Querido Mexico

Reporting in at last...

In the last 4 weeks Enrique and I have traversed most of the Gulf coast of Mexico and the Yucatan Peninsula, survived the first ever Saldaña family holiday, been cleansed by shamans and soaked in the many varied sights, sounds and smells of Mexico.

Tampico is Enrique´s home town and that's we're we started off and where we´ve now returned to. Tampico (understandably)doesn´t often rate a mention in guide books. There´s quite a nice beach, teaming with life- lots of vendors trudging through the sand pushing their 3-wheeled bike/stalls, all the time breathing in the perfume of the petrol refinery 50 metres behind. The people are very friendly and Enrique has more 'aunts' and 'uncles' than I thought possible. Biological relatives or by association with the parents, all feel in their perfect right to ask when we´re going to have kids and we´ve already been told we´re not allowed back without offspring!

After a bit of a shin-dig in Tampico and catching up with E´s old mates and one of our good friends from Capoeira, Loco, we headed back to where we first met (ooohhh), Monterrey. We visited our old stomping grounds and caught up with Eric, Orlando and yet more 'tíos'.

The next chapter took us on the much anticipated Saldaña family holiday! After much rigmarole, we managed to squish the five of us in the 2-door hatchback nissan for a 6 day bonding experience through the beautiful and varied background of Veracruz (where Hernan Cortes first set foot on Mexican soil). We were 'cleansed' by shamans in a small hut in Catemaco, saw some enormous waterfalls in San Andres Tuxtla, danced along with the 'danson' dances in the zocalo of the city of Veracruz, saw the famous Olmec carved 'colossal heads' in the museum of anthropology in Xalapa (home of jalapeño chillies) and saw the 'fliers of Papantla' sailing through the air outside the Totonac ruines of El Tajín. It was a pretty busy week, particularly as half-way Enrique and I had unfortunate reactions to some very tasty, but perhaps not very hygenic, street tacos... el ultimo taco me chingo...

After more than enough family togetherness, Enrique and I escaped to the Yucatan Peninsula. It was just beautiful. We started in Merida, a very cool and laid-back city where the people are fun and friendly and you´re not considered a decent dancer unless you can spin around twenty times while balancing a drinks tray (complete with a bottle and several glasses) on your head! From there we explored the Mayan ruines of Uxmal and then Chichén Itzá (along with the crowds). They are truly impressive structures and pretty eery at night. On the Carribean side of the peninsula we swanned around in an 'eco-chic' hotel (shame job!) in Tulum and then lost ourselves in the tourist hordes in Playa del Carmen. A little overwhelming, but we had a great time lolling about on the beach, snorkelling and riding a scoooter around Cozumel.

And now we're back in Tampico.

So that's the brief outline of it, folks. We'll bore you all to tears in person with more details in the next few weeks. We'll be back in Melbourne on Saturday night (11th) and back in Katherine on the 16th.

Looking forward to seeing you all soon.

xoxoxoxox

Introducing Bill, the agile wallaby.

This is Bill. He's an agile wallaby. He's about 5 months old and likes eating fingers, hiding in fisherman-pants and doing laps of the backyard and linguists' office.

I joined the Wildlife Rescue group in Katherine a few weeks ago, sucked in by the cute furry little things and am now looking after Bill till he's ready to be released. This also gives me the right to truthfully say to any tourist "I really do have a kangaroo in my backyard"!

By the way, I'll be home for christmas, just for the week (24th-1st). Hope to catch you all down there and maybe see you at Campbell NYE party!

Never a dull moment

Never did I think I'd be saying this, but its true; there's never a dull moment in Katherine! Over the last couple of weeks I've featured in the Katherine Times several times, competed in the Grand Final of Katherine Idol, visited the Gorge, Edith falls, been to a mango party an hour out of town and done some hard-core 4WDing in and out of a remote community!

For those who haven't heard, after two weeks in town, I made the hat-trick in the local paper. Two photos and a mention in the katherine times. This paper's claim to fame is that it has the most social pages. Social pages consist of photos of anyone that stepped outside their front door sometime on the weekend while one of the 2 journos happened to be lurking. After bragging around town about instant social success, I realised there was another 'Lauren' mentioned in the paper under the 'Adult Entertainment' section of the Classifieds! Aaah! I swear its not me!

The next big event was none other than...Katherine Idol! Yep, I know you're all impressed, and yet probably not surprised to hear it was little more than a kareoke competition. The 'little more' would probably refer to me jumping up after 3 solid hours of very serious kareoke and singing a couple of capoeira songs and getting the crowd clapping along. While I did score a couple of 0's and 2's for my efforts, I was later accosted by a fan outside, telling me I had "the biggest balls in Katherine". I think it was a complement.

Two weekends ago a friend from Darwin and I went on a boat tour of Katherine Gorge. Not too many witty tales, but for those who haven't been there, its beautiful and well worth coming up here (and visiting me!) to see it.

The highlight of last weekend was an annual mango party, held just out of Pine Creek. There were dacquaris all night, mango eating competitions and a great bunch of people. Late in the night a big storm hit, which was just spectacular. Lightning all night and solid rain for several hours. The temparature might even have dropped under 30! maybe...

My last episode to brag about is the adventure in and out of Pigeon Hole, one of the communities I visit for work. The first drops of rain fell as we drove (my companion being the old Bilinarra lady I work with). not a good sign. The country music i'd been enduring was stopped and we both creased our brows at the clouds. On arrival at the turn off to Pigon Hole it looked alright, a little damp. Half an hour into the drive, I was fish-tailing about the road, sploshing through big boggy puddles and sliding off the road at regular intervals! My kindly companion pointed out the various spots where linguists had gotten bogged in the past. As we vowed never to come back at this time of year again, the community came into sight. The only appreciative audience I got for my driving tales were the other two government ladies who'd come in before us.

So it doesn't sound like I'll be going out bush too much in the near future.

Well, I hope the action-packed days in Katherine continue and I'll give you another update soon.

settling in

(I had a few problems uploading this blog last week, so its a bit dated.)

Hi gang,

Alright. This week I'm writing to you all from my new abode. The Katherine grape-vine wove its magic, and I was offered a house-sitting gig before I was offered a room to rent in this beautiful house (complete with spa!), only a couple of blocks from work and where everything else happens in this regional 'bustling' centre!

The first big week of work went really well. I've met the main language speaker for Bilinarra. A funny old lady who's been talking up long-neck turtle (for eating) and thinks I better try it on our first trip to her old community.

Come the weekend, I moved into the new digs and headed to the auction centre, wanting to acquire a bed and a bike. 4 hours of auctioning. It's like crawling through the trading post, from jousting sticks to Toranas. Well, from fijian totem poles to caravans anyway! Over 300 items! I did walk away with a bike ($10), no bed...but a bookshelf, chest of draws, 'lucky dip' box, an umbrella and a guitar!

Sunday, I finally made it to Katherine gorge! Just for a glimpse, but that'll have to do for the moment. A couple of mates and I made it in time for a quick stroll, watching the notorious territory sunset. Just beautiful.

Love to all.

Reporting in from Katherine!

Howdy southerners! Arriving in Darwin, puffy-eyed and not at my most aethsetically pleasing, full brownie points go to Elanor for picking me up at 2am from the airport. A short but sweet time was had in Darwin, getting acquainted with the creepy-crawlies that are coming out for build-up season. I've already spotted a tree-frog in the toilet, but still waiting for my first experience of frog tea (after belatedly finding one in the kettle!)
I jumped on a bus on Wednesday to Katherine.

Katherine. Hmmmm. It's small, but has perks. Hot springs, mango trees and friendly locals, to name a few. I've jumped straight into work, at Diwurruwurru-jaru Aboriginal Corporation, freaking myself out with the scope of the job. Firstly, it would be handy for me to pick up 3 or 4 languages pretty quickly. This week I'm hoping to meet up with the key language consultant for Bilinarra, a language spoken a couple of hundred k's south of Katherine (get out your atlas' and look up 'Pigeon Hole' if it's handy). In two weeks time I'm planning to go down there (with one of the other linguists at DAC, Colleen) and run a language class or two at the school. Arse into gear.

On a social note, Katherine might be a bit of a one-horse-town, but that means that when something is on, you go. Friday night I went to another linguist's party, Saturday night was the local high school's musical, and sometime this week, the Katherine Times tells me, there's a ladies' night where I can bid at the auction for a "hot male body". Great.

Saturday arvo, Colleen, a visiting friend of her's and myself did a bit of tourism. The Cutta-cutta caves were pretty cool, literally (a nice change from the 35C!) and then we drove on to Mataranka hot springs. The water is something out of the Blue Lagoon, in the middle of your stereotypical oasis, palm trees and all. Absolutely divine, apart from the putrid reek of bat poo.

Thanks to all in Melbs for getting in touch and hanging out before I left. They were a great last couple of weeks. Keep in touch and start planning your holidays up here!

Love to all,

Lauren

Going 'up North'

Believe it or not, I've got a job! A real, full-time, being paid to use my brain, job! There is one catch though, its in Katherine, NT. Of course, when you've been specialising in Aboriginal languages, the likelihood of finding a job in Melbourne was fairly remote, hence, I'm going up north.

I'll start my new job at Diwurruwurru-jaru (or Katherine Language Centre) at the end of September. The title of the position is 'South-West linguist', responsible for language documentation and language programs of the languages south-west of Katherine. If you want more detail about my employer, check out the website (via my links).

So pack your bags, kiddies, and start planning your holidays around a trip to Katherine!

My uni (student) days are over!

After six and a half years, I've finally completed my BA/BComm double degree and an honours year in linguistics. I finished on a high with a kick-arse mark on my honours thesis! Thanks to all for the support and interest. I realise its not always easy to maintain interest in dicussions of languages with complex morphology!

Anyway, two weeks after handing in my grammar, I found myself back in a lecture theatre at Melbourne Uni, but this time the tides had turned. I'm currently tutoring a first year linguistics subject.

Lauren's Blog

It's official. Lol's geeky development has progressed from spending Friday and Saturday nights working on her thesis, to getting glasses, to the use of 'emoticons' in emails, to having her own blog! Where will it end!