My weekend with three Aussie men

BLIND DATE

One of my friends at law school has a friend who lives in Brisbane (which is a city an hour north of where I live). When my classmate found out I was coming to Australia for the summer, she was excited for me to spend time with her friend, Esteban. So I talked to Esteban on the phone a couple of times while still in the states and we have been emailing since I arrived, and we decided to finally meet up on Saturday. Friday night we spoke on the phone and he told me to meet him at a train station in Brisbane Saturday morning at 10 a.m.

Of course, the problem was that we’d never met. How were we to find each other? I had seen a picture of him, and he had been emailed a photo of me by our mutual friend. And so I am sitting in the food court of the train station on Saturday, feeling like I was first meeting some man I’d met through a dating service, and wishing I had worn some sort of ‘BYU’ clothing so that he could more easily identify me – or at least told him “I’ll be the girl in the red sweater reading the Great Gatsby” or something!

After waiting for a bit, I see two guys looking around the food court, and I figured they must be the guys I was to meet. But they didn’t approach me – and I thought I was the more obvious one, sitting alone reading - so I just continued waiting and reading. Shortly thereafter the two men were gone, and I decided they weren’t the ones I was to meet and I would just wait. But then they reappeared! And I finally saw them sitting at another table eating – also appearing to be wasting time. So finally – it had been about half an hour by now – I approached them and said “are you Esteban?” (hoping – oh so desperately hoping – that it was) and then they both laughed (a bad sign?) and finally Esteban said “yes” – and then made some comment on how he hadn’t recognized me because in the photo he was given my hair was straight (see photo - I really look that different, huh?) and now it was curly. Ahh – perhaps there is a downside to my not bringing my hair straightener with me to Australia for the summer!

THE ACCENT

My newfound friends and I then went shopping for a bit – they just moved into a new apartment and were in need of some furniture. We were in some storage store and walked by the employees, and apparently shortly thereafter one of the employees started doing an American accent and saying every American phrase he could think of, such as “look Mom, no hands”. This exasperated one of the guys that an employee was mocking the accent of one of his customers. I, on the other hand, was immensely curious to hear an Australian try to do the American accent.

As a side note, I don’t think I could any longer fake an Australian accent. I could my first few days here, but now I really couldn’t even tell you what an Australian accent is because everyone sounds so different! I guess that is a sign I really am getting used to it. Their accent is normal.

STAR WARS

I finally gained the utmost respect and admiration from these guys when it came up that for the entire month of May 2005 I thought of nothing but STAR WARS. This was recently reminded to me by my friend Briahna, who at the time of my obsession was my co-worker. She told me how she would come into my office only to be greeted by “I’ve been thinking…” and then for me to go off on some tangent about a Star Wars theory I had, or the politics of Star Wars, etc. It’s true – it was short, and it was sudden, but I was obsessed. I would daily search msn.com and cnn.com for articles about the upcoming episode III, and then after I saw it (on opening day) I wanted to read more.

I will say I have never enjoyed a movie like I enjoyed episode III, and I think mostly because I was a well-informed consumer. I knew who every character was and understood what they were talking about. But the obsession – ahh – it was bad. Even to the point that I was reading in Alma and was struck so much by the great parallels to STAR WARS that I almost wrote “Anakin” in the margins. Luckily I refrained, thinking that someday I might regret that. But I did tell my friend Chad all about it, and even opened up my Book of Mormon to read that part to him. He saw the parallel.

The obsession died after I watched “The Star Wars Holiday Special”. Even though I knew George Lucas had requested that every copy of this 1978 made-for-T.V. movie be destroyed, I still hoped somehow that it would be good, if for no other reason than it was Star Wars. And yes, the half-hour “wookie” conversation between Chewbacca’s family members was touching (no subtitles!! How am I to translate wookie?!?) – and Princess Lea’s vocal solo at the end was great (but not as great as Bea Arthur’s cameo – wow). But – luckily? – this really, really bad movie cured my short-lived obsession.

ALL BY MYSELF

The law building at BYU is at most a 3-minute walk to the BYU food court (a.k.a. “the CougarEat” a.k.a. “kitchen”). Which is why it is so odd that I often would forgo eating in favor of staying at the law school. Yes, undoubtedly most of that is related to my “addiction to studying” (which is far, far worse than the whole Star Wars fiasco). But another reason I would opt to not eat over walking to the CougarEat is because I couldn’t find anyone to go with me. Yes – you see – I am a recovering “I don’t like to do things alone” person.

Which is why it is SO amazing that on Friday for the first time ever I went to a movie in the movie theaters ALONE. And enjoyed it.

But on Saturday I was challenged to a far, far greater task. Esteban encouraged me to go eat at a restaurant alone. I haven’t been to a restaurant since I came to Australia, mostly because I’m really cheap, and I look at the sole purpose of going out to eat as social – otherwise, I can get full from eating a sandwich at my apartment for 1/10 of the cost. But I’m up for the challenge of going out alone. So get excited. I’m doing it soon. And I think I’m going to go to an amusement park by myself, too. There are tons of them around here, and I think that would be the ultimate challenge.