January 1997
Hello everyone from Down Under!
I arrived in Western Australia about four weeks ago after spending two weeks back in England. Things have been really hectic lately and I’ve had barely a moment to sit down, but it has been a lot of fun. I hope you are all well. I think of you often down here.
I just received my newest e-mail address and I want to pass it along. So, if you received a message from me in the last few days indicating that my new address is t.heinz@student.murdoch.edu.au, IGNORE it. The messages are getting through but apparently the REAL address is: t.heinz@elvis.murdoch.edu.au. I didn’t pick Elvis as the name, unfortunately.
The latest news: the trip back to England was wonderful. The two weeks were quite busy and the highlight was celebrating the Chinese New Year with my friend Yataka and other friends from All Soul’s Church in London. His roommate brought out plate after plate of Chinese food. My Australian friend Patrick and I visited Hampstead, where we saw Fraud’s house, where he lived after fleeing from Nazi-occupied Vienna. It was good closure to go back to Walhamstow again, too, and to touch base with Jenny and Katherine. I spent a brief time in Liverpool and an afternoon with John Bird (The Big Issue editor) and his family.
I started classes at Murdoch University two weeks ago. The classes are wonderful, and I found it impossible to chose! They’ll all cultural studies classes. One analyzes Asutralian food, another looks at cultural diversity, and another is examining technology and culture. I’m probably going to sit-in on a documentary class for no credit. The lecturers here ae similar to those I found at Oberlin College: challenging, down-to-earth, and intellectual. I’m REALLY going to like it here. Not to mention that Murdoch is quite left politically. This year I’m taking theory classes to get the groundwork I need to move on, but I may apply for the Ph.D. program here. We’ll see how it goes. But one thing I know for sure is that I have been dying for such an environment and theory classes for ages.
I especially think of Mary Ellen Brown down here. So many people remember you, miss you, and speak fondly of you. If you decide to ever visit or come back to WA, you’d get a wonderful reception! You’re so right: Murdoch is a unique place and I think I’m going to love it here.
I must admit that after being a post-grad student and researching on my own, it is quite strange to be back with undergrads. They all look so young, and truly they are quite a generation behind. Some other postgrads and I bemoan the fact that we barely had e-mail in college, let alone the Web, and here are these tech-savvy undergrads who grew up on alternative rock, slackers, e-mail and LATE 1980s’ music. I mention “Men at Work” and “Air Supply” to them and one looked at me like I was from another planet. Oh, yes, Paul, I saw a Boy George postcard in Murdoch and thought of you.
Remember how I said I’d have my own flat here? Well;, what a twist life is because I am once again living in a terraced-cottage house (rowhouse to you Americans here), with a single parent, and with an eight-year-old child. It is going very well so far. My room receives the early breezes from the ocean. We live in Fremantle, an old seaport town 30 minutes from Perth and 15 minutes from Murdoch itself. The banks and beaches of the Indian Ocean are a mere 10 minutes from my house, and in 5 minutes I can walk down to the Swan River at the bottom of my road to swim. I never thought I’d be caught dead in a bikini, but in temperatures like this (35/90 above everyday), it’s all you can do to keep a bikini on! A week ago, the temperature hit 46/112 and that was the hottest weather I’d ever been in.
Soon after I arrived, I bought a mountain bike and have done some biking here. There is a fair system of bike routes and paths around Perth. The downside, though, is that it is easy to run over thorns. The second day I had my bike I ran over a thorn, punctured the tire, and had to walk the entire way back to Fremantle from Murdoch (about six miles). I was not a happy person by the time I arrived home!
But Fremantle is great, my cup of tea. A plethora of antique shops, secondhand shops, ethnic food, parks, old intelligentsia, art galleries, loads of strange shops, candles, fragrant oils, and every kind of personal growth and community group imaginable. My street alone is a treasure. Clustered here and there are odd shops and galleries, and I’ve joined a community book club just down the street. Here, by the way, is my postal address and telephone:
48 King Street
Fremantle 6160
Western Australia
Australia
Telephone: (09) 339-0118
This is my own telephone line and you can leave messages, too. It’s great to be able to e-mail from home again.
Honestly, it is difficult to believe that I am thousands of miles away. Australia is quite similar to the States and I guess that the mind really doesn’t comprehend the distance. I have to remind myself that I am in another Hemisphere when I look up at night and see the Southern Cross and O’Ryan instead of the familiar skies back home. Even the moon is seen from a different angle. But it’s great to be on the south coast after being on such a Europe-centered agenda. I had a stopover in Malaysia on the way here, near Kuala Lumpur. The flight was long: 20 hours in the air. By the time I arrived, I walked into a furnace and slept for about a week.
That’s probably about it for now. Plans include some short hikes in the bush around this area, a possible trip to Adelaide in July, and a trip to the eastern states sometime later this year, and a trip to fulfill my dream of going to New Zealand. A lot depends on school, time, and money. I have a new job every fortnight as a mother’s helper for an Australian family with a new baby. It’s fun. I’ve applied for some research work at Murdoch in the Centre for the Study of Communication and Culture. Stil waiting to hear if I get paired with someone.
To anyone who has access to the web andor can receive visual files, I plan to have a web page and some photos online at some point. The other option is to send GIFS to anyone who can receive them. Let me know if you have such access and you’ll see a bit of Australia.
Anyway, take care and keep in touch! Hope the new e-mail address works okay for everyone. If you have problems in replying, let me know by writing to my old address:
t.heiz@ic.ac.uk.
Take care and keep warm up there in the north
Teresa
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