Hello!
On the traveling front, I've not done much traveling since arriving in Perth. I've visited around the area, Fremantle and Serpentine Park and such, but not much further.
I will be going to Swan Lake this weekend, and that's got me pretty excited!
I've seen only one ballet before, and that was in Paris at l'opera Garnier. It was lovely, but didn't really have that much of a story to it, more of a few short vignettes so to speak.
So I'm excited that I'll have seen my first Opera (Aida) in Sydney, now Swan Lake and when mom arrives, on our last day, we will be seeing Sleeping Beauty!
Though, when mom does arrive, I'll be done my placement and I plan on visiting the southern part of Western Australia with her. It's considered to be Wine Country. So we will likely visit vineyards along the Indian Ocean coastline. Sounds gorgeous! Also there are caves along that coast that I'm looking forward to exploring as well.
Despite being in the most isolated city in the world (Perth), I'm finding ways to keep busy, discovering as I go along.
I can't wait to get home and bore everyone with my pictures! I think I've taken over 2500 so far! (and that's not including when mom'll be here and when we go to New Zealand!) muahahaha!
I'll *try* to keep the photos down to a minimum. I may even do a montage in a book, like Randy Smith did. I'll have to get the information from him on how he did that.
It was a beautifully bound book that I think was part of a website where you can write what you like and paste pictures and get it all together submit it for publication and voila, you get the product delivered in the mail!
I think that would be best, my scrapbooks of Europe took me ages!
Bye for now!!
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Mild Panic T Minus 22 days left of placement
Hi Everyone!
Yeah, it's starting to sink in that I'm past my half-way point on my journey. My placement is supposed to be 60 days and I'm already on day 38, leaving only 22 more days of placement, roughly one month.
I'm really feeling like part of the team at work. I am getting to know the local organizations, the acronyms and the people. I am able to provide information to others and understand what they are talking about. It's a really good feeling.
I have settled in with visiting clients at their homes, bringing them to their appointments, working with translators, and getting clients referrals to other organizations who can help them.
What I have not been working on as much as I would have liked is the immigration issues facing Australia. They are quite heated here at the moment. The official opposition is grumbling (kind of like they do back home about anything the government does) about how this current government has relaxed the rules and regulations around "boat people" and immigration in general to a point as to essentially have open borders. I really don't see that, as Christmas Island, the detention centre, is filled to the brim with people awaiting visas. So much so, that they had to bring in something like 200 supplementary bunk beds.
It is my belief that the upsurge of asylum seekers has more to do with the current political unrest in the world, rather than the Australian Government's policies.
I have even heard about a ship off of Vancouver filled with asylum seekers. Yet the article didn't say where they were being held or what was to happen to them. I guess the Canadian government likes to keep such things quiet, whereas, at least here in Australia, people may or may not agree with it, but the media tells of how many people were on the boat, what happened to the boat and where they came from and that they are going to Christmas Island for "processing".
All very interesting, but I've only been keeping an ear open for information rather than collecting it, as I felt I would be doing. Perhaps, as my eyes are often bigger than my stomach, I've tried to bite off more than I could chew.
I'll leave it at that for now.
Hugs to all back home!!! I miss you very much!
Yeah, it's starting to sink in that I'm past my half-way point on my journey. My placement is supposed to be 60 days and I'm already on day 38, leaving only 22 more days of placement, roughly one month.
I'm really feeling like part of the team at work. I am getting to know the local organizations, the acronyms and the people. I am able to provide information to others and understand what they are talking about. It's a really good feeling.
I have settled in with visiting clients at their homes, bringing them to their appointments, working with translators, and getting clients referrals to other organizations who can help them.
What I have not been working on as much as I would have liked is the immigration issues facing Australia. They are quite heated here at the moment. The official opposition is grumbling (kind of like they do back home about anything the government does) about how this current government has relaxed the rules and regulations around "boat people" and immigration in general to a point as to essentially have open borders. I really don't see that, as Christmas Island, the detention centre, is filled to the brim with people awaiting visas. So much so, that they had to bring in something like 200 supplementary bunk beds.
It is my belief that the upsurge of asylum seekers has more to do with the current political unrest in the world, rather than the Australian Government's policies.
I have even heard about a ship off of Vancouver filled with asylum seekers. Yet the article didn't say where they were being held or what was to happen to them. I guess the Canadian government likes to keep such things quiet, whereas, at least here in Australia, people may or may not agree with it, but the media tells of how many people were on the boat, what happened to the boat and where they came from and that they are going to Christmas Island for "processing".
All very interesting, but I've only been keeping an ear open for information rather than collecting it, as I felt I would be doing. Perhaps, as my eyes are often bigger than my stomach, I've tried to bite off more than I could chew.
I'll leave it at that for now.
Hugs to all back home!!! I miss you very much!
Monday, October 12, 2009
Long time no talk!
Hi!
Going to have to make this one short.. I'm on my way out the door.. just thought that an article I read from the Globe and Mail might be of interest for those of you who are following my asylum policy and procedures work.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/deportations-surge-50-per-cent-in-a-decade/article1321037/
I have also another article on how the UN has touted that Canada has the best immigration policy in the world. Interesting.
I'll get that link up here as soon as I can!
Gotta jet...
As you can see, I survived driving on the wrong side of the road.. and no one was harmed by my driving either!
Bye
Going to have to make this one short.. I'm on my way out the door.. just thought that an article I read from the Globe and Mail might be of interest for those of you who are following my asylum policy and procedures work.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/deportations-surge-50-per-cent-in-a-decade/article1321037/
I have also another article on how the UN has touted that Canada has the best immigration policy in the world. Interesting.
I'll get that link up here as soon as I can!
Gotta jet...
As you can see, I survived driving on the wrong side of the road.. and no one was harmed by my driving either!
Bye
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