Hello Again From Australia
Today was my last class in Australia, and I'm sitting out here on my little balcony in Redcliffe for the last time, enjoying the peacefulness, cursing the slowness of the WiFi and listening to the waves of the Pacific ocean. I haven't had much time to write over the past couple of weeks, or much computer time at all really - just barely been checking my email.
Now that the work part of my trip is over, I find myself overwhelmed with mixed emotions. Being through with all ten workshops is definitely a relief, but on the other hand, I'm feeling a bit sad. Part of me wishes I was going back to Peppertown next week to teach a whole new group. Any one of the old groups wouldn't be bad either. Everyone here has been just incredibly wonderful, making me feel very comfortable in every possible way. Who would've thought I'd ever grow to enjoy this teaching thing so much?
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My original plan was to spend all of next week in Sydney - but as the days here have gone by, I've come to realize a few things. So, after much pondering and even more mind-changing, I decided to stick around Brisbane till Wednesday night, and then head out to Sydney just for a long weekend. I have my own little social circle here in Brissie, made up of a few people whom I haven't known for very long, and yet I feel very close to them, as if we'd met years ago. Even though Murano is on the other side of the world, the magic still lingers in the air here, making me want to just hang out and not worry about cramming as much touristy stuff as possible into this trip. I know I'll be back in Australia someday. I won't have it any other way.
I'd like to thank each and every one of my Aussie students for making my classes so much fun to teach, and my wonderful Murano Magician friends for hanging out with me and making sure there was never a dull moment during my very limited free time. You guys rock. Thanks to Hamish, Julie, Leah and the rest of the staff at Peppertown for always being friendly and helpful and making me feel at home in a huge bead, glass and gem shop with gigantic frogs painted on the outside. And a HUGE thanks to Sally, my Aussie HotHead sister, for organizing this whole thing and doing a wonderful job at making sure everything ran smoothly - but most of all, for being my friend. Love ya!
Murphy's Law #4,547,238: If you meet a hot glass guy (pun intended), who is refreshingly not full of pretentious crap, and you like him and he likes you back and isn't afraid to say so, he must live in the most distant spot from you on the freaking planet (I so wish I was exaggerating).
I met someone here in Brisbane. His name is Russ. He does boro. He shares my passion for the slow liquid, along with a few other passions, and we are discovering more every day. I realized pretty early on that he isn't much of a web person. Hell, the guy doesn't even own a computer. We are quite different, even if we do have a lot in common.
"So... umm... do you even know what a blog is?" I asked one night, as a bunch of us were having dinner at a Turkish restaurant (note to self: do not order falafel at restaurants in other countries, as that is obviously a really really stupid thing to do).
"No. What's a blog?" He asked innocently.
"I am sitting next to a guy who doesn't know what a blog is", I had to announce to everyone at the table. They all burst out laughing, of course. Then I tried to explain what a blog is. Then I tried to explain what my blog is. Try explaining "blue" to a blind man. Seriously.
"It's like, you could have read it and known all about me before I even got here. They know all about me." I point to the others at the table, who are passionately discussing my dislike of peas.
"But I am getting to know you now", he says. "I'm learning about you based on what you've told me since we met."
I scratch my head, trying to wrap my brain around this foreign concept. "But... uh... no. It... it doesn't work that way."
Meeting me and then getting to know me? WTF?
Over the next few days, I found myself constantly contemplating this whole thing. Is this what my life has become? Is it all about the online existence? Is that right? Is it sad? Is it just the way things are? Does the notion of meeting someone and then getting to know them really make no sense at all? You would think that's the way it's supposed to be. I think it might have been, a long, long time ago.
It's easy for traveling-Sarah to sit around in other countries and try to judge home-Sarah for who she is. My life "on the road" is very different from my life at home. I find myself constantly surrounded by people and enjoying every minute of it, stopping every once in a while to think about how I just spent the two months between Italy and Australia with almost no human contact at all. Sometimes it seems like that just can't be a good way to live. But I wasn't feeling lonely. I was waking up every day with a feeling of excitement, knowing I was about to spend day on the torch. I was going to bed every night ecstatically happy about the beads I had made that day, or about a blog post I had written that had made me laugh while I read it to myself, or about the thought of actually going to Australia really soon. I think my life will be much the same between the time I get home and my trip to the UK. It is a weird little lifestyle I've developed here, overdosing on people for a couple of weeks and then returning to my glass-filled hermit existence. It is weird, but it works for me. It just does. I guess.
Russ did his homework. He managed to find an internet connection somewhere, and spent an evening reading some of my blog. He is pretty cool.
"It's been two weeks, and now I know stuff about you that all those people who read your blog will never know", he said to me last night, with a devilish grin on his face.
"Yeah. I guess you do."
Where is all of this going, you wonder? Yeah, I am wondering the same. We're gonna go to Sydney together next weekend, and then he's gonna go back to Brisbane and I'm gonna go back to Tel Aviv. We might meet again in the not-unbearably-distant future, and we might never see eachother again. I don't know. I just don't know. My mind is all cloudy right now. I'm trying to enjoy the time we have together, while finding it impossible to forget that pretty soon we will have to say goodbye.
Maybe I'm just too full of myself. I walk around here assuming that every person I meet reads my blog religiously and knows everything about me, when suddenly, one woman turns to me and asks if when I am back home I have to wear a burqa.
(Yes - I am actually one of 16 wives. They make us all wear burqas, and if we take them off in public, they stone us in the town square. However, every once in a while, they let us take a trip to Australia and parade around in a tank top.)
Girl, I was so happy to read this post!
first, seeing Avril and Sharon that are such great, heartwarming gulls (tell them I miss them), and second, oh mama, a guy too! this is way cool and he sounds just lovely. It figures that the good ones are hidden down under ther, while all the fuckups are allowed to ride their camels freely in the streets of Tel Aviv.
It seems you are there yet!
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g'day Sarah,
what a wonderfull time you are having there. And what do i read, are you a little bit in love? I wish you al the luck and hapiness and I hope you keep in contact while youre back home. I love your pictures, especialy about the store with al the colors, so me!They look very good on you. What's about the ring, the grasring not glassring? have fun, and a save trip home!
Noor
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Sarah, I am so glad that you have had such a wonderful time teaching us! I got so much out of the short time that I was with you and now I also feel different too!!! I know that sounds a strange thing to say but I feel so much more confidant than I did before and I know it is all going to be OK. A feeling more precious than gold...I owe you millions. And take it from a kindred glass hermit, hold on to Russ with all you heart, go you looked like you two belonged together. For some reason I thought he actually came with you from Israel! It feels right. I hope it works out for you, and yes I can see you staying in Brisbane forever. But then again, I can see myself in Brisbane too. Hope to see you again soon,
Jenny From Sydney
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Hey Sarah,
I'm so glad you enjoyed your time in Oz - we're a friendly bunch.
Sue x
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AAAWWWW, You both make a cute couple! That is sweet and i hope that things work out (if you want them to)! A perfect world would be to have your home-Sarah when you want and then your traveling sarah/and man with whom you share yourself with at other times. Would you even consider a relationship with the home Sarah? He's awfully cute, hee hee!!! Congrats on your trip and the fun you found. steph
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told ya!!!!!
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I am a long-time admirer of your art. So glad your trip down under has made you happy in so many ways. Generally speaking, we Aussies are a friendly, laid-back bunch and would welcome you as one of us.
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He shares my passion for the slow liquid, along with a few other passions...
You sly dog, you.
Sarah and Russ
Sittin' in a tree
K-I-S-S-I-N-G
First comes love
then comes...
a drawn out long distance relationship filled with longing and angst and unbelievably expensive phone calls that you hope never end and melancholy and loneliness and boundless joy and self doubt and impetuous travel.
Ain't it grand... the tragic farce that is life. Ride the wave, Sarah - ride the wave.
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I wonder.... Will she start making hearts again...???
I'm so happy for you!!!
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"Girl lives in Middle East. Girl has cat. Girl will never willingly be separated from cat. Girl will never put cat through two days of travel or three months of quarantine."
Girl just might be willing to move, taking cat. . . and everyone lives happily ever & ever after! If you know you would be happy, the cat would be happy, and boy and family would be happy! Magic should not be allowed to evaporate into thin air and never be found again.
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