the Big 10 on the palapa

Courtney and I went on our run today, and got cat-calls the entire time we were within sight of a construction site full of locals. Did the big 10 on the palapa deck and the dock. We met a guy named Moose (James) that looked like my dad in the 70’s. Well, if my dad had his 70’s look, aged 30 years. He was Caucasian, but had skin like tanned leather, and blonde/gray dreadlocks. He was riding a bicycle with no shoes on and said that if I brought my harmonica to the Roadkill Bar tonight, I could get onstage and sing.

And there we were, crashing through the narrow, dirt, potholed San Pedro streets, stacked to the top of the golf cart with beer bottles rolling out behind us, waving at every local and careening around corners screaming “woo hoo!” We blustered into the Roadkill Bar, didn’t buy drinks, and overtook the sandy dance floor. The girls in skirts, stomping and twirling, and BK and Geoff doing their best dance that boys can do.

Sang “A Whole New World” on the way back home under a full moon, and I don’t believe our rabble-rousing was appreciated by the locals.

island boy

Yeah. Laid out on the beach all damn day. Listening to some Bruce Springsteen, wind is blowin through the beachouse so hard it knocked over my bottle of tanning oil. Geoff climbed the palm tree wearing sailor boy pants and a bandanna, and came down with an armful of coconuts looking like a native. We told him he had to wear the bandanna for the rest of the trip.

thoughts on God as a freshman in college

If you find contradictions between religion and science, you are simplifying them too much. There is no contradiction. They ultimately work together. It is entirely possible for people to believe in both.

I think I gave the name “God” to forces I cannot yet explain or comprehend. It’s like a placeholder. Someday I will know more; one day I may eventually replace “God” with my own words and conclusions.

Derek was talking about the “God of the gaps.” That scientist that could see the trend in where science was going and could predict it enough to do away with the concept of God because he knew science would eventually explain it.

Derek's comment, in a nutshell (and I believe this too): "I attribute God, not to an entity, but to “what matters most” (phrase courtesy of Denny Clark). My beliefs are vague expressions of my faith. My faith is WMM: my family, caring about people, the ones I love, relationships, learning, etc. My beliefs are expressions of this faith. When my dad was sick and he miraculously recovered, the doctor said “If you believe in a God, he just graced your family today” or something like that. I don’t believe that God has the power to do these things, necessarily. God didn’t interact and switch some red blood cells around for my dad to live; he can’t just choose to interfere like that. But “he” was there. Since God is my faith, and my faith was there, he was there."

I get defensive when people start talking about God as the conventional God that I’ve grown up with, as the bearded old man in the sky. I know, and have finally reconciled, that God is actually just my concept of faith (well, everyone’s concept of faith.) I think I’ve known that for a long time (see “Mortalis Idem”), but Derek just said it again tonight and hearing it again gave it new solidity for me. It’s easier for me to talk about religion. It needn’t be as controversial as it is, or taboo. Just like sex is as simple as procreation, etc. and is taken to new taboos in our society, and politics needn’t be personal, but it’s just about who gets what, and when and who has enough power to get the majority, religion is just a paradigm from which people think.

I wish I was more articulate. Especially when talking.

On the way to Cairns

  Townsville, Australia 
Tuesday, June 21, 2005 

Last night was a little get-together at the Trebonne hotel, which I took plenty of pictures of. It's like an old-style pub, with rooms up above. Very colorful and very Italian. In fact, North Queensland has a lot of Italians. Like the Basques who came here, the Italians came to work on the sugar plantations and to work the mills. There's some photos in the album of those pictures. Next to the Trebonne Hotel in Ingham is a fronton, constructed, I presume, by Basques who missed the sports of their homeland. Bianka Balanzetegui did a presentation on it, and a lot of her research and photos came from Albert Urberuaga, who lived in Ingham. I guess he had a family here, with children named Javier and Amaia. Pedro Monasterio, a local guy, said that those Urberuagas are related to him, and also related to the Uberuagas that owned the Cyrus Jacobs-Uberuaga boarding house in Boise. So, I guess I'm related to him! Small world, eh? I got some pictures of the fronton as well. 


Gari and I danced outside, after everyone had formed a big circle around us. I think people were really happy to see dancing, especially the oldies from Euskal Herria that hadn't seen their homeland's culture in maybe 30 or 40 years. Gari did Agurra and the CD player quit working in the middle, but obviously he had it memorized so he kept dancing. Then he did another dance from Gipuzkoa using similar steps, then we did a fandango and arin-arin. I think for our next presentation, we'll do some steps from Godalet (without the wine glass), and Gari is going to teach me the Arratiako Jota (woo hoo!) We may also do a binako, even though I'll have a skirt on. I'll do girly kicks, I guess. 

Anyway, we danced a few dances, then had a steak BBQ dinner (no "shrimp on the barbie" yet) and I gave my presentation. I think next time I'll ask Gari to talk more, b/c he knows a lot about dancing that I have no idea about. I mean, I do my research, but he's innately more knowledgable about that sort of thing. He's a really intelligent guy, actually, but a lot of times he can't get his point across b/c we're all English speakers. 

After the presentation and the night was over, we went to Joan Aranas' house in Lucinda, a beach town a little farther from Ingham. They live literally 100m away from the beach. We had breakfast on their front deck this morning and were looking at the beach during breakfast. When I went down to the water, I saw this little thing that looked like a Jello jiggler. I touched it and it didn't move or bite me (it didn't have a head or anything) so I picked it up and carried it back to the house. Joan said "Oh yeah, that's a jellyfish." Ahh! I almost dropped it. She told me it was alive, but didn't bite or anything. I'll attach a picture in this entry. It was really weird b/c it didn't move.

Then Dolores picked us up and we started on our way. We stopped in Cardwell and had a traditional Australian meat pie (photo in album.) So now we're on the way to Cairns. My camera battery is low, so I don't know how many more pictures I'll take on the way there, but I'll take plenty while I'm there. Gday!

Read more: http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laelski/australia2005/1119368100/tpod.html#ixzz2Hb0XdymV

Small Performance Today

  Townsville, Australia
Saturday, June 18, 2005

Well, it's 9:09 on Sunday morning and I'm "getting ready" for a BBQ/luncheon at the clubhouse. It was supposed to be outside, but we've been getting a lot of rain (very unseasonal) so the day is looking a little dreary. But it's ok, all that means is that we'll be inside. Their clubhouse is--well, in the middle of a renovation. Yesterday we had to sweep and mop the floors for dance practice, they were so dusty and gross from plastering. There's barely running water, no working toilets, and no kitchen facilities (they do have a plan for a kitchen, but right now it's just a space.) It'll be good to see it finished, or at least as finished as it will be when I leave on July 13th.

Read more: http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laelski/australia2005/1119099960/tpod.html#ixzz2Hb0JWVps

Nice Day at the Strand

  Townsville, Australia
Wednesday, June 15, 2005

Today Dolores and Antonia took us on a tour of Townsville. She showed us James Cook University, the "uni," which is what they call college here. Instead of going off to college after high school, you go to uni. By the way, there were kangaroos jumping around outside of the uni. I tried to get good pictures, but my camera zoom lens absolutely sucks. It's ok, it makes up by taking good (6.0MP)quality pictures.


We also took a short tour of the Castle Hill suburbs in the million-dollar houses, where Joe Goicoechea, the Basque Club's president, lives. Of course, we stopped at the strand, and Gari and I both took a ton of pictures. Then we all had lunch at a restaurant along the Strand and it was nice. I had a prawn caesar salad (the prawns were fresh) and Gari ate kangaroo!

Read more: http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laelski/australia2005/1118867160/tpod.html#ixzz2Hazp9P8j

Meet-n-greet at the Basque Clubhouse

  Townsville, Australia
Wednesday, June 15, 2005

Well, we had a committee meeting tonight at the Club House (which, as it turns out, used to be a Polish clubhouse) and some tapas. They've got it pretty well organized, I think. Bego, the lady that has been my contact for the past few months, is the secretary (like me!) and sort of ran the meeting. She made sure it moved along smoothly, which was really nice b/c you know how committee meetings can run off on tangents and nothing gets done. Wow, I'm listening to Jason Mraz right now and he's really good. Mmm. Um, nothing else much is happening. Gari is here; tired, curly-haired and charming. We were both shocked to learn how hot their "winters" are. We have our ceiling fans on all the time, and I've been sleeping with no duna (blanket) and the AC on every night.


Jose and Dolores are as great as ever; Jose is crabby sometimes like an old Basco, but it's very, mmm, endearing. I asked if maybe Gari and I could borrow some bicycles, and he said gruffly in a Spanish and Australian accent (yes, both), "NO! It's too danherous por bicycles. I don't wan no problens. I don wan to bisit you at hospital, with your legs up in plaster." I laughed and asked the committee about bikes anyway.

Read more: http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/laelski/australia2005/1118799720/tpod.html#ixzz2HawZQP1p