Ups and Downs

Checking in!

All is well down in Geelong, Australia. Actually, not everything is going well. It all depends how I look at it.

If I look through the peep-hole, I’m in the midst of the worst hitting slump of my life. I’m 0-7 career in the southern hemisphere. It feels disgraceful.

Then, if I take a more ‘cosmic’-perspective, things are unbelievably good!!! I’m living my dream, playing baseball with the Geelong Baycats after six or so tiresome months of trying to prove myself and validate my ability to latin men in grandstands or on practice fields. I have a uniform, a practice jersey, and a whole bunch of awesome teammates who have welcomed me into their dugouts full of beautiful profanity, chewing tobacco, and vulgarity. It’s really good.

 

I’m living a rural, Aussie dream. If I look through the peep-hole down at this homemade spinach ricotta gnochi that my host Corinne made, things look pretty damn good.

If by accident or deliberateness I compare this dream to meals of past months, the puzzle pieces don’t fit together.

Fact is, my daily breakfast of one slice of white bread slathered with mayonaise and a single slice of cheese for breakfast just a few months ago on an island south of the U.S. pales in comparison to my lux diet right now. And, overall, the stark comparison just gets me confused and up in arms once in a while.

I’ll now pose a question that is discomforting. It feels silly to write because I’ve been socialized to this world in which things are the way they are. But, I’m just going to come out with it: Why is nutritious food a right for some of the world’s population and an elite privilege for others? Don’t get me started.

The Fraims are awesome. Ash (little bro) turned 9 yesterday. So Ruby (little sis, age 10) now must proclaim quite often that she is nearly 11. Ruby is hilarious; we share both princess and huge-hearted tendencies, if I do say so myself.

Here is a not-so-good-but-must-include photo of me with the Fraims. We’re sprawled out into a star on the ground because we are doing our nightly 30-day ab-challenge. I swear the mathematician that created this ab-challenge is wack. The increase in crunches and sit-ups was exponential. One day it was 10, now it’s close to 80. Jarrod has dropped out due to back pain. Corinne is working through back pain. Ruby often rolls on the floor. Ash exaggerates his counting of teach repetition, and recently, I have neglected to set the alarm that reminds us to do the workout. I blame the mathematician.

This is all to say that the Fraims are the dream host-family, as you can see above with just one glance at Corinne’s homemade  gnochi. We’ve grown quite close in the last four weeks. Hardships and failures (of the ab-challenge) faced as a supportive unit. So yes, the downside of the Fraims is that if I look through a cosmic-sized eyepiece at my experience with them, then it is all way too good to be true and doesn’t quite align with my prior host family experiences.

More ups and downs: 26 January was Australia day. It all started so well. We went over to Pa’s house (Jarrod’s father, Ash’s and Ruby’s G-pa’s for a BBQ). We set up the television to watch Serena play in the Australian Open. Larry grilled some amazing lamb, sausages, annnnd chicken. Ronda (G-ma) made some amazing salads and pastas.

Overall, I was feeling proud to set foot in part of the Commonwealth. The generous people and amazing barbied meats helped this sensation. But, it all went south quickly.

One minute, I’m sipping a fantastic Cabernet Sauvignon and drinking whiskey cokes with Larry and Jarrod Fraim, the next hour, Corinne and I are both preaching to the porcelain-Gods backed at home, sick from bad food! I had to emerge from my repentance to the porcelain to say to Jarrod, “It’s not the alcohol!”

Luckily, he knew it was bad food since Corinne got sick too. Anyway those are the ups and downs.

 

I did get this sick temporary tattoo though, that a worried bar-mate feared was a permanent drunken mistake days later. Pictured along with the temp-tat is your Yank driving on the opposite side of the road! Scary stuff. I only attempted to enter opposing traffic once!

Corinne’s bicycle has socialized me to riding and driving on the left side of the road. I ride it through our rural town to the train station twice a week when I head to Japanese class in Melbourne.

Studying Japanese leaves me feeling dejected and hopeless or brainy and hard-working depending on the day. It’s like a really challenging puzzle.

In the beginning, I had to remind myself to read from left to write since some of the letters resemble Hebrew. I’m learning a bunch of useful things like how to ask for a cellphone number or how much something costs. God-willing I remember it and continue to do my homework. The book my teacher uses is completely in Japanese, and Mami-sansei (my teacher) has said 3 words to my English in the past 4 weeks, so hopefully this hard work provides a foundation for my upcoming time in Japan.

Overall, this place is peculiarly similar to California at times. Evidenced by a variety of things and personal opinions (some controversial) but also the less controversial: absurd produce prices.

Those avocados cost 7.99 a pop! The mushrooms were probably expensive as well. I just thought they looked nice. These produce photos were taken at the Adelaide Central Market, built by the British colonists in 1900. Really impressive market in Southern Australia. But, again what brought me to Adelaide yielded more ups and downs. I went for a music festival! I got to see some sick acts–Goldlink, Chvrches, Vince Staples, Grimes, Majical Coudz, Thundercat, Shamir, etc.–none of which you should know if you’re over the age of 29, but also the Majical Cloudz-set and my decision to attend a music festival all alooooooone prompted an especially existential bout of this Fellowship. I’d do it all again.

I’ll end this post with some wildlife shots and one more peculiarity of this place.

Click for a closer look, but above is Jarrod pumping gas WITHOUT PAYING, framed by an emu and a wallaby. Yes, just like yeaaaaaaars ago in the U.S.A., here in Australia, prior to inserting a credit card or cash, you’re free to pump gas. Then you enter the shop to pay. That totally shocked me.

And, a few more! Fraim fam + Banjo (dog) – Corinne (mom), siblings jostling, kangaroo carcass :(, and me, the evening someone thought my Australia tattoo was real.

Signing off. Hopefully not for too long. I hope you enjoyed the run down, and please let me know if you have any advice fitting the pieces of this puzzle together.