Melbourne to Singapore to KL to Shanghai to Edmonton

Hi everyone!!! i am making this blog because for the last few months i have only been emailing my family, and a few friends have been asking what i have been doing, so i am just posting the emails i sent to my family, edited a little. they are all written very quickly, stream of consciousness, referring to my diary to remember events, and they are very selective, censored i might say, not that i have been doing anything much that Grandma wouldn't approve of.

only read this if you have a lot of free time... looking at my pictures might be more interesting.

the accompanying pictures i have been sorting out, it is a tedious process... it is very frustrating because pictures hardly begin to tell the story, and all the best memories were not photographed. check them out on flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/66701420@N06/

AND facebook, if you have a facebook account http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=836840234&sk=photos, because flickr only allows me to upload 200 photos for free, and 200 is a reasonable number, but i couldn't bear to cut out that many pictures! i noticed in almost all my pictures in Asia i am wearing my quite unflattering big red plaid shirt, this is because i was covered in sweat, and it was the most comfortable shirt for that weather. and i have pictures with an amazing number of people, and seeing these pictures probably means nothing to you, but i really did meet a lot of great people, and traveled for a short time with them, and learned from them. (if you don't want your picture or first name on the internet for all to see just let me know)

there is so much i wish i could communicate! i had so many great experiences. but i have returned home and im finding it all really hard to talk about. how important is it for people to know what i have done? why are you reading this right now?

sorting pictures has taken me an entire afternoon, and i hope someone appreciates them because i definitely dont like looking at these pictures, i am worrying about how they are changing the way i remember events, and how using flickr, facebook, gmail, blogspot, etc. is changing the way my brain works, the structure even, according to ideas about neuroplasticity, and how it is ruining my attention span, and if i would be a happier person if i spent this time reading and practicing piano, and if it is useless to try to tell people what i have been experiencing in my travels, i would much rather meet in a cafe face to face and talk about it, actually have a conversation! and if you are not in Canada at least skype would be better, my skype name is corahenderson. At best i hope reading this may inspire you and inspire real conversation with me. please tell me what you think.

Wed, Jun 1, 2011 at 3:03 PM

The last month has suddenly gotten much colder, maybe 10C at night, but that means 10C inside my bedroom, so I’ve been staying at school and a friend’s houses and bookstores and cafes and libraries in evenings, because it’s too cold to be in parks or in my room anymore. I drink even more tea than usual.

I have been doing many extra-curricular things. I got my bike tuned up, which was a big deal because I ride it everywhere. I have lunch with friends a lot. I’ve been seeing a lot of movies. I watched an old western movie...

My friend Cara had a board game night, and a clothing swap party another night. I’ve been studying with my friend Sam in the beautiful old state library on weekends, and we’ve found some great cafes. I’ve been swimming once or twice a week now that it is too cold to run outside.

May 17th was the best birthday I have ever had! I cleaned my room and went to yoga, and then saw a bunch of friends at university, and Katie bought me a piece of cake from the food co-op and we sat around and talked, and danced a bit because there was a DJ in the courtyard outside the cafeteria. Many friends texted and called and sent messages saying Happy Birthday. My friend Rosie bought me flowers and dinner at a restaurant on Brunswick Street where my friend Benita works, and we shared a bottle of wine and Rosie slept over.

The next day I went to a poetry reading for the Human Rights Arts and Film Festival with Benita, Liz, and Kia. The next day went to a big dinner party. Next day went to a movie called Here I Am for the Indigenous Film Festival with Ian. The next day Sam took me out for another birthday dinner, and we browsed second hand bookshops. Then Sunday had brunch at Katie’s place, and saw Australia short films with Eleanor, went to more bookshops, looked at street art, admired a cathedral, had dinner, and got groceries with my friend Dave. Monday saw the movie Incendies set in Palestine, and went to cafes and bookstores with Rosie, made dinner with friends, had tea with Natalia. Tuesday went to a rally in front of the parliament buildings calling for action on climate change, and against a proposal to build another coal power plant, and had dinner with Rosie and a bunch of friends at a really cozy pub. Wednesday I didn’t actually go out with friends. I went to my last lectures of the semester and went swimming. Next day had lunch with friends at the food co-op, went to a potluck and end of semester party. Friday, had lunch with Rosie, and then went to the National Art Gallery with Eleanor and Steph to see some Indigenous art that was really fascinating, that weekend went to the Feminist Futures Conference, which was very good, lots of discussions about culture, then went to a house party, and slept at Cara’s place for 2 nights, we went to see some bands Sunday night after the conference, they were playing to fundraise to send bicycles to Nigeria. This Monday I saw a movie with Rosie again, we saw How I Ended This Summer, a movie in Russian with subtitles, went to cafes and second hand bookstores, enjoyed walking across campus with tree lined walkways raining yellow leaves, and fragrant flowers blooming. Today I just swam and worked in the library and had dinner with friends. Hahaha that’s my whole month in a few paragraphs! Whew!

Now that lectures are done I am reading more, still reading a collection of “Russian Short Stories from Pushkin to Buida” edited by Robert Chandler, which I recommend. Also just bought Diary of a Bad Year by J M Coetzee because I liked studying another book he wrote last year, although he writes very unhappy books. Read an interesting chapter of “The Brain That Changes Itself”, a book I think Dad read. I’m reading the economics paper “The Tragedy of the Commons”. Lots of things to think about!

So I’ve been having a great time! It’s really hard to tell you what I’ve been doing in a whole month, but I want you to know I am doing well, and spending a lot of time with really interesting friends.

I’m gradually making plans for moving out and travelling and getting back to Canada and going back to the University of Alberta. It’s all very exciting.

Lots of Love

Cora

MAY 3

Hi there,

I have been trying to write home for weeks, it’s been a month and a half since my last email! Things are going very well, I am still enjoying myself very much here in Melbourne. I am busy with school, my classes are quite interesting. I have a few more weeks until my semester is done, on the 17th of June. I am doing some fun group projects and a lab report. I have got great marks on all the assignments that I have handed in so far.

I have been so busy since my last email, I’ll tell you some highlights. I think there have only been a couple of days where I didn’t see friends to do something! We’ve been having a lot of casual dinner parties, and weekend trips out of the city. We usually cook at someone’s house, but we have also gone out for Moroccan, Indian and Ethiopian food. One weekend we drove out of the city to explore this interesting landscape where there were lots of boulders, and went climbing. Another weekend we drove to a few small towns and went walking and had wood fired pizza in a quaint little restaurant. We ride our bikes around, browse second hand book stores, go to our favourite restraint called Lentil As Anything often. We saw an incredible one man band there, who played 5 instruments, at once.

We went to a festival camping in the bush over Easter, and went swimming in the river and I did lots of hula hooping and dancing. We have gone to some interesting foreign films at the cinema by my house, drank lots of tea, cooked lots of food. I’m still volunteering at the Food Not Bombs Street Kitchen once a week, where we cook a meal from donated food from grocery stores and serve it for free. It’s lots of fun. I went to another festival for one day, and danced to gypsy music. Went to a couple of housewarming parties.

The last 2 weeks my friend Emma has been living with me on the extra mattress, there is a pretty bad housing shortage here and she’s having trouble finding a room. I really like having a roommate though, so she might just stay with me for longer. She’s also studying at RMIT.

I’ve been doing yoga twice a week, and that has been really good, I feel like I am getting more flexible. I go jogging sometimes, and hula hoop with friends in the park.

The weather is still pleasant, I can still wear t shirts in the daytime, but need sweaters later. It’s raining a bit more, but just nice light warm rain.

I hope everyone reading this is having a beautiful Spring. I would love to hear from you!

Love

Cora

Sun, Jul 10, 2011 at 9:14 PM

Hello,

so the news lately: ive been spending quality time with friends, and

its been a lot of fun!!! last time i wrote was June 24th, so lets

see... so that night i went to my friend Benita's going away party,

she was also an exchange student, and she went back to Glasgow. next 2

days went to 2 more house parties, a really fun weekend, monday i had

lunch with Benita at Lentil as Anything and we talked for 4 hours,

then slept at Katie's house, Tuesday Sam and I drove to Halls Gap, in

the Grampians National Park, about 3 hours from the city, (Dad and I

camped there one day in December.) Sam and I stayed at the HI

Ecohostel, and cooked lentil soup and drank wine and read in front of

the fireplace. the next day we went walking to a Aboriginal rock art

site, called gulgurun manja, with ochre hand prints that are thousands

of years old. Sam studied archaeology, so told me about how they made

stone tools. Enjoyed the fireplace again, even though the weather is

quite pleasant, sweater weather. the next day we drove back, and

stopped at a few second hand stores in the small towns on the way,

went to cafes. then we went to a party at Katie's. On Canada Day Katie

made pancakes, and in the evening we went with Emma and Mark to the

swimming pool, and played volleyball and sat in the hot tub and steam

room. saturday night Sam made a really nice dinner and we watched

movies. went to more cafes with Sam and Ian. sunday night Rosie had a

bunch of us over for dinner, then we went to our friend Flick's

birthday and danced for hours in her living room. Monday i spent all

day on the internet planning my trip in Asia, and stayed at Rosies,

and we had 4 other people over for dinner. Rosie is an amazing chef.

tuesday had dinner with Cassie and Luke, and went to their place for

tea. then slept at Katie's, worked on my chineese visa form, went to

Eleanor's for dinner on wednesday, also had a big dinner party at

Katies thursday. did errands friday, packed, Had a really great

breakfast with James at a cafe, had lunch with Natalie, had cake for

her birthday, then went to a party with Katie, Emma and Natalie, and

danced for hours. saturday i went to a beautiful cafe with Katie, and

packed completely. then went with Ian and Sam to a party at our friend

Alex's, who is in a band and people were playing a lute, accordion and

recorder, which was really neat. so today! had Sam made us oatmeal

with Apricots frozen from his mother's tree, and we went to see an

exhibit of art and design from Vienna described as "over 250 stylish,

provocative, rebellious and unforgettably spectacular artworks by

Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Oskar Kokoschka, Carl Moll, Koloman Moser,

Adolf Loos and other masters of Viennese Modernism."

it was really great! we had wine and carrot cake in the gallery cafe

with Brigie, then had wine and soup in a nice cafe on DeGraves st,

then went to a bookstore, then had dinner with Meagan, now im hanging

out with Ian!

tomorrow im having lunch with Natalie, and Rosie is making dinner for

a small group of our friends, and the day after tomorrow Chris is

driving me to the airport!!!! I feel like im ready to go, im not happy

to leave, but im looking forward to the future, and i can remember

this as a really great year! im sure that i will see some of these

friends again, and i will keep in touch with quite a few people.

Love

Cora

Fri, Jun 24, 2011 at 6:22 PM

Hello everyone!

Well i have been very busy, i'll look through my diary and tell you a bit of what i have been doing! mostly hanging out with friends a lot, every single day! and studying for exams of course! i finished a big project for my sustainability class, got a very good mark on it, and wrote 3 tests

the other big news is i moved out of my room on wednesday, which i loved because of the location and it was very practical, but i got sick of being cold and not having a nice clean kitchen and bathroom! i was spending half the nights at friends houses anyways. so the evening after my last test i moved my stuff to my friend Cara's, it took 5 people a car and two bikes! so i am staying on her couch some nights, and staying with my friends Rosie, Sam, and Katie and Vaughn other nights for the next 3 weeks! i feel like a traveller again!

I'm at Cara's house now, its very nice, 4 people live here, her housemate Shaun is playing guitar downstairs, and i'm using Ian's computer, and Chris is writing his thesis in geology, i found some interesting berries on the walk here that he helped me identify as native cherries Exocarpos cupressiformis.

every thursday i have we have a dinner party at Katie, Vaughn, Emma, Mark, Cameron and Silje's house. its one of my favorite places. between 20 and 40 people come on thursdays and we sit around and talk and tell stories and dance.

every weekend I study with my friend Sam, he is studying medicine, a year and a half away from being a doctor. it is very interesting studying with him. we usually go to the State Library which is a beautiful old building with wooden desks and a glass domed ceiling. we go to a different cafe every time after the library closes at 6pm, there are so many quaint little cafes in the city.

other things i have been doing since June 1st when i emailed last: breakfast and dinners at Lentil as Anything restaurant, lunches at Melbourne uni food Co-op, spending lots of time with Katie, Cara, browsed a lot of book stores with friends, went to 2 new art galleries, went swimming, got a little bit of a sore throat, but it cleared up quickly, i drank pots of honey lemon ginger tea with friends, the flu was going around. saw some live music, helped Cara host 2 dinner parties, celebrated Ana's birthday, i made a cake, Cara and Ian and Ana and i drove out of the city one weekend and went walking in a beautiful wilderness reserve, climbed rocks, watched planes taking off at the airport, saw kangaroos and i got stung by a bee, celebrated my friend Dave's birthday, studied with Gonzalo and Benita, went to Melbourne university's Festival of Ideas and heard 2 panels talking about genetics, with Dave and Gonzalo and Benita, very interesting. went to another dinner party at Rosie's she made an amazing quiche with parmesan, dijon mustard, roasted cauliflower.

today i went to a new art gallery with Brigie and am about to go to a party at Benita's. more parties on the weekend and camping with Sam next week, and then just enjoying myself until the 12th of July when i leave Melbourne.

Love

Cora

Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 1:46 PM

Hey

I am in Singapore now, at a very nice hostel, exactly the same

standard as i would see in Australia or North America, it feels very

safe and the receptionist spent half an hour telling me about sights.

I took the bus here at 10am, after having an ok half a night in the

airport. very nice airport, i got almost enough sleep in the plane and

on the almost comfortable seats, between reading and eating crackers,

because it felt wrong to eat at the fast food restaurants there.

Burger King, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, so far it doesn't feel like im in a

different country, except for the heat and humidity.

Friends drove me to the airport yesterday, and the flight was ok, i

got motion sick for about 5 minutes, and thought i was going to throw

up, but it passed. that was the most excitement so far. the food on

the plane was good.

my hostel is called Betel Box, they have a website if you want to

look. i read lonely planet in the airport and made notes

and im going on a food tour run by the hostel, we are trying 30 local

dishes apparently, tomorrow night, i doubt that is physically

possible... it will be great to see though.

Love

Cora

Fri, Jul 15, 2011 at 10:48 AM

Hey

I had a great day the first day in Singapore, the botanic gardens were

beautiful, there was a bit of rainforest, sculptures, flowers, tall

trees, i fell asleep reading and then saw a monitor lizard, and the

most excitement i had was taking the wrong bus (well the right bus but

on a different road because of one way streets) and had to ride it for

an hour or so until it looped around again. saw lots of the city which

was really a good thing!

sweltering weather, im having 2 showers and hand washing my clothes twice a day

im planning to take a bus to KL tomorrow. the transnational bus at 12

or 130, and its about 4 hours to KL apparently.

I am meeting my friend Jia Von Then in KL, who lived on the same floor

as i did in Lister Centre at U of A a year ago. she is really great.

oh so yesterday i met person at the hostel and we went to chinatown on

the extremely modern and well signed metro.

Love

Cora

Sat, Jul 16, 2011 at 10:43 AM

hey heres a quick note, yesterday was great, the highlights were a

lovely 74 year old man sharing his umbrella for a short walk, and

talking about Singapore, the people are so friendly here! then a

Islamic man at a mosque spent about 2 hours telling me about his

religion, very very interesting! then i got soup with rice noodles and

the owner of the restaurant sat down with his meal beside me and gave

me a much needed chopstick lesson, and i succeeded in eating the whole

bowl of slippery flat noodles with chopsticks. walked around little

india. beautiful!

Love

Cora

Sun, Jul 17, 2011 at 10:42 PM

hey everyone,

i took a bus to a bus to a monorail to a train to a car today! and i

arrived at my friend Jia Von's family's appartment! they are very

welcoming and took me to have dinner at an Indian place and we watched

them making roti and pulling tea! It is so good to sea Jia Von!

the bus i took today was 5 hours and it was the mot comfortable bus i

have ever been on! there were 3 seats across so the seats were big and

reclined. had a fresh coconut for lunch.

Love

Cora

Sun, Jul 17, 2011 at 10:49 PM

Hey

had a great day in KL today, Jia Von and her parents took me around,

we had dim sum for breakfast, then went to Batu Caves, which were

spectacular but touristy, had fresh coconuts, went to Chinatown, went

to a nice tea house, walked around in the heat, had CHineese for

dinner, went to their family's house to visit, went to an incredible

mall that was Egyptian themed with a

theme park and skating rink too! ate durian and rambutan fruit. they

are really great hosts!

Love

Cora

Tue, Jul 19, 2011 at 12:30 AM

Hey everyone!!!

oh yesterday i also went to a beautiful new mosque, and had a tour and

had lunch there, and went to an outdoor night market with food stalls.

today was also very exciting! i just tried birds nest soup, and local

mangoes, and preserved mangoes,

we had buns for breakfast, Jia Von's Mother drove us to a huge aviary

with many beautiful birds, then to KLCC mall, which is incredible, all

designers, much fancier than any mall i have been to in north America.

it is under the twin towers. huge bookstore which i loved. we had

local food in a fancy restaurant for lunch, took the monorail and

train again to a more affordable mall, which was packed with clothes

by local designers. then a friend of a friend of Uncle Ralph's: Lucy,

Richard and their son Victor who is going to study post-grad in

Toronto picked us us and took us for tea at their mansion-esque home

and for dinner where we tried 3 dishes with great spice combinations

that i have never tasted before, one was sweet, sour and spicy, assam

laksa, naan, nasi lamak, deep fried bean curd, at a restaurant called

papa rich. black sesame ice cream. and went to a third mall. really

there are an amazing number of malls here..

then they are driving me to the airport!

Love

Cora

Thu, Jul 21, 2011 at 5:07 PM

hello everyone

so my last day in KL with Jia Von was more relaxing, we went swim

mining the pool by her house when the sun went down, it was too hot

otherwise! we went to a mall with her mom and watched the new Harry

Potter movie, same as in any other country but with 2 languages of

subtitles, i loved the movie!!!! went to a big bookstore, we had some

more interesting food and they drove me to the airport at 10 pm and my

plane was at 3am, got to Shanghai at 9, got a phone card and called

some contacts, and then took the metro, which is very easy to

navigate, all in English and Mandarin, and went to the Shanghai

Library because i was tired and it was air conditioned, they have a

great English section, read about tea, then met 11 couch surfers for

dinner in a fancy vegetarian restaurant and made some friends, we took

the metro to a bar after, then took the metro to my new friend

Jillian's apartment, she has lived here for a year, she's

British-American. this morning we walked through some interesting

neighbourhoods, had red bean popsicles, had noodle soup, walked down

nanjing road, the bund and peoples park, the touristy areas, and now

she went to work teaching english, so i am going to find a tea house

my friend recommended, its fun to walk down

the streets, everything is in Chinese characters we walked through a wet market with

vegetables beautifully displayed and live animals.

and there are even more motorcycles and

bikes so crossing the road is sometimes scary, but people really do

obey the traffic lights. people are selling things Everywhere.

Love

Cora

Fri, Jul 22, 2011 at 3:23 PM

yesterday i found a beautiful tea studio recommended by a friend, and

had tea with Ada, a 'senior tea taster' and tea class

teacher, one of the most peaceful people i have ever met, smiling all

the time. we talked a lot about tea, and then went for dinner with her

housemate Shane, and American teaching English, at a fancy restaurant

and had hot pot, where we cooked vegetables in soup boiling in the

middle of our table. i slept on their couch last night, and today

tried to do tai chi with ada and a group of older people in the park,

and now am reading at the tea house. i think i'll get a massage later.

Love

Cora

Tue, Jul 26, 2011 at 1:36 PM

hey

I am still having a great time in Shanghai!!!!

what have i done since my last email? i went to a house party that

night with Gillian and Aaron, and saturday we went to the Shanghai

Library and i read about Confucius, and then we went to a language

exchange, a group of people meet to practice English/Mandarin, but

mostly just hang out in a park, then we dinner in a fancy restaurant,

very nice, but $5! explored Xintaindi, the really really really fancy

district, bizarre. then spent the weekend at Angela's apartment in a

suburb, and she cookd traditional food, and we went to a market, and

got another massage, monday morning i went to Shanghai museum which

was beautiful, calligraphy, jade, furniture, paintings, bronze, then i

wandered around downtown, its fascinating, i went to 4 grocery stores

to see the different foods, dried sea slugs to Kellogg's cornflakes.

then went to Ada's tea studio Again, with Naria and Yolanda and Lei,

and we had aged phu-er tea and talked for hours, and then got another

massage, and caught the last train, then got lost and took a taxi, and

got to Jessica and Amber's place, and talked until really late, and

now we are going to go to that art district and eat out again, food

and massages and taxis are so cheap here! its a novelty to be able to

live like this. but its sad to see the poor people trying to sell

crafts and things on the street.

Dad asked about the high speed train crash on the news, yes the

government lets people know about stuff like that, in fact there are

TVs Everywhere in the metro trains and stations so people can get

their news on the way to work, and it was all over those. i seems they

reported the same number of casualties that you heard about.

but the government does under report casualties often, and there was a

rebellion in some region that wants to be its own nation, kinda like

Taiwan, and everyone knows that the government doesn't want people to

know about it, but people talk about it, and say how dangerous it is

to travel there. i have asked about what people think of the

government censoring things, and it seems everyone knows that things

are censored and is unhappy about it. with the internet the government

can't keep people in the dark anymore, like they had been doing even

10 years ago.

everyone here

complains about how the vegetables are covered in pesticide, but they

taste good anyways! ive tried so many new foods!!!!! preserved tofu,

flat breads, fungus, preserved plums, this dish that is nuts baked

with as many chilies, that is the hottest food i have ever had, your

tongue cannot taste for like 20 minutes after a bite of cashew, but it

is quite popular, I'm learning the difference between sechuan,

Cantonese, shanghaineese, Chinese food is very different depending on

the region.

Love

Cora

Fri, Jul 29, 2011 at 12:33 AM

hi there!

on Tuesday Amber and i explored the art district, a little small for a

city of this size, i think the cultural revolution put China back a

lot, there is not much art around the city, but in this one

district there was a block of galleries in lane ways and up stairs and

around and we followed signs and saw about 10 little galleries and

went to a cafe and it was really interesting. took a taxi home in the

evening.

Wednesday i read at Jessicas place all day, and napped. then met up

with Jessica and Amber and 2 friends for dinner, walked around pudian

road, played cards, took a taxi and saw the bund and all the

skyscrapers across the river lit up with advertisements the size of

buildings flashing and changing colour. incredible.

today slept in and then got lost in a really funny way, I got off at

Nanjing road (E) station, and then helped a German backpacker find her

hostel, and then knew i was not in the neighbourhood i was familiar

with, But it was Shan'xi road... so then walked around in the sun in

the middle of the day and found a cool store, south Korean styles i

think, and got a a skirt, and then found another metro station and got

to Nanjing road (W) and found a cafe my friend recommended and had

lunch, and talked with another German woman visiting here, and then i

was finally on the road i wanted: Shaan'xi road, see one "a" makes a

big difference, but it was great fun to be lost for a while. so got to

Ada's tea studio again, and read a book about tea, and we had 4 kinds

of really beautiful teas, and then 5 of us went to a Northern Chinese

style restaurant for dinner, and then walked around this very old

neighbourhood with lanes going every which way and clotheslines and

motorbikes and tvs on everywhere. so i saw how people used to live

before the government build 30 storey apartments everywhere.

Love

Cora

Sat, Jul 30, 2011 at 8:49 PM

hi there,

friday i walked around the French Concession, where all the ex-pats

live, and went to the state library and read, then walked around some

more, bought some dragonfruit and a coconut, and wandered to a

different metro staion, so took 3 transfers to get home, then Jessica,

Amber, Andrew and i took a taxi to the bund, which is a walkway along

the river through downtown, with old European style buildings all lit

up with designer stores and hotels and bars on one side, and across

the river endless skyscrapers full of offices, lit up in the most

tacky way with flashing colours and one entire building looking like a

television with advertizements going all night. the pearl tower looked

like it was from a sci fi movie, and the whole place seemed like a

different reality. it was crowded with people taking pictures wearing

high heels and anything glittery/frilly/shiny or otherwise expensive

looking but really low quality and fake. this all sounds like i didnt

enjoy it, but it was very interesting to see this side of Shanghai. i

am really sick of the materialism, and the aspirations to get rich or

marry rich. but i can understand it comes from a people who have been

poor not long ago, and new oppurtunities are exciting, but it is not

making people happier, and a Chinese friend i talked to about it said

that this new phase China (or just the big cities) is going through is

both good and bad. it doesnt suit my taste anyways. everything is

fake, immitating the west. and old traditions are definitely being

lost. and today i had another look at the materialistic side of

Shanghaineese culture, Jessica and i went to Quipo Rd, which is an

incredibly maze like street of malls, selling incredibly cheap junk of

all kinds. but then we had a picnic in a park so the day was not that

bad :) oh and the other day when i was

at the Shanghai Library i read a bit of "Food and Western Disease:

Health and Nutrition from an Evolutionary Perspective" by Staffan

Lindeberg, and Dad, could you order that for me from Amazon, i wont

have time to finish it here and i really want to have it, you should

read it too.

Love

Cora

Mon, Aug 1, 2011 at 9:15 AM

hey

so today i walked around for 10 hours... this whole city is just so

mesmerizing, so many people, selling so many things, each morning i

plan not to walk until my feel hurt but every night they do! i had

steamed buns for lunch, bubble tea, gelato, sesame radish pastry

balls, a new kind of tofu, kiwi juice, marinated cabbage, so many

interesting foods! and with 10 hours of shopping i ended up with 6

English books from one store! i spent the whole

evening with Jessica walking around this district were the buildings

were maintained in the old style, so quite beautiful above the first

floor which was all retail space, such a different culture here in so

many ways. my friend Amber's parents still want her to get an arranged

marriage, when she has a job for a luxury lifestyle magazine, one

example of how my generation in China is changing so incredibly fast.

and yesterday i met up with Andy, Lisa and Andrew Andrew and we took a

crowded bus to Zhujiajiao, a quite touristy water town, (people still

selling everything everywhere) but a little less crowded than

Shanghai, and we explored, took a row boat through the canals, ate

some fermented tofu, saw some amazing water colour paintings, but i've

noticed with lots of art here, its sometimes extremely skillful but

completely lacking creativity, always the same pretty scenes, the same

iconic buildings, but nothing thought provoking, and im quite bored

with it! im not usually bored by art galleries! and there was a quite

cool music festival in Zhujiajiao yesterday, that we found by chance,

in a little courtyard (still, people selling things) African drumming,

jazzy band, it rained for 20 minutes, (its been sunny almost my whole

trip!) hmmm then we took the bus and metro home late yesterday

evening, and i talked with Amber until 3am.so im going to bed now!

Love

Cora

Thu, Aug 4, 2011 at 10:51 PM

hey,

its been hard to get on a computer lately, but i have had a few slower

days, walked around an old-now-touristy neighbourhood and went to an

incredibly efficient food court with Jessica, bought a beautiful tea

set and some more books, walked around a lot, had another massage with

Jessica and Andrew, drank more tea, rode on the back of an electric

bike in a trailer thing with Ada, that was memorable, but not that

dangerous actually, then we went swimming in an indoor swimming pool,

which was quite an ordeal, it was crowded and no one knew how to swim,

and full of speedo advertisements, there is nowhere without

advertisements! i tried to teach Ada how to swim a bit better but all

the lanes were so crowded! but I've been having fun. today is my last

day in Shanghai! Tonight I'm staying at Jillian's and then taking the

metro to the airport. then taking the greyhound towards Edmonton.

Love

Cora

Sat, Aug 6, 2011 at 2:34 PM

Hi from CANADA!!!! i am really tired, i didnt sleep on the plane, but

i listened to an audio book and read half another book :)

everything is so hard when im

tired, i think i walked from the atm to a hostel to the bus and train

station 3 times to get my bag in a locker and find a computer, i need

to call Oma and Opa to say im coming tomorrow still, because i hoped

this computer would have Skype but it doesn't... ahh everything is easier now that

everyone speaks English!!!

my flight was fine, got out of Shanghai before the forecasted typhoon,

it feels wonderful to be in Vancouver and not covered in sweat, the

weather here is great!!! my last day in Shanghai i just read in a cafe

and went to a Cuban movie in Spanish in an art gallery at the Spanish

embassy with English and Chinese subtitles, called Havana Blues, very

good, had breakfast from a street stall with Jillian for my last

breakfast.

Love

Cora

So i took the greyhound bus to Edmonton, 13 hours! and Uncle Ralph took me to the Folk Festival and we saw K.D.Lang from the top of the hill, while watching the sun set over the Edmonton skyline. so awesome!!!

in the next days went to Mannville to see family, then back to Edmonton and saw 10 plays at the fringe festival!!! i dont know which was my favorite, i saw Bare twice, once with Brooke, I loved Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Judith, Total Identity Theft, S/kin, Dracula, Opera for Heathens, and The Big Smoke. caught up with Maja, Brooke, and Marina! visited many family members :)

Im reading The Brain That Changes Itself by Norman Doidge, M.D. and it is the most fascinating book, especially the chapter on the Culturally Modified Brain, such a great way to think about how our brains work!!! i highly recommend it!

here are some picures! they are not in order, i will write more when i have time! i am too busy having fun, so dont worry :) Melbourne is treating me well.
on Mount Bogong, the highest "mountain" in the state of Victoria. it only has snow towards the top. i hiked there with the RMIT University Outdoors club!


see pictures of my whitewater rafting trip: http://picasaweb.google.de/108461354618656462428/RaftingTour#

i went on an overnight hike at Wilson's Promontory this weekend and have not downloaded the pictures yet! it was beautiful!

frost on my tent!

yes, this is Australia, and it does have snow! surprise to me!

Hanging Rock, another hike


State Library of Victoria
one of my favorite restaurants

view from my roof a few weeks later
the first day


moving in! with my bike

I found a room! it is unfurnished, it just has a boxspring and a queen
size mattress, so i wont send any pictures of the room yet. you can
see it really well it you click this link to google maps and zoom in.
you can see the building, and my room is right on the corner on the
second floor so i have 3 windows that all open and have window boxes
that i might plant something in.

http://maps.google.com.au/maps?oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=418+lygon+st+melbourne+australia&fb=1&gl=au&hnear=Richmond+VIC&cid=0,0,9784816521155472650&ei=Jno1TPilNJaekQWV_ti5Aw&sa=X&oi=local_result&ct=image&resnum=1&ved=0CBUQnwIwAA

it will be a bit loud from the road, but i think i can get used to
that. there are 8 people living in their own rooms in the second
floor. it is called a hotel but everyone lives there almost
permanently. there is a small kitchen, 2 toilets, a shower, and a
balcony, and a great view when you climb in to the roof! it is 5 mins
by bike to university, so its close to everything! i think it was the
11th place i looked at. there really IS a housing shortage here, it is
not just a rumor. but i am really happy with the place i found. its a
really old building, but has the cheapest rent of any of the places at
$110 a week with no bills and no bond. most other places were half an
hour away and 130$ a week. and everything seems to work, the
washrooms, electricity, kitchen. it really needs stuff on the walls
and it will look great. i will look around in the next few days. i
bought a towel, clothes hangers, and soap today.
in the last week between looking for a room, i couchsurfed with Laura
and Craig. Craig volunteers at a place where people donate bikes and
volunteers help customers fix their bikes up, so i got a bike for $50
(bought lock, lights and helmet on top of that) after 2 half days
spent changing the handlebars, brakes, seat, adjusting the gears, and
greasing everything. its a really nice blue colour its vintage and
works well. then i rode it all around the city exploring parks, went
to yoga a few more times, went clothes shopping with Jo to some second
hand stores, tried some more restaurants, went to the beach,
volunteered 3 days at this not for profit restaurant run mostly by
volunteers called Lentils as Anything
(http://www.lentilasanything.com/index.html) which is a really cool
place, with live music often, and movies. volunteering there involves
learning how to use a coffee making machine, and serving coffee and
tea, and mostly sitting around talking. it is a lot of fun! and will
look great on my resume applying for a paying job at a cafe. i also
volunteered the last 2 days at a yuppie grocery
store/restaurant/bookstore called Friends of the Earth, also really
fun and mostly socializing, filling bulk food bins, chopping
vegetables, eating gourmet food and drinking tea. so i am definitely
not bored and am meeting some nice people.







another day:
everything is going really well here!!! i am enjoying living in my own
room, and i finally met most of my housemates that i share the kitchen
and washroom with, and to my relief they are all very nice! living
above a bar and bistro is not as noisy as i thought, it is easy to
sleep. the bistro looks quite nice, i am planning to eat there Sunday.
i had university exchange student orientation yesterday and today, and
i met lots of people there. i went shopping, so i now have maybe 3
outfits instead of 2. i still dont have furniture other than my bed
and wardrobe, but i really don't need it. I went to the Melbourne
Museum, which was very nice, biked around some parks, volunteered
making a free meal for people who needed it at a community centre, the
weather has been good.
so i live with 8 people, Percy the landlord i have not met, but
apparently is easy to get along with. his friend Micheal, who seems to
be a happy, friendly alcoholic, works with Percy driving tourist boats
on the Yarra river that runs through the city. Charlie also drives
boats, he seems to enjoy his job. i forget the names of the nice
couple that live across from me, and they guy who lent me a blanket
when he heard i only had a sleeping bag, then there is Kari, a general
practitioner at a children's hospital, and Hayley, a New Zealander,
studies art, but working this year and volunteering with a local TV
station. so i think living there will be quite alright. i have not
been there much of course!
RMIT university is similar in size to U of A, and everything seems to
run the same way, the library, the website for enrolling, the
procedure for getting help with essays, the students union, the
fitness facilities. i think it will be very easy to get used to. and
it is so close to my room, and Queen Victoria farmers market, and
cafes, and right beside the state library where i am now. and it is
closing!

hey,
so my first week in Melbourne went very well, i still haven't found a
house to live in, but i made some friends that i can stay with until i
do.
Melbourne is an incredibly lovely city, i feel very at home here!
there are many cafes and RMIT university looks very cool, i have used
the library which is great. i have used the computers at the State
Library too, which is an old marble building, very beautiful. there is
a huge farmers market in the middle of the city.
i arrived the evening of the 21st, on the 22nd i bought a cell phone
(0061449228958), then started the search! ive been looking at 4
different noticeboards, 3 websites, and talking to a few people, and
have looked at 7 rooms. one i could potentially live in but it is a
little farther away from university than i would like. i think i will
be able to get a room in a share house with other students.
i stayed in 3 different hostels which were okay, until the 26th, and
now am staying with my friend Jo until thursday, then going to another
friends place. Jo and i started going to a Bikram Yoga class, which is
when you do yoga in a hot 40C room for an hour and a half. it is quite
strenuous and really nice to warm up. it gets to 5C at night and 10
-15 in the day so i have to wear a lot of sweaters! ive been to some
great restraunts, one called Lentil as Anything with Tessa, Olly and
Anna, and Vege Burger with Jo and Nick. even the quality of the fast
food here is a little bit better than North America. today i am
exploring a street with a lot of cafes and second hand stores, then
viewing another room, then having supper with friends.

so my first week in Melbourne went very well, i still haven't found a house to live in, but i made some friends that i can stay with until i do.
Melbourne is an incredibly lovely city, i feel very at home here! there are many cafes and RMIT university looks very cool, i have used the library which is great. i have used the computers at the State Library too, which is an old marble building, very beautiful. there is a huge farmers market in the middle of the city.
i arrived the evening of the 21st, on the 22nd i bought a cell phone (0061449228958), then started the search! ive been looking at 4 different noticeboards, 3 websites, and talking to a few people, and have looked at 7 rooms. one i could potentially live in but it is a little farther away from university than i would like. i think i will be able to get a room in a share house with other students.
i stayed in 3 different hostels which were okay, until the 26th, and now am staying with my friend Jo until thursday, then going to another friends place. Jo and i started going to a Bikram Yoga class, which is when you do yoga in a hot 40C room for an hour and a half. it is quite strenuous and really nice to warm up. it gets to 5C at night and 10 -15 in the day so i have to wear a lot of sweaters! ive been to some great restraunts, one called Lentil as Anything with Tessa, Olly and Anna, and Vege Burger with Jo and Nick. even the quality of the fast food here is a little bit better than North America. today i am exploring a street with a lot of cafes and second hand stores, then viewing another room, then having supper with friends. I dont have many plans for the next weeks other than looking for a house, and starting school on July 13th.

Summer 2010

Here is my second blog! SUMMER 2010! This summer is just as awesome as last summer so i will try to write about some of the things i have been doing just to keep everyone updated. i didn't take pictures of everything, and pictures never capture just what it was like to be in a place but i am including all my best pictures!
The first picture is of a fountain in Albert Park, Auckland, New Zealand. but first: how did i get to New Zealand?
This summer i wanted to travel (of course) so i signed up for and International Student Volunteers project in NZ. i didn't know what to expect...
I flew out of Edmonton, over the beautiful Rocky Mountains, stopped in Vancouver, then straight to Auckland on May 13/14th. i had a free day before meeting my volunteer group so I took the city bus in to Auckland city early in the morning, and chatted with the bus driver while the sun rose and we drove on the left side of the rode past beautiful and unfamiliar plants and trees. then i took a train to get to the centre of the city

I walked out of the train station, found an information centre, walked around. the picture above is of the sky tower, it is a great ladmark that saved me from getting lost a few times.

me with my backpack in Albert Park

i walked around the harbour, sky tower at night. I spent my first night in New Zealand at a friends place. the first thing i ate when i got there was a golden kiwi :) we had supper of chineese vegan dumplings at a cute restraunt on Dominion Road called New Flavour!

early in the morning on the 15th i took a bus back to the airport to meet my International Student Volunteers group! we got on a bus right away and went to our camp close to Waihi in the Bay of Plenty region. there were 27 of us, and we got along very well!

at a viewpoint. our volunteer leader Daryl had great stories about Maori culture, how they take pride in nature, and well kept land increases their Mana (pride, self respect) how they believe they dont own the earth, they come from the land, go back to the land. They have really great ledgends...

we picked kiwifruit! they grow on huge vines

a part of Maori culture is a pride in their ancestors. they can trace their family trees back to when they came to New Zealand in huge canoes. this is a replica.

we went on hikes, saw a "small" kaori tree that had a trunk that a car could fit inside, guides talked at us about conservation... fantail birds, volcanoes, medicinal plants. We were traditionally welcomed by the a Maori group with much ceremony and singing which was very fun. they were converted to Chritianity but maintain their old beliefs too, and they have church/community centre buildings called Marae in many towns with wonderful carvings and woven panels and painted paterns all depicting legends. This is a hill we climbed where a Maori settlement used to be, there are stories about all teh islands and caves:

these pictures are from Cathedral Cove where we went one weekend. we stayed in Coromanel for one night in a hostel on the beach. 3 of us went swimming in the freezing Pacific Ocean water in the middle of the night in the waves, and stayed in for a long time because the waves were so fun! the mexy day 4 of us went kayaking in the waves! i flipped twice and it was great!

here are some pictures of where i slept for the 2 weeks at camp, quite comfortable bunk beds in a big room. the camp had a dining room in a different building, where we played a lot of card when it was raining. we only planted trees for 3 days, about 2500 trees on a very steep valley above a small river. the trees were about 50 cm tall, 4 different native species. we formed chains to pass them down teh hill, and paired up so one personn dug holes and one took the plastic bag off the roots and planted the tree.

we also visited an elementary school for a day and taught them about our home countries. we made posters and everything!

another day we visited a training centre for disabled people, which was very cool, mentally disabled people were supported so they could work and make money. they had a great facility where at least 100 people were sewing, doing carpentry, growing trees for volunteers like us to plant, making dartboards, art, cooking, maintaining a park, it was a really happy place.

another day we worked on a hiking trail in a park, we walked for an hour to get to a river where we built up the trail with wheelbarrowfuls of clay and spread a huge bag of gravel that a helicopter dropped off, and pulled weeds growing over the trail. it was really fun, we worked as a team very well.

I had my birthday at camp on a tree planting day, and in the evening we had a cake and everyone signed a card :)

the food was pretty basic, i had vegetarian meals which was very nice because i got better quality groceries especially for me! lots of penut butter and honey sandwiches, muesli every day for breakfast :) noodles, rice, soup, lasagna... the fruit was Very good, we had mandarins, persimmons, fejoas.

this is a zip line at camp, it started at the top of the structure, about 3 storeys high, and went about the length of a hockey rink. we tried it in the dark!

this is in the Auckland airport at the end of my 2 weeks of volunteering about to fly to Queenstown for 2 weeks of adventure tour! in the middle is Kristina and on the right is Tristan, they were our volunteer project leaders that organised day to day things and ran meetings. they were a lot of fun. Kristina was studying kakapo parrots at Otago university and spent months on a remote island recording their mating calls. Tristan explained rugby and cricket to me.

the last night before flying to the South island the 27 of us stayed with a big Maori extended family in a Marae- their kind of church building. they cooked a huge meal, we sang and Tommy Kapai, a sucessful children's book author, told legends.

Queenstown!

I rode the Shotover Jet, a jet boat that goes on the shotover river, doing 360 turns and speeding very close to the cliffs! all in the rain, so it felt like little rocks were hitting my face.

we had supper in an Indian restauraunt, and browsed in some stores.

these pictures are from when i hiked up and down the mountain overlooking Queenstown:

the trees were so thick at the top it was dark

i watched paragliders taking off from the top of the mountain, just running off the edge of a steep hill, and floating off over the city. it looked great!

in the afternoon, a view from a park, where i discovered a lovely rose garden while going for a jog.

the scenery from the bus was beautiful. vineyards, kiwifruit orchards, sheep, dairy farms, hills, thick forests, lakes, rivers!

in one town we stopped at i found a beach and watched some surfers while i ate my lunch.

I hiked up the Franz Josef glacier! largest in teh southern hemisphere. we squeezed through small crevasses, climbed steep parts using ropes.

we walked through a lush forest to get to the glacier! there was a thundering waterfall beside it.

this was my group's guide, Simon.

All the hostels we stayed in were really fantastic. one had a hot pool, which we spent hours and hours in. another had a sauna! we were in dorm rooms with bunkbeds usually. different combinations of people in each because we were all good friends. i was surprised how well i got to know most of the 27 people in my group in only a month. we had some good conversations.

we cooked our own meals in some hostels, one night i microwaved rice, very unappetizing, but another day i cooked angel hair spaghetti with a friend and we put fresh absil, cherry tomatoes, garlic and mozarella cheese on it. another day i made a big quinoa salad with dried fruit, nuts, and vegetables in it, the perfect food to have as leftovers while travelling!

we went dancing a few nights when we were in different towns, we didnt just play cards!

the whole time the weather was quite chilly, getting close to freezing in the night, but i stayed warm enough using my sleeping bag and blankets.

we did a walk around the "pancake rocks" strange formations. scary surge pool:

a fur seal colony. they smelled horrible and i was quite a distance away:

these pictures are from 2 different walks, the plants are so interesting!

we rode a ferry from Nelson to Picton on the North Island

in Wellington we went to the Te Paupa museum, which was very good. i also saw the art gallery and botanical gardens, and the "beehive" and parliament buildings from outside. it was a cold day! i drank a lot of tea every day.

we went whitewater rafting at Rotorua, which was an experience. we were given wetsuits, booties, sweaters, lifejackets, helmets and paddles and were stuck in an 8 person raft with a guide who shouted instructions and we went over the biggest drops right at the first part of the run before we knew what we were doing! so we quickly became confident and were splashing other rafts, and standing up to touch bridges we were going under with our paddles. the scenery was amazing. the guy in front of me got hit by a branch and fell out near the end, so i lost my paddle pulling him back in and could just sit and enjoy the ride. we sang songs on the bus home that day.

the next picture is at the natural hot pools called Hell's Gate at Rotorua, they were bizare, some pools were grey, some black, some of the ground was orange and yellow, there was steam coming from everywhere, mud bubbling up, one pool actually boiling, a steaming waterfall, it was an amazing little area.

Close to our hostel was a park full of little steaming ponds, but not so extreme as the place we walked through earlier in the day, because there were plants growing around them. I went for a walk there alone at dusk, exactly what i was told not to do. our tour leader told a story of a tourist that got serious burns when walking home drunk through that park and going off the path. all the pools were fenced off really well, so i was not worried. i could hear bubling mud and the whole forest was full of steam. as darkness fell, i found a platform over a volleyball court sized natural hot pool surrounded by trees with thick steam rising up from it like smoke from a fire. the steam warmed my fingers and face from the chilly breeze that was wafting it around. sometimes the steam was swirling away from me, sometimes it was billowing towards me. sometimes there was a dome of fog over my head almost blocking out the streetlights that i could see on two sides. the trees cast spidery shaddows. i watched the light from the stars appear through the gaps in the steam and tried to see the southern cross in their unfamiliar formations. i tried but could not think of anything to wish on the first star i saw that night.

ths steam only had a faint sulfur smell, and the warm waves felt so pleasant. i could hear unfamiliar insects chirping and clicking to eachother in the trees behind me. i could see dead branches in the hot pool. i stood for about half an hour watching the rising, dancing steam flow up to the sky around me. then i found my way back to the hostel, and wrote that description in my journal!

we went to rainbow springs, a wildlife park where they have a buch of native animals, but mostly raise kiwi birds. they collect the eggs from the wild where they have almost no chance of surviving and raise them until they can release them back. there were 3 kiwi birds in an enclosure which got to see! they are the strangest uncoordinated looking things with huge feet and no wings that are visible, and tiny heads. their bodies were large and they rushed back and forth and stopped to thrust their beaks in the ground and make sniffing noises. they are not at all like the cute stuffed animals.

and then we went zorbing:

this is after we survived the ride, i am putting on a brave face but i was in a bit of pain! the zorb that my friend and i were in got caught by a gust of wind and got going so unusually fast it went OVER the fence at the end of the hill! the landing was quite hard and i bit my tounge badly!

you can see the fence we went over, and the place the zorbs are supposed to stop!

aparently it was the first time in 14 years that zorbing has been going on on that hill that a zorb has gone over the fence. the staff were quite surprised! when we were in the zorbs we did not know what was going on. the zorbs are balls of transluscent plastic, and you dive through this small hole into the smaller inner ball that has a bit of water in it and is held off the ground by elastics, and it gets zipped closed and rolls down the hill, while you are spinning and sliding and screaming inside.

in the evening we went on a walk through a forest with cliffs covered in glowworms! we carried flashlights, and walked through a tunnel, around a gorge on a wooden walkway, into a cavern with stalagmites and stalactites, and over a bridge. a really cool walk in the dark! the stars were so bright!

in Waitomo we went blackwater rafting in a huge cave. we had two guides who taught us how to absail down a rope 11 storeys, then we rode a zip line, i screamed on the zip line, flying into the darkness! then we ate oatmeal squares and drank hot tea and jumped, each with an inner tube off a cliff into a river, getting soaked through, and paddled with our hands in the freezing water upstream to look at glowworms, which were spectacular. then floated downstream a bit, left our inner tubes behind, and walked/floated/swam down this little river and over uneven rocks through cracks, under ledges, around a waterfall, stopped to warm up with tea and chocolate, then climbed out though some tunnels. that was 4 hours in a cave! it was my favorite activity that i have done in New Zealand!

june 9th we arrived in Auckland again, i had lunch in a park, climbed a tree, talked with friends all day. we all had supper together and went out. then on june 10th most of the group left in the morning, and i went to Kelly Tarlton's aquarium with two friends who had an evening flight. we thouroughly enjoyed the stingray feeding demonstration, the monorail around the penguin enclosure, and the moving walkway under the shark tank! it was all aimed at young kids but was really facinating for us too! we had lunch in a fancy but inexpensive restauraunt overlooking the harbour, played some pool, then they left to Canada and Holland and i was alone in Auckland!

i spent that night at a hostel, then went couchsurfing! http://www.couchsurfing.org/

its a fantastic website, it is a network for travellers to meet locals. how it works is everyone writes a page with a bit about themselves, and other couchsurfers you meet leave references on your page, so when i am travelling i read peoples pages and their references, and if they seem interesting i send them a message asking if i can stay at their house for a few nights. I used the website in Edmonton because the couchsurfing community also is used to organize meetings in cafes, and potlucks, and i met a bunch of friends and travellers in Edmonton.

Here is a blurb from the website explaining it:

"What is CouchSurfing?
CouchSurfing is an international non-profit network that connects travelers with locals in over 230 countries and territories around the world. Since 2004, members have been using our system to come together for cultural exchange, friendship, and learning experiences. Today, over a million people who might otherwise never meet are able to share hospitality and cultural understanding.
Our mission as an organization is to create inspiring experiences: cross-cultural encounters that are fun, engaging, and illuminating. These experiences take many forms. CouchSurfing's initial focus was on hosting and "surfing" (staying with a local as a guest in their home). Alongside these core experiences, we now also facilitate a growing array of activities and events.
We have a vision of a world where everyone can explore and create meaningful connections with the people and places they encounter. Each CouchSurfing experience shared by our members brings us closer to that vision.
How does CouchSurfing work?
CouchSurfing members share hospitality with one another. These exchanges are a uniquely rich form of cultural interaction. Hosts have the opportunity to meet people from all over the world without leaving home. "Surfers," or travelers, are able to participate in the local life of the places they visit. We also give more people the chance to become travelers, because "surfing" lowers the financial cost of exploration.

Is CouchSurfing safe?
When a lot of people hear about CouchSurfing, they wonder if it's OK to invite someone new into their home, or stay with someone they've never met. Our members think about safety, too -- and that's exactly why CouchSurfing is a safer way to meet people than you might think. As a tight knit community, CouchSurfers help protect themselves and each other by educating themselves and sharing information.
With CouchSurfing, you have a lot more information about new people than you do in most circumstances. Think about when you meet someone at a hostel or on a train. What information do you have? Just your own first impressions. Through CouchSurfing, it's more like meeting a friend of a friend. You have the chance to read all about other members' experiences with that person, whether positive or negative. You have a full profile's worth of information about their interests and perspectives. You can see who their friends are and how they know them. And you have the ability to correspond with them as much as you want before you meet them.
Go to our safety page for more information about the different types of information systems that help you make educated decisions while using CouchSurfing. "

so i stayed for 8 nights in 3 different houses, and made some great friends in Auckland! much better than staying in hostels, because i got great advice on what to see in the city.

on the 12th i stayed with Craig and his roommates. he is a student and DJ, artsy type. his flat was a lot of fun, i made myself at home and slept in a very comfortable hammock in the attic for 13 hours straight. we discussed the oil spill in the gulf of Mexico. we ate at Burgerfuel, a gormet burger chain in New Zealand. then we went to a vegan potluck at his enironmental activist type friend's place. the next night i went to a Hare Krishna supper in a yoga loft that he recomended. it was the best food i had had in a long time! there were some monks, and everyone was chanting a mantra in unison and playing insturments and talking about oneness and the connection to nature, and non-material happiness and consciousness, and balance and living simply and i joined in and it was altogether an interesting night. i enjoyed the discussion.

June 14th i spent the day in the city library using the free internet, then moved my backpack to stay with Tom (a musician- a bassist) and his roommates Amy, Evan, Ben-o... in another cool flat. i carried my backpack quite a bit, and it worked very well! Amy, Tom, and i went to a impromptu jazz concert at the wine cellar that night, which was very awesome. the next day i spent going to a second hand bookstore and vegetarian restraunt, then went to the play Sweeny Todd, whith Tom, who was part of the orchestra. it was a great production! at the theatre at the university.

June 16th i walked to the Auckland Museum, in a huge park with gardens! really good museum, with an interesting exhibit about food that i liked a lot, and lots about Maori culture, history of NZ, wars, plants and animals. then spent time with Amy- a painter- we got groceries, went to an art talk with 20 photographers giving presentations about their work, which was very interesting to see.

June 17th i had a delicious lunch served by Hare Krishna monks in a park, then moved to Chris' house, he is a computer programmer. there are 2 other couchsurfers staying here who are from Melbourne, so i am getting a lot of advice about moving there! we walked to the Auckland botanic gardens, which cover a huge area, and i thouroughly enjoyed walking around them, and eating a few mandarins off a tree. then getting lost on my way back and asking a few very friendly people for directions. then we watched a New Zealand made movie called scarfies, which was a very well made comedy then thriller about university students in Dunedin. we have been cooking great meals at Chris' place: pavlova, key lime pie, dhal, roasted vegetables, fritatta, sweet potato soup, and today we ate lunch at a cafe in a buddhist temple after visiting mount Wellington and One Tree Hill. So i am having a great time! the weather has been good, it hasn't rained lately, and it is not too cold.

So i am flying to Melbourne on Monday the 21st, and will try to keep everyone updated more often on how things are going!