rocks and stripes

k first off, i have to say how weird it was getting ready for work this morning and watching the superbowl on tv. they cancelled my morning news to broadcast football, and it was so trippy making my coffee and eating my cereal and watching it, knowing that at the very same time all of you at home were drinking beer and eating chicken wings.

i got to spend thursday and friday with my co-workers at the fremantle sailing club for our annual company summit. it was a pretty swanky spot, lots of porthole-themed objects (porthole is really fun to type, and say. try it. porthole. haha), and men walking around with fancy scarves tied around their necks. we were upstairs in the main banquet room, this was our view

as part of the summit, we had a lithics workshop. they flew in one of australia/tasmania's most famous lithic experts, kim ackerman, to lead the workshop. it was really weird to be so far away from home and everything i know, and to have this guy teaching us about lithics and name drop his colleagues, who are all people i know or have heard of back home. cant wait till i find a jim o'connell fan, and i can brag that i got to study under him :)

so to make stone tools, you pretty much just whack rocks together. it sounds super easy to do, i mean even monkeys make and use crude stone tools....

 ...well, its NOT. its really hard lol. after kims lesson we all got a chance to practice, and ive never seen so many spaz's get hurt so fast by breaking rocks. thank god we weren't using obsidian, someone would have for sure severed something important (insert whatever appendage you find the most comical). aussies, maybe leave the flint-knapping to us americans, i mean have you seen the clovis point? ;)

noirin being very proud of her mess, er...i mean, all those beautiful flakes haha....

this is tony (my other new irish friend) breaking some rocks.

leave it to me to go all the way to australia and make more irish friends than aussie friends. but apparently i like to do things the hard way....i mean, who else gets a handsome manfriend in america less than 2 months before leaving the country? this girl apparently :)

check out my biface!

we had a camera crew there as well, and for most of the day this was my "view" during the workshop. haha

i learned alot? (i'm ron burgendy?) i love that video clip :)

i had the coolest conversation with kim on friday morning about australian archaeology and how history is being re-written by the traditional owners/aborigines. basically the gist of it all is that the traditional owners (to's) have been mistreated for so long by white australians, that when they were finally given some power and authority to make decisions regarding how their history and land is treated, they are abusing that power. false statements about the history of specific sites is occurring, and its unclear if they are telling the wrong stories on purpose (in an attempt to keep the original history to themselves), or they dont care enough about their past to learn the correct history.

it made me really sad. it made me sad for these fantastic archaeological sites that arent being documented because they've been falsely deemed "men's sites", and since most archaeologists out here are women, they arent getting recorded. it made me sad to know the poor state of relations between the to's and archaeologists in general. but, it also made me feel like theres an opportunity for me to to make a difference. not quite sure how big or small thats going to be, but it feels like being in the middle (part brown/white, part native/scholar) is going to be a good thing.

saturday FLEW by! after i got to skype with everyone it was almost 2:00 pm. i had big plans for going running, but noirin wanted me to go with her to check out a bike that some guy was selling. we walked to the bus stop, i was busy texting shane, the bus comes, noirin hails it, it pulls over, she walks up to the door,...he takes one look at her/us, decides NOT to open the doors, and drives off. wtf? best we can figure is that:

a.) we looked like hooligans who dont belong on buses
2.)  the bus driver was on meth and had no idea that he was in fact, driving a bus
e.) the guy selling the bike was murderer and fate decided that we shouldnt go, and made us miss the bus on purpose.

alas, she was a gal on a mission and ended up with a new set of wheels anyway, courtesy of our local bike shop. man i love freo!

meanwhile i was leaping over bike racks... (honestly, dont ask, i dont have a reason lol)

i hit the town (not too hard haha) for dinner. we ate at this fantastic bar/cafe called bennys. its the spot on the left.

so fun to see all the people around, and watch the scene change from the dinner crowd to folks all dressed up and heading to the nearby clubs and bars. was enjoying myself so much that i didnt want to go home after dinner. we wandered down to the sail and anchor (which is a local brewery) and had a few frothies (yep, thats what they call beers here lol). the man at the door said i look 16 (slightly annoyed i had to dig out my id, but i guess i should flattered that i look young too?), noirin had her id out in a FLASH, which i assume to mean she was definitely flattered by the situation haha.

quick! which one is the irish arm and which is navajowegian arm?

they had a great band, and i was enjoying the music when i spotted a guy wearing almost the same shirt as me. twinning! we were talking about the random coincidence when out of nowhere an asian kid appeared came into the bar ALSO wearing our shirt. haha wtf? mint green stripies must be in right now. you heard it here first :)

sunday was lazy, but i did end it with a fantastic bike ride along the beach and a bbq with friends. the ocean smells and sunset colors were like magic. the photos dont do any of it justice, but here is one anyway.

although im living in such beautiful place, with beautiful beaches and sunsets, i'd give my left pinkie (mostly since its pretty much useless) for a powder day at brighton. miss my mountains and my home. although, light at the end of the tunnel...my sweetie is flying in on friday for ten days!!!! cant wait to have a little bit of home come to me!

 <3