australia!

I finally got access to internet! Hurrah! I made it to Australia in one piece, and I have already seen a kangaroo (clearly I have seen all of Australia, and can now come home. Actually, out in the country, kangaroos are evidently roadkill problems. They also like to hop up near houses and peer in?) Unfortunately, I don't know if I will have access to the internet for very long, I am getting shuffled around different houses for these first few days (meaning I have to be on my best behavior constantly-so much that my cheeks felt slightly sore tonight from straining to keep an interested, genuine, sweet smile on my face. This is quite the stretch for me, right?) I think I'm going to enjoy Australia, I'm in Melbourne right now, and there are a lot of various neighborhoods to go wandering around in (Melbourne takes a lot of refugees). I even went by a lovely little arty looking district with youths with long hair, smoking the (dreaded) cigarettes, pouring their legs into skinny jeans, a regular hipster haven. They, however, have Australian accents (!), which is pretty interesting. I am keeping one of those dorky traveler journals where I keep a running record of Australian words, interspersed with the latest quote from Mrs. Dalloway that I happen to be enamored with. nappy" = diaper while "serviette" = napkin. Trailer parks are called "caravan parks". (there will be a quiz on this later when I return)

ENOUGH ABOUT ME. I am in danger of making this blog my journal entry, I will spare you. How are you guys? I kind of wish you guys were here, alas, alack. How is home, for both of you? In a more literary vein (it was vaguely mortifying when I got picked up from the aiport and had to explain that I had a duffel bag of about a dozen books. I got very flustered and there was a lot of gesticulating and nervous sputtering of things like, "english major", "book club with friends", "I like to read". No, I am not carrying the western canon with me down to Australia...) I kind of chose poems for us to read. I thought it would be sort of nice if there was some sort of theme for each of the sets of poems- maybe the theme could be a single author, or topic, or form. I have a feeling this might deteriorate into "the theme this week is poems i like", you guys are under no obligation to pick a theme.

The tentative, melodramatic, sort of coherent theme for the poems I chose is the idea of watching a performance. I thought all of the poems explored that very unique sensation of one watching another while also hearing them...

Frank O'Hara "The Day Lady Died"
John Keats "Ode to a Nightingale"
D.H. Lawrence "Piano"
Billy Collins "Nightclub"
Li-young Lee "I Ask My Mother to Sing"

and I randomly opened up my book...
PLAY THAT NORTON ANTHOLOGY SHUFFLE: "Queen-Anne's Lace" by William Carlos Williams.

The poems are mostly more contemporary, and they're pretty mainstream, so they should be online. I can send them to you guys if you can't find them. ok, I write such longer posts than all of you. I think I'm just feeling anxiety that I'm not going to be able to use the Internet much. I hope you guys are doing well, tell me how you're doing.

cheers from australia!