The Gabtrotter

There is a woman, who was in a class of mine for two weeks. She also stayed in Clare College with me, her name isn’t important, because I always just think of her as the judge. The second day of class, I had noticed that the class registrar said, “judge” before her name so after that I decided to talk to her about her profession.

The judge is an old woman, I would say mid to late sixties. She cannot walk well, and does not use a cane, she must have been too proud to do so because she really could have used one. She knew a lot about all sorts of things, and one could tell that in her day she was a good looking woman, a power woman. She went to UC Berkley and then to University of San Francisco’s Law School. She told me that she went to Law School at a time where there were few women in the business, and she had received a lot of lip for it. I told her it was good that women in her generation helped pave the way for women in my generation, and it’s true. She was a lawyer during the times of Harvey Milk in San Francisco, and knew the mayor before he was shot. This woman has seen a lot, and there she was sitting in class a couple rows in front of me.

She has a husband, and her husband was with her but not in my classes. I saw them at breakfast, if there were other people at the table then they chatted. If they were alone, they didn’t say a word to each other. They usually left the table at different times, without even a word of dismissal, no “see you later honey” or anything like that. They always sat together during the mundane plenary lecture. Her husband was a finance guy in San Francisco. In their day, they really were a power couple, at least in terms of career choices.

The judge liked me; I always called her “the honorable” just because I thought it was fun. Since I had met her, I was always trying to find an opportunity to ask her about being a judge, since I am thinking about going to Law School I thought she could shed some interesting light. One day, my opportunity came.

She was a general common pleas judge, I believe. She told me that she never was bribed and that for the most part California wasn’t an area where those things happened. “That happens in the south” or “Chicago” and places like that she said. Her favorite kind of cases were corporate fraud, because there was a smart thief and it would be a puzzle to try and figure out what he or she had been doing to steal the millions.

Upon being asked some of the difficulties of being a judge she told me this story:

“When I was first starting out, I was in Small Claims Court. It’s for smaller incidents, and there aren’t any lawyers. I had this trial with an older middle-aged woman and a “kid.” When I say kid I mean someone 18 or 19. The woman was one of those bossy types, she was ordering people around my courtroom before the case and already she had started to rub me the wrong way. She was bringing the kid to court saying that he had backed into her at an intersection. Right away, I thought this case was ridiculous. How often is it that someone backs into you while driving on the road? She gets up there, and says, ‘I’m a very careful driver’ and I told her that we don’t take that into consideration and all I need to know is what happened. ‘The light turned yellow, and I stopped of course, but he backed right into me.’ Again I was thinking this is a ridiculous case… So I tell the kid to tell me what happened, and he gets up there and says ‘I did back into her, my car shifted out of gear.’ I was surprised and I asked,

‘Why are you contesting it then?’ and he told me it was because the woman was charging him for damage that he could not have possibly of done. Well, I hadn’t been taking notes on damages because I had written that case off without hearing the story. After that I always took careful notes on both sides, on everything. As a judge you never know where the story is going to go and you have to put aside your own personal judgments when you are working.”

I smiled at the judge, and told her that it was a very interesting story. I really enjoyed it. After that I didn’t really see her too much, and now she is back in California, doing what retired judges do. I will most likely never see her again. Nonetheless, her story will probably last with me forever. All this because I read the class roster and saw “judge” in front of her name.

Currently sitting in my hostel, with a sleeping French guy diagonally on top of me (I mean he’s on the top bunk next to me). Everyone else is downstairs hanging out in the lobby, I’ve done my share of that this week, and now I am here. Exploring the slue of websites I have accumulated over the years, I have come to realize that I really miss making videos; in any context. I wish I had brought stuff to edit, or my camera didn’t die, or my external hard drive wasn’t stolen. I guess my creative film odds were against me, like they were in Australia. Every camera I had broke while I was there, except for my most loyal techno-companion: the iphone. So it remains my most loyal techno-companion, I am knocking on every piece of wood I see, and I urge you to too (if anyone reads this??). I don’t really believe in the whole knocking on wood thing, but hell anything is better than nothing.

Tomorrow I am bussing south to Lagos. I am excited about it, for I plan on getting my tan on. I also want to bike around, and I have this vision of reading in the shade of gigantic ocean rocks on the beach; we’ll see if my vision comes true.

It is hard to believe that in exactly two weeks, I will be moved into Cambridge. Wow. Anxiously discussing these plans with my family and friends seems like it was just yesterday, but at the time the plans felt like they were years away. Time sneaks up on you and the predictions become the present almost faster than you had the ideas to begin with.

Even though we flew into Brisbane, Bond University is actually in Gold Coast, Australia. My junior year of high school the lacrosse team went to a lacrosse camp in Florida. The school was Eckerd College in St. Petersburg. Bond reminds me of Eckerd for it’s a small, warm and beautiful campus. There are a lot of beautiful looking people here too; in fact I think the only unattractive people I’ve seen or met have been Americans, which cracks me up.

We barely made our flight from Sydney to Brisbane, and because of that most of our bags didn’t make it. We arrived at Bond around 3PM and the total travel time took a about 36 hours. I was very tired when I arrived, but my excitement kept me alert and happy. The ladies checking me in remembered seeing my name on the list, and of course inquired about it. I just said, “my parents think they’re funny,” they laughed and I left it at that.

My room reminds me of a very simple hotel. There are two twin beds, separated by a nightstand, two desks, and a bathroom attached. I’m living right at the center of campus. I can walk up and down a flight of stairs, and I’m at the gym, where the beautiful outdoor pool is. My view is of the lake with a spouting fountain, which again, is in the middle of campus. It’s a very pretty view and it makes me feel like I’m on vacation. Actually the whole experience feels like I am on vacation and not about to start a semester of school.  My roommate’s name is Cait and she is from Massachusetts and goes to a small school called Western New England College, it’s close to where she grew up, near Six Flags New England. She seems like the ideal roommate, respectful, friendly, nice and doesn’t talk too much, but still enjoys a pleasant conversation.

Monday I spent the day trying to get organized by getting my student ID card and figuring out how my meal plan works. It’s definitely not like the NU dining hall, the Northeastern system is made for gratuitous eating. Where as here, you get a certain amount on your Bond Card and it’s up to you to make it last the whole semester.

I also spent the majority of Monday trying to get my iPhone unlocked for a pay as you go plan. Of course AT&T makes it impossible to unlock the phone, even if you are overseas. It’s a serious inconvenience. I tried calling them and they said they could unlock any phone except, the iPhone. I tried explaining that I am going to stay a faithful AT&T customer when I am in the US, but I need the phone while I’m in Australia. Well, it didn’t work. Fortunately, my friend Sarah Simon who had studied here last year, lent me her phone for the semester and that’s what I am now using as my Australian cell phone. For calls home, I am paying $12 a month for the skype global plan. I can make unlimited phone calls anywhere in the world. It’s a great deal. If you want to reach me, my phone number is 617-553-1033, and if I don’t answer just leave a voicemail and I can get back to you.

Monday evening, my friend Steph and I met a retired couple at a Chinese restaurant near campus. We started talking and next thing you know, we ended up sitting with them talking about Australia and the US and the differences and similarities. It was great fun; they even gave us a ride back to campus. The Australians are much friendlier than Americans.  Also, the restaurant we were at was BYO, which means bring your own. Any restaurant that says BYO underneath the name means that you can bring your own wine or beer. I thought that was a nice way of doing business. Also, gratuities are not expected here, which makes for a cheaper meal.

Monday night I went to a toga party. They give you a sheet to make into a toga, it’s possibly one of the most unflattering outfits I have ever worn. See for yourself:

Even though something like that isn’t typically my scene, I decided to bend my own comfort to try and have a goodtime. It was a complete unsuccess. I went with my friend Stephanie, but she’s not into that whole scene either.  I tried a Tooheys beer while at the party, it was a little bitterer than a Bud Light, and definitely not as good.

Tuesday I went to the pool and traveled to Robina Shopping Center. That was pretty cool; they had a Target there. I tried to get in, and to my dismay the store was closing; the stores close at 5PM there (except on Thursday where they have late night shopping until 9). I was disappointed by this news, and just bought some stuff at the grocery store.

Today is Wednesday and I’ve gone to the pool, listened to a local explanation of where to go to get what, and I am currently waiting for the mini-fridge we’ve rented to be delivered. Having a mini-fridge will definitely make life a bit easier.

Because Bank of America has high fees for making purchases abroad. I have decided to open an account here, with ANZ and wire money into my account. It’ll cost $35 each time I do it, but I am saving a lot of money by doing it this way. ANZ allows you to make purchases free around Australia. I still haven’t been able to figure out what my rates are for my BofA Amex card, but when I do know I’ll write about it.

Once the mini-fridge is delivered I hope to make a video tour of campus, so that way you can see what it is I am talking about.

Until then…