it felt like a warm, breezy spring day.  Go figure.  The good news is that "the change", as they call a weather front that brings cool, breezy weather, helped bring the fires under (slight) control.

update

Just a quick one as I'm heading out the door.  Things going on at the moment:

-9 months in Australia.  A pretty crazy thought; to think of all that's happened since late Feb is to think of an awful lot of stuff.  Thankfully, the vast majority of it has been amazingly good.

-summer.  Remember when I was complaining about the weather in June and July?  It's payback time.  It still does my head in a little bit to have not just a not-too-cold Christmas, but actually a HOT Christmas.  Today's high was somewhere around 32C/88F.

-as if one Freise in Australia wasn't enough, in a couple of weeks Mom, Dad, and even younger brother Stephen will all be making their way over here.  We've more or less sorted out our plans; the 'rents will go to Sydney for a week while we wait for Stephen to arrive; once he gets here, I show off this fine city that I now call home (with a few daytrips worked in for variety, of course); this is followed by a trip down the Great Ocean Road, which if reputation is to be believed (and it sound like it is), is one of the most beautiful stretches of road in the world; and finally, a few days spent bouncing around Tasmania before we return to Melbourne and send Rog and Barb back.  I'm excited.

-cricket: the international competition between Australia and England in cricket is known as the Ashes, and it began last week. It is so named because after the first test series loss to an Australian team on English soil, someone declared that this represented the "death of English cricket".  They proceeded to hold a mock cremation for the bails (the little pieces of wood that sit atop the wickets).  After about 20 years of domination, England won the series when it was held in the UK 18 months ago; to almost all Aussies, this was an absolute abomination and unthinkable act.  5 matches are to be played (5 days each); Australia won the first in convincing fashion and look to be on a roll.  People seems to be follow it with an intensity (and rivalry, given that it's England) that surpasses most other sporting events I'm aware of.

Heading home to enjoy the delightful early summer day...

Phrase of the Week

This weekend was the first one I spent in Melbourne since Sept. 2-3.  Frisbee, as you have probably gathered from my recent postings, has been pretty full-on - and more fun and exciting than I can possibly describe.  The World Championships are now less than 4 weeks away, and the resulting adrenaline rush is pretty much a constant whenever my thoughts happen to turn to it (fairly frequently, needless to say).

But unfortunately life does go on.  Rather than enjoying Melbourne in its spring time glory, this past weekend saw me hunkered down in my room marking 2000 word essays for my Global Politics class.  It was less enjoyable than it sounds, and I know it doesn't sound all that great.  I was able to procrastinate reasonably well - which is precisely what I am doing right now.  Oops.

In helping you understand a bit more about Australia, I figured I should start sharing a few of the things that makes it distinctive from the rest of the Anglophonic world.  Yes, there have some pretty crazy animals here, but the most interesting part for me is the vocabulary, phrases, and particular sayings.  My favorite at the moment is the phrase "cracking the shits".  My first thought was that it involved some sort of gastro-intestinal problem, but it's nothing of the sort. You "crack the shits" when you get really worked up about something and then tell somebody about it - like when somebody asked me if we play ultimate frisbee with dogs.  (OK, so I gritted my teeth, forced a smile, and calmly explained the game to him - but I WANTED to crack the shits.  I think I would have been entirely justified in doing so...)

That's it for today's Australian lesson.  On another note, I thought you might be interested in knowing a bit about the academic side here at Melbourne Uni...this occurred during a lecture for one of the classes I teach, and I was actually there when it happened.  Stuff like this happens all the time... :)  Enjoy!

Cuh-razy...

...is probably the best description of my life over the past few weeks.  In the past week, I've welcomed my wonderful friend Becca to Melbourne (conveniently, she's here on work), accepted the position of head tutor (read: head TA in the US) for an introductory first year survey course with 650 students, and have been named as as the Book Review Editor of the Melbourne Journal of Politics.  Apologies for my infrequent posts!

I will try putting something up a post this weekend, but at the moment I've off to teach my last tutorial of the week - before heading off to frisbee practice, then meeting Becca for a drink in the city, then finish marking the 35 essays or so that I have left on my desk.  Another busy night, phew.  Hakuna matata, right?

Israeli Ambassabor...

This afternoon, the Israeli Ambassador to Australia will be giving a speech about the ongoing crisis in the Middle East.  This follows the address given by the Syrian Ambassador two weeks ago as part of the "Diplomatic Conclusions" series organized by the Political Science Department.  The talk has been moved; word on the street was that the original venue was "indefensible", according to the head of the Melbourne Police. 

I suppose it says something about the current (university) political environment here that the official representative of Syria - representative of the very worst neo-fascist practices of Middle East governance, and directly linked to the eruption and escalation of the ongoing crisis in the first instance - is simply asked a few difficult questions, while the Israeli Ambassador is required to have a heavy police presence, including cops on horseback amidst the threats - some actually vocalized, some simply implied - by various students groups to disrupt the speech.  While I have my criticisms of Israeli policy, it strikes me as more than a bit absurd that a country like Israel - flawed and troubling, to be sure, but still a fair approximation of Western-style liberalism amidst the thuggish regimes that make up the majority of the Middle East.  All students received an email from the Vice Chancellor about respecting free speech and respecting "long-established practices about the conduct of scholarly debate, however impassioned."  I would be surprised if the event went off without some sort of incident, unfortunately.  The idea of an open intellectual community and trading of ideas seems to reflect an ideal far more than the reality.  I've found this particularly true in my interactions with  the "Socialist Alternative" (aka "the Trots", as they're more often called, and among the primary agitators at present), who seem to be far more interested in telling you WHAT to think than hearing what you DO think.  Thinking, though, seems to be of secondary importance.  On the brief, usually pointless times I have not completely agreed with their assesment of US (and Israeli) policy, I've been accused of being a lackey for the Bush administration, an "imperialist", stupidly naive and completely lacking in knowledge about the way the world REALLY works, a "typical American" (what that means, I'm not sure), and "greedy scum".  Sad but true, and I wonder if such tactics are REALLY the way forward to a more "progressive" world.  Perhaps it shouldn't be a surprise, given such heavy-handed and bullying tactics, that the ambassador of a regime like Syria does engender such support.

Update

Have to keep this one brief as I'm heading out the door (late).  Surprised?

-congratulations, in advance, to Cliff and Micheline.  Cliff, in addition to being a frequent commentor here, is one of the few Americanos I have met that are as obsessed with soccer as I am - high praise, indeed.  If memory serves, they will be getting married this Saturday on the Greek island of Kefalonia (and if memory doesn't serve, it means they were married this past Saturday - and all of a sudden I'd be late for something else.)  Congratulations!

-I broke up with Maria the Swede last week.  A long, complicated story best saved for another time - aren't they always? - but though it sucks at the moment, I have a strong feeling we'll come through this rough patch as friends.  Doesn't mean it's a good thing right now...whatever, you get the idea.

-between now and the end of November, on account of frisbee I will be travelling to Adelaide (University championships in September), Sydney (3 tournaments before Worlds), and Perth (World Championships in November).  A buddy is trying to talk me into going to Thailand for an ultimate tournament in February that is supposed to be a blast.  Seeing the world, one frisbee field at a time...

Big News!

A couple of big developments from Wednesday:

-I found out that I made the Firsts for Chilly, the ultimate team I've been playing with since I arrived.  It was really tight competition, and I'm incredibly stoked - great team, really cool guys, and all that - but at least as much because I worked really hard to make the cut, and that this means I'll be playing with the best team in Australia at the World Championships in Perth once November rolls around.  A great feeling.

-the presentation I gave at last week's Forum on Southeast Asia might be turned into a book chapter!  Al, forum coordinator extraordinaire, was contacted by a printing press on Wednesday about being editor for a book comprised of the presentations from last Friday.  If it comes to pass, it would be a big, big deal - regardless of circulation, the name of the game (as I'm finding) in graduate school is getting your name out there, preferably attached to pieces that you've written.  The book review I mentioned in my last posting, while not quite as big as a book chapter, should also help.

-listening to a lot of Josh Rouse at the moment, in particular Nashville and Subtitulo.  As one reviewer put it, he's one of "quiet is the new loud" artists - think Jack Johnson, Jose Gonzalez, etc.  The music is comfortably "chamber pop" (a bit too close to the old phrase for toilets for my liking), but in an ingratiating, endearing way.  Give it a listen. 

(You may notice that the album links take you to emusic.com - I think I've raved about this before, but it really is a wonderful site if you're a below-the-radar music junkie.  Let me know if you sign up, as I get free downloads for referalls, but regardless of that check it out: they've got a great range of quality music, even some big name stuff, and while it's not iTunes it more than makes up for it with site organization and well-written, personal reviews.  I'm a huge fan.)

Tutoring

We are into the second week of the 2nd semester, and today I taught my first tutorials (for those familiar with the US system, think discussion sections).  I have 5 sections this semester, spread over two classes - Global Politics (1st year course) and International Relations of the Asia-Pacific (2nd/3rd year course, taught by my advisor).  I'm excited about both, though as with any new experience there's a few butterflies floating around as well.  Both of today's Global Politics sessions went well;  after we did the requisite ice-breakers and went over some general information about the course, we briefly discussed the merits of liberalism and realism as theoritical frameworks (though will mostly save that for future weeks), the nature of the Cold War and the post-Cold War era, The End of History and Clash of Civilizations theses of Fukuyama and Huntington respectively, and finally Benjamin Barber's famous 1992 article "Jihad vs. McWorld".  Pretty standard stuff, but enjoyable all the same - the students seemed eager and attentive, which is about all you can ask for at this stage in the game.

It's been a week of firsts; this past Friday I gave my first academic presentation.  Al (aka The Welshman) and I had hoped to travel to Singapore for a conference in Southeast Asian studies, but after being turned down Al took it upon himself to organize the Melbourne Graduate Forum on Southeast Asian Studies.  The Forum was held all-day Friday and went off without a hitch.  Being a friend, office-mate, and collaborator with the conference organizer means you get to be one of the presenters, apparently.  The talk, which I gave even though we both worked on it, was entitled "Forced Migration and Terrrorism in Southeast Asia: New or Old Threats?"  There were some good comments, feedback, and questions; Al and I need to now decide whether we're going to put in the time to polish it up and try to get it into a journal.

I've also been asked to write a book review for the Melbourne Journal of Politics covering a new book by Dennis Altman, 51st State?.  I don't know too much about Altman, other than he wrote about Gore Vidal's America and is a professor at La Trobe, another Melbourne university.  It will be a couple of weeks before I get the book and write the review, but I'm pretty excited about the opportunity - writing book reviews can be great fun, and from the title I am expecting the book to deal with Australian-US relations and Australian identity.

Johnny Knoxville

I'm not sure why he's in town, but we saw him while we were eating dinner after our frisbee game Monday night.  We tried to be subtle in our glances over our shoulders and whispers, but I'm sure he's used to it by now.  No Jackass-related stunts were performed; the other guy in the photo is Alex Ong, who also plays for Chilly.  It was his birthday, hence the smooch.

Also, a small photo of me (#10) playing frisbee on the Melbourne Uni Sports page from Southern University Games, towards the bottom of the page...