#I definitely lost my Appalachian accent

[lambiewrites]

got this idea from @xxshadowbabexx hehe ✨

Warning: none, fluff tho

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Would they like me? Part 1

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Captain Price: well yes and no. I’m polite and well mannered but, I am very loud and obnoxious. Not in a whiny, bratty way but in a “I have no thoughts and no singular brain cells” way. Book smart not common sense smart. I have called this man “papaw” since I met him and even though he’s like 40, he’s still papaw. I consistently ask to come to his office because I feel like it’s a comforting little place, minus the cigar smoke. Price has asked about my southern/Appalachian accent more than enough times. I can tell him about mountain life. But he needs a break from me, are you kidding?! I talk way too much and ask stupid questions so, it’s 50-50. But at least I do what I’m told and well mannered.

Gaz: it depends. I really like Gaz and he seems so sweet and kind and polite. I feel like we would get along very well, until I don’t stop talking and he doesn’t know how to shut me up. I get this really strange vibe that he’s a marvel fan and so we can talk about that. I feel like he really likes Spider-Man (all of them) and so we could talk about that. Definitely would call him and say, “did you see that new trailer?” We like each other’s instagram pictures and we wish each other a happy birthday on our socials. I’d bake for him. We’d have sad boy hours together so, yeah I really think so but, I know I’m too loud for him.

Soap: bestie you already know the answer to this one and my answer is 100% yes. We both have big families (everyone headcannons him as having a giant family yeah?) lots of nieces and nephews we could bond over. We’d both try to understand each other thru our thick accents. (Him being Scottish and my southern one-) and it would be a delight! We both ramble and I’d listen to all his fun little stories. I’d follow him around like a lost puppy until he told me to give him space. I’d share a Dr.Pepper with him and cook for him. It would be the best time ever. Bestie for life. We gossip together and doodle together.

Ghost: hmmm, see here’s the thing. I have this feeling that’s like “yeah you’d hate me at first” and we’d just assume we hated each other at first until we have sad boys hours and just sit in absolute painstaking silence for hours. He’d hate me, I know he would because I’d get all “counselor” on him. (Hey I paid lots of money for that degree okay?!) and he wouldn’t be able to get rid of me but, I’d respect his boundaries (obviously) and give him his space (obviously) but he’d find little stupid notes with my handwriting on it being like, “you’re my hero.”, “take it easy”, “have a good day.”, “love you.” (Platonically), “you’re worthy” blah blah blah. He’d hate it so much. He’d throw them away at first but, later on, he’s kinda like “I hate this kid but why is she the way that she is? How can she see something or someone like me and actually like me?!” It gets the gears turning. Would I be a therapist? I would.

Laswell: I follow her around like she’s my own mother. She hates me for it but, it’s good to have another set of eyes. (Mine don’t work) we’re chill. That’s all we do is just chill and relax. It’s hard having so much testosterone around 24/7. We’re out and about. Having mommy-daughter day. Am I crying? I am, how’d you know? We talk about married life. She tells me about her wife, I tell her about my husband. We have dinner at each others house. We show each other our pet pictures.

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A/n: I am very much an extrovert and very loud and bubbly. I am an ENFP and I do have my counseling degree so, combine that into some sort of personality as you will and make your own assumptions ❤️ this was all for fun and feel free to comment or something that would be fun and great! Please be nice though 😭❤️.

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[petruchio]

Also can we talk about those little Appalachian culture moments?

I actually grew up there (Chattanooga outskirts, so not SUPER Appalachian, but enough LOL) and when we moved to the Midwest I suddenly realized that traits I’d never considered before were betraying me! Specifically how I talked! Like even my most professional voice sounded so painfully Tennessee Valley-Appalachian and it was incredibly othering.

I never considered how Lucy Grey would definitely have an accent until she opened her mouth in the Capitol and suddenly had such a noticeable one!!! I felt so seen!! You never think about how you talk at home, you’re just normal. Until suddenly you’re an outsider every time you speak. It’s a moment I’ve felt before, and it was extremely effective on-screen!

Then when Coryo comes to 12 the inversion of that is incredibly fulfilling - especially the bar scene!

When Maude ivory jumps on stage and announces the next set and it’s almost unintelligible, I about lost it!!!! It was so funny, and I felt so seen again! Like yeah that’s exactly like what that feels like lmao! You bring your boyfriend home and he literally can’t understand your family’s dialect 😭😂 (and also he’s now painfully aware of just how much you change your voice to be understood)

I thought that was great and really added to the feeling of Coryo and Lucy’s respective othering in each other’s communities!

YES!

i LOVED lucy gray's accent -- in my head i always imagined her sounding kind of like dolly parton (i think it's something about the way the scene in the hob is written -- something about her dialogue just sounds so dolly-ish to me) and i loved that they really leaned into it (and it supports my theory that part of the reason jlaw and jhutch were cast in the og movies is bc they're both from kentucky, even if they don't have super strong accents, haha!)

and i feel like it really emphasizes one of my personal favorite themes from tbosas which is the way political resistance is woven into the fabric of american folk music and so much of that tradition does grow out of appalaicha and the particular and specific music tradition of that area. (and why me and the queen herself rachel zegler are both galaxy brains for putting bob dylan on our lucy gray baird fanmix playlists because bob dylan is one of the foremost figures in the american folk revival movement of the 1960s and so much of his songwriting derives from appalachian folk traditions!) (well technically miss rachel put a joan baez cover of dylan on her playlist but, like, she gets it; it's all about folk music and politics and art as revolutionary)

[livingfictionsystem]

Familial Grief with D.I.D.

Our father died suddenly more than a week ago. He was never abusive or nothing. He bordered on neglect at times and definitely favored the cis het sports-loving younger son more than us, which messed us up a bit. Still, I loved the dude, so I was a wreck.

He died in his sleep at 5-fucking-9. Who does that? Well, he was on the heart transplant list and just never fucking told us. Was in the ER last month, right before I last visited, never told a soul. I could kick his ass for that.

He was a cool, smart, funny guy that just couldn't relate to his fucked up kid with multiple personalities and substance issues. But we did always send each other music recs. He used to be my 'Call a friend' whenever my bar wanted to hear weird shit.

Xanthe actually does not feel related to the body's family at all. They've made friends with Mom and Dad over the years, had talked to them, got used to their quirks. But to them, they're almost like coworkers---like bummed, but not heartbroken. This wasn't a part of their childhood. My parents didn't raise Xanthe, the brain/inworld did. Vex and Phisoxa are Xanthe's parents. So, for the past two weeks, dealing with the grief and the trip to Ohio and the funeral and all, they've been mostly switched out.

It's a family thing, and Xanthe knows it isn't their bag. We're still being called Xanthe, even though we're Xhaxhollari, Rune, and Sparrow.

They'll check in on Xhax, Rune, and I, ask how we're holding up. They're here for advice and social protection (i.e., how to stand up for myself around relatives without Making A Scene.)

I've been almost front-stuck since I found out. Mainly because I have to stay with my mom and her extremely chatty ass is a sensory nightmare for Xhax. I'm reconnecting with the Appalachian side of my family---my OG accent is coming back.

I didn't post anything about it on main because, no offense, y'all can be dicks sometimes and I didn't want you to inbox us rude shit about it while we're still fragile. But. Yeah. We lost our dad. It sucks.

-Sparrow

[genderqueerpositivity]

February 13th, 2022 -> 11 months on testosterone

I haven't done a single side-by-side photo comparison in the past 11 months. I haven't felt the need to, but I'm beginning to be curious? I may do this for myself at one year. I've tried to stop impatiently looking for changes, and I've definitely tried to stop comparing myself to other people's transition timelines online. When I do try to compare my self to others, I've found that comparison really is the thief of joy.

Mostly when I look in the mirror I just see me, a little more hairy and with a little more acne. My hairline is a little different, and maybe my hair is a little thinner at the front around my forehead.

But I don't see any major differences. At the same time, my neurodivergent ass has no actual memory of what I used to look like. I know that I didn't always have this hair on my belly but I am literally incapable of remembering what my body looked like without it. There's no mental picture that goes along with the memory. Which is cool honestly, but also I think this contributes to me feeling like I haven't seen many effects from testosterone.

I also stopped using the voice pitch analyzer app months ago. I no longer have any of the recordings I made of my voice week one and in the early months because I lost everything on my phone last year. So I really don't have much to compare to except the screenshots from the voice app that I posted on this blog.

I know that I sound different and I enjoy the change. I like my voice now. I disliked my voice pre-T and I absolutely hated hearing my voice recorded. The first memory I have of that was being in a video in sixth grade at school (so on an actual video tape) and crying after we watched the video together as a class. I specifically remember not recognizing the voice in that video as my own. I don't know if I was really aware of what I sounded like to other people before that? But after that I always carried that feeling of not recognizing or owning the voice that came out of my own mouth. I avoided being recorded, hated giving speeches, hated talking on the phone, would never sing in front of anyone willingly again.

I grew up being made fun of for the way that I spoke. I remember being asked where I was from many times, all the way through school and into college, even though I had lived in the same town for all of my life (minus the first few weeks after I was born) up to that point. I was born in an Appalachian state and somehow ended up with a very strong accent in spite of living there a very short time; even my parents occasionally still tell funny stories about not being able to understand what the fuck I was saying as a kid.

Being uncomfortable with the sound of ones own voice is a terrible thing; while I like the sound and depth of my voice now, I'm still working on liking the way I speak. Testosterone has eased the gender dysphoria. Having moved to Appalachia a few years ago, people now ask me which local high school I went to and are surprised when I say that I didn't grow up here. But I'm still working on being okay with the way that I speak and use words, and with echolalia and my vocal stims. Trying to sound neurotypical is unfortunately necessary at times, but I'm never going to be "good" at that, you know?

I've spent almost a year medically transitioning in plain sight but also in secret. It's been weird and rewarding. I feel a great deal of ownership over my own body--this is mine to do what I choose with. Only telling the few people in my life who I know will be 100% supportive has given me the space to figure out my own feelings and enjoy the process of transitioning--without having to deal with the confusion or hatred that would inevitably come if I told those who I know wouldn't be fully supportive.

Honestly, at first keeping this mostly to myself felt dishonest. Now it feels necessary. I'm protecting myself and ensuring I have a good experience transitioning and good memories of the process. People who wouldn't be supportive don't deserve to know or be involved, no one is entitled to this part of my life. This is my body, my decision, my transition, my future.

Maybe it's odd, but the less physical dysphoria I have, the less social dysphoria I have. It matters less if you don't believe that I'm trans because I know that I am. I still want to change my name once I've found my middle name. I still wish that I could count on my pronouns being respected all the time. But someone else being wrong about who I am doesn't change who I am. And anyway, existing in this weird space between the binary genders isn't entirely uncomfortable to me?

One thing testosterone therapy has done is make me more certain that medically transitioning is right for me. I'm not really sure where to begin with the process of top surgery or hysterectomy, but I'll be working on it. Within the next year I'm working on changing several things in my life, so we'll see what happens.

[adelaidedrubman]

Basil & Apple Blossom (Jenna), Daisy & Holly (Lela), Nasturtium & Zinnia (Jestiny)?

tysm amanda 💕💕 i loved these

basil :   does your muse have a love - hate relationship with anyone or anything ?

not really in present circumstances, she's definitely the most emotionally balanced of my ocs and tends to view things more even handedly than running hot and cold, taking things in stride. but prior to eden's gate, i would say they had a love/hate relationship with academia (perhaps why she dropped out of grad school to join a cult). she loved learning new things, making discoveries, and exploring ideas, but hated the red tape and jumping  through hoops (hey jenna hey jenna they're called ethcis boards and they exist for a reason), the funding crunches, and the publish or perish cycle.

apple blossom :   how does your muse go about expressing or not expressing their sexuality ?  

they're fairly reserved personality wise, so not very overtly sexual, but she definitely doesn't shy away from discussing sexuality if it comes up. she's very open about being a lesbian, and if interested in someone sexually doesn't hesitate to ask. sexual intimacy is important to her, a very valuable part of the human experience. (she plays along with a lot of eden's gate customs she doesn't really believe in, but not the celibacy ones.) potential partners should expect a lot of subtle, gentle flirting and understated flattery preceeding a very blunt proposition.

daisy :   did your muse ever feel as though their innocence had been lost ?   what moment in their life could be described as the end of their innocence ?  

hmmm, lela has an "i'm no longer the naive girl i was before" moment like, every day. she considers the onset of some of her medical conditions to be a turning point in which she was no longer living a charmed life. her indoctrination into eden's gate was also a turning point in which she considered herself becoming strong and giving up her past cushy life. learning about some of the less mystical aspects of the cult is probably her closest to a true loss of innocence moment.

holly :   how strong is your muse’s sense of intuition ?  are they aware of it ?   do they ever fear that it is only paranoia ?  

horrid, she joined a cult and fell for a lot of snake oil before that. she's gullible, beneath all the gruffness and intimidation she's ultimately far too trusting, she has terrible instincts in devoting herself to leaders and she will make the same mistake over and over again, thank you!

nasturtium :   describe your muse’s relationship with their birthplace ,   or homeland .  

jestiny spent very early adulthood being a little ashamed of her appalachian roots — it may seem very out of step with the jessie as we see her in her main canon, but when she first went to university she hid her accent, mannerisms, and background. the "J.E. Rook" thing was something she started when doing college applications because she thought her full name sounded "too yeehaw". probably hard to tell as written, but her accent now is actually fairly faded, she just chooses to use the speech patterns she uses. jessie still has a complicated relationship with her hometown (she misses the place, but not always the people), but she's no longer ashamed of it. one of the very few things she's grown up about.

zinnia :   how has the loss of fallen comrades and/or loved ones affected your muse ?   has it taught them anything or given them any new perspectives ?

so, in terms of comrades, during the reaping jessie feels very guilty about the fact she's considered important and a priority to be protected by both sides, and losing allies really spikes that guilt and probably leads her into more risky situations. for loved ones, well. losing her mother on night one certainly made her go full batshit a little more quickly. (although as im sure y'all can tell, she's kinda using that as an excuse to be unhinged.)

[genvieve-of-the-wood]

Well, I Declare-That Ole Orange Varmint Has Forced Me to Use the Biggest Southern Idioms !

Well, bless your heart

and your

head

big and full as a tick.

You are some kinda

prize at the fair,

I reckon.

But, Law-

how you do pitch

a hissy fit!

Hollerin’

and complainin’

about election results,

now.

You get up every morning

thinking the sun shines

right out of your

ass,

and when someone points out

it don’t

all you do is carry on

and raise Cain,

making a public spectacle

and gathering more sheep

to that creek rising,

craving to hear them proclaim

“Aren’t you precious!”

You are truly

a flim flam man,

selling your snake oil sideshow

and your high falutin’ fakery

to those who think

your oiliness

is next to godliness.

You yell about fraud

and if that ain’t

the pot calling the kettle black,

I sure as hell don’t know what is.

What you know wouldn’t

amount to a hill of beans.

We all voted you out

because we wouldn’t spit

on you if you were

on fire.

(And Y’all need to

stop satisfying this foolish man’s

insatiable

hankering for attention.)

You showed your true character

and as Memaw would say

“such an ugly man!”

Now, go on!

Git!

Hush your mouth!

Takin your own sweet time,

about that, I see.

Must be those britches

you’ve grown too big for.

A Dawdlin’ Donnie.

Well, I guess

like a true Southerner

would say

in all cordial sincerity -

I’ll pray for you.

@genvieve-of-the-wood December 3, 2020

*My relatives and I do not use our idioms in this wasteful and gluttonous way. I’ve lost most of my accent except for either I become super angry and caught off guard or gathering with relatives. Also, there are differences in Appalachian slang( where most of my folks come from)Alabama and Louisiana slang, Texas, Atlanta versus Georgia slang, etc. Sometimes Southerners misunderstand each other in conversation. And in case you haven’t noticed, we are all most definitely NOT supporters of the Orange Mussolini wannabe cult.

[headspace-hotel]

my mom and I both read Hillbilly Elegy over the past few weeks and she has...thoughts

basically, this book is the extremely popular memoir of a guy whose grandparents grew up in eastern Kentucky and whose life was profoundly affected by the problems (e.g. drugs and dysfunction relationships) his family passed down to him. Now I’m not going to say someone’s actual lived experience is invalid, but then he tries to be like “this is what Appalachia, and the people of Appalachia, are like and why” without...really...being from Appalachia.

for perspective, this would be like *my* kid writing a book claiming to have like, insight or something into Appalachia. bc my mom Actually grew up there. She’s more qualified to write a memoir about it than this dude and if she did she wouldn’t generalize her experience to everyone.

so this book is really popular among liberals and I guess academia? my friend had to take a class on Appalachian history and her teacher used to reference it all the time. And it’s weird that liberal people are obsessed with it because this guy blames a lot of the regions problems on personal choice and “laziness,” which is a typical conservative explanation. The guy is a conservative, he explains this, he doesn’t think welfare programs help people. Et cetera.

Everybody who hasn’t actually grown up in Appalachia seems to like this book and people who have are very critical of it. And that should be a problem, since the *author* didn’t even grow up there, shouldn’t it? But it’s still a wildly successful book

My mom was talking about the domination of race in discussions about privilege. She told me, someone who didnt receive a good education growing up, whose parents were drug addicts, who struggled with malnutrition, isn’t going to be Privileged just based on being white. And I guess obviously we all rush to say well white privilege doesn’t mean that and you can have white privilege while having other problems, but do we actually believe that or do we bring it up in this specific conversation?

Because it’s just so suspect that this book, which blames people for their drug addiction and brings up anecdotal evidence that welfare fraud is widespread, is so well liked among people who normally wouldn’t believe things like that.

It’s almost as if people really do hate the poor, except that it’s not acceptable to hate poor people of color, and our ideas about racial privilege allow us to place the fault for their poverty on their oppression due to their race, but when it comes to poor white people, people bounce back to It Must Be Just Their Fault alarmingly fast. And their classism just comes roaring out because there’s an acceptable target for it.

I just feel like if these same people didn’t Have To feel sympathetic toward immigrants and poor POC to be accepted at the table of ideas and believe that their racial identities contribute to their lot in life, they’d hate them (the immigrants and people of color) just as much. Because deep down they see lack of education and nutrition and wealth as some symptom of something within a person, not within society, and if there isn’t a Reason for a person being poor, their minds revert back to the idea that some people just...are rotten.

Or something. I’m trying to explain it in my own head.

It’s totally contrived that making fun of poor health and education among Appalachians is acceptable and among anyone else it’s not. Seriously.

Race based oppression is definitely a cause of poverty but that doesn’t mean that anyone who is poor and not oppressed based on a group they belong to just deserves it. That’s classism. If we really pay attention to the ideas that we espouse, we’ll realize that under them poverty is never a moral failing even if you DO make “bad decisions,” it’s a symptom of the dysfunctionality of our way of life.

Prejudice against people who simply are poor and work with their hands is real. It’s why my mom totally lost her accent in college—it associated her with one of those people who do dirty and back breaking labor and who typically don’t go to college. Prejudice related to one’s speech is typically associated with immigrants and Black ppl wrt AAVE, but Appalachian dialects—which are distinct from “southern accents,” btw, and often need to be subtitled in documentaries for unaccustomed ears—receive some kind of prejudice too. They’re a relic of Scotch-Irish immigrant speech, iirc, and obviously associated with the poor working class. Both of those are probably reasons.

Usually people justify all this with “the south is racist/homophobic” or whatever and that’s still a part of the poisonous idea that poverty is deserved, is ever deserved. An entire region doesn’t deserve lack of access to adequate food, health care, and education because they’re stereotypically associated with being racist. That’s...so ridiculous I shouldn’t have to say it. Hell, maybe if they had access to educated and the ability to travel the racists could learn better.

[blackswaneuroparedux]

Anonymous asked: Occasionally, when I travel to England I have a hard time understanding a person's accent.  Granted, I speak Californian, but I was wondering do you ever have a difficult time understanding a person with an American accent ? Thanks

Actually I don’t for the simple reason of how deeply embedded American popular culture is through the film and television shows that one can’t avoid. But speaking for myself I am well traveled and I have been in quite a few parts of the United States for work or vacation reasons - genuinely admire the genius of the American Founders (they were educated as English gentlemen and some were even educated as Classicists) and the landscapes are breath taking.

I love the cosmopolitan flavours of New York and the down to earth humour of New Yorkers themselves; I am charmed by the preservation of civility and manners of the South; I respect the indivudual and community frontier spirit of those in the Mid West. But I have to confess California remains a mystery to me. I know not everyone speaks like a stoned Keanu Reeves but I find it far too laid back for my tastes. That is not to say I don’t understand the way they speak because I do by virtue of having friends from there. The only time I had difficulty understanding anyone was in Boston when I went to give an academic paper there at Harvard. I just found the Boston accent terribly hard to follow.

This is ironic when you really think about the issue of English and the origin of American English began in New England.

The first English people to colonise the land that would become the United States came over in 1607, and they brought the English language (and accent) with them to New England. So most of us can picture the idea of the original Pilgrims talking like Benedict Cumberbatch only to have their future descendants talk like Keanu Reeves.

Except it’s not true.

Afew years ago I had a friend who was a Shakespearian scholar at Cambridge where we both studied and he surprised me once over dinner. He told me that the modern American accent is a lot closer to how English used to be spoken than the British accent is.

The main difference between the British accent and the American one is rhoticity, or how a language pronounces its "Rs." What you might think of as standard American (or "newscaster voice") is a rhotic accent, which basically means "R" is enunciated, while the non-rhotic, stereotypical English accent drops the "R" pronunciation in words like "butter" and "corgi".

Of course, there are a few American accents that drop the "R," too — Bostonians "pahking the cah in Hahvahd Yahd," for example, or a waitress in the South who calls you "Suga.'" And some accents in Northern England, Ireland, and Scotland retain their "Rs" as well.

But Americans didn't find a treasure trove of Rs in their new country.

Instead, British speakers willingly lost theirs. This is where it gets interesting.

Around the time of the Industrial Revolution, many formerly lower-class British people began to find themselves with a great deal of money, but a voice that instantly marked them as a commoner. In order to distinguish themselves from their lowlier roots, this new class of English gentlemen developed their own posh way of speaking. And eventually, it caught on throughout the country.

It's called "received pronunciation," and it even influenced the speech patterns of many other English dialects — the Cockney accent, for example, is just as non-rhotic but a lot less hoity-toity.

Meanwhile, English-speakers in the United States, for the most part, did not change with the times and kept the Rs in their speech.

Although pronunciation has changed on both sides of the Atlantic, some Americans began claiming that their particular regional dialect is actually the original English pronunciation, preserved for all time in a remote pocket of the country. Unfortunately, most of these claims don't really pan out. Indeed sholars now believe many have tis idiosyncratic speech as a result of isolation instead. One popular candidate is the Appalachian accent, which is distinguished by some archaic words such as "afeared," but otherwise doesn't seem to have much connection to the language of Shakespeare.

But on the topic of English speakers making a conscious choice to drop their Rs, there was an interesting blip in linguistic history around the time that radio became popular.

Like received pronunciation, the ‘Mid-Atlantic or Transatlantic Accent’ was deliberately invented to serve a purpose. You almost certainly don't know anybody who speaks it, but you've definitely heard it before. It's the voice of Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn, and Pierce Brosnan (Bahnd, James Bahnd).

In the Transatlantic accent the Rs are dropped, the Ts are articulated, the vowels all softened to an erudite drawl. It's also an ambiguous combination of the British and American accents.

Taken together, all of the factors made it the perfect voice for broadcasting at the time. The unique pronunciation was easy to understand even on early audio equipment with poor bass frequencies and could appeal to listeners in multiple English-speaking countries. But it fell out of favor after World War II, and one of the first accents to be immortalised on audio recording was consigned to another piece of wartime nostalgia. Today it’s confined to British film stars who make their living in the US.

As an aside when I was a small child growing up in India my parents insisted we enunciated properly and spoke clearly that was the Queen’s English. And that is indeed how I speak to this day but I was helped by the surrounding Indian culture because they also spoke the Queen’s English. This was simply because they retained the English language textbooks from the days of the British Empire (even to this day). 

The rich irony wasn’t lost on me when I had a hard time going back to England because - outside of my boarding school environment and social circles - I just couldn’t always understand the many commoner regional accents in England that were now coming back in vogue. It’s everywhere now especially on the BBC. So in effect it is Indians (and Pakistanis) who are preserving what we have been burying for some decades now. I remember how shocked my well educated friends from India or Pakistan who came to study at Cambridge or Oxford to find the way they spoke naturally with the Queen’s English was now considered a quaint anachronism in this Age of championing regional diversity.

I think the erosion of the Queen’s English is a travesty as well as a tragedy. To speak ‘proper’ English is considered elitist and privileged. To me it’s just a sign of civilised discourse. Of course there is a place for regional accents and they should be preserved because it is part of the tapestry of our culture but I fear it has been at the expense of clarity of speech and the coherence of thought.

Thanks for your question.

[aliathehobbit]

Sorry for not blogging for a while! I would use assignments and the end of the semester as an excuse, but I’ve also done some fun stuff. It’s crazy to think that my time in the Land Down Under is almost over. I only have about 3 weeks left, then to Indonesia, and then home to start my summer classes at App State. It’s been the most enjoyable and amazing wild ride of my life. It has gone by so fast and I’ve loved every minute of it. I’ve met so many wonderful people from many different places. I’ve seen so many gorgeous sights, but I’m not done! Starting today, I will go to Cairns with Brianna, Eunice, and Kate (snorkeling! 5/27-5/31), back to Lismore, then Adalaide with Alex (6/2-6/6), Sydney (6/6-6/8), Brisbane to meet mom (6/8-6/11), Melbourne (6/11-6/14), Brisbane, Lismore to pack up, Brisbane again, Bali (6/18-6/21), Jogjakarta (6/21-6/29), Bali again (6/29-7/1), then back to the US of A! I’m so excited for all of these travels and I am beyond fortunate and very grateful to have the opportunity to see all of these amazing places. I cannot thank my parents, the Wilson Scholars team, and Appalachian State enough for supporting me financially and academically. This has been the journey of a lifetime. Also, Happy Ramadan to my Muslim friends and family.

With the exception of a few points, this article is so true about studying abroad in Australia: https://www.buzzfeed.com/laraparker/things-only-people-who-studied-in-australia-understand?utm_term=.pbpkRVxjW

Also, new Wilson Scholars newsletter: https://issuu.com/appalachianstateuniversity/docs/summer17_wilson_newsletter

Here’s what I did from May 10 to now…

Wed, May 10: Class, free lunch, and cheer as usual.

Thu, May 11: Made some pancakes to share with the roomies, grocery shopping, socialized around Orion.

Fri, May 12: A bunch of the international students from Lismore and Gold Coast campuses met with the head of SCU international on campus at the unibar and talked with him. Orion was pretty dead that night because so many people were away traveling.

Sat, May 13: I watched the SCU Goldrats play rugby with Alex, Liv, and Gabi. It started raining about halfway through the game, but they kept playing and we lost in the end. I spent some time with Hailey and other friends in Orion before heading to The One, the only nightclub in Lismore. We danced the night away!

Sun, May 14: I wished my lovely mother a Happy Mother’s Day and did some school work.

Mon, May 15: Since we don’t have class on Mondays, Alex and I went to Byron Bay for the day. It was gorgeous, so we spent about half of the day on the beach and the other half walking around the town and looking in various shops. Byron Bay has a lot of beautiful street art and amazing restaurants.

Tue, May 16: Class, gym, and planned my weekend in Gold Coast.

Wed, May 17: I interviewed the manager at the bank of campus for my communications class. I had class and free lunch as usual. There was a “Stress Less” day sponsored by the equivalent of student government at SCU. There was free henna and fairy floss (cotton candy) and there was an LGBTQ+ thing going on with a gorgeous drag queen. That evening, I went to the shopping center with Alex because she left for camping the next day. Abby and Rachel (exchange students from Minnesota) came with me to cheer and we had a lot of fun!

  Thu, May 18: Basically spent the whole day working on my Sociology essay and met with my group to turn in our project for Management.

Fri, May 19: I spent most of the day finishing my sociology essay before hopping on a bus to Gold Coast (Surfers Paradise). I met Ben from Sydney there and we had a fun night on the town. I got to try a Halal Snack Pack, which is basically kebab meat on a bed of fries with sauce. Apparently they became popular after Pauline Hanson (an Australian politician) spoke out against them because she does not support Halal food certification. I think this has to do with Islamophobia. Very interesting…

Sat, May 20: I spent some time at the beach with Ben, and then we went to a Gold Coast Titans rugby game. It was a different type of rugby than the Christchurch Crusaders. I still don’t really understand rugby, but it’s fun to watch live because of the crowd atmosphere. We went for a swim before going out again. There was a lot of live music and fun places to go in Surfers Paradise. I’m amazed at how many American accents I heard that night. Gold Coast is definitely a tourist hub with people from all over the world partying every weekend.

Sun, May 21: It was another beautiful day at the Gold Coast. I had pancakes for breakfast and some energy drink flavored gelato for a snack. We went up the Skypoint tower, which had 360 degree views from 322 meters up. I love seeing cities from high up. So far, I’ve been to observation decks like this in NYC, Boston, Sydney, and Gold Coast. I think seeing Paris from the top of the Arc de Triomphe counts also. Afterwards, we went to Pacific Fair (a huge shopping center) for lunch and then to the Broadbeach Blues Festival. There were a bunch of different stages with various performers. We wandered among several of them and there were some really talented musicians there. I got to watch the sunset on the beach. There were a bunch of people playing volleyball and the sky was picture perfect. We got Japanese food for dinner, where I tried Gyoza (a type of dumpling) and Karaage (a type of fried chicken). Delicious!

Mon, May 22: I took a very early bus back to Lismore and slept much of the day. We had our Returning Home Info Session that afternoon and I realized how close we are to the end of the session. It was very bittersweet and probably one of the last times all of the internationals would be gathered together because people want to travel a lot before they have to go home. We got free pizza and socialized a bit. Afterwards, Alex and I went grocery shopping.

Tue, May 23: I did my last assignment for Management, which was an online quiz. I had my last Management class and went to Sh’Bam (the zumba-like class I do almost every Tuesday). I got Alex to come and she had a good time! That evening, my roommate Abbie interviewed me about New Zealand for her Tourism class.

Wed, May 24: We had another inspection, so I cleaned the apartment a bit in the morning. The last sociology class was last week, so I went to free lunch with Alex and then to my last Communications class. No cheer, so we went to the last Open Mic night. We had tacos and listened to some live music. Ned (who we went to Lennox Head with a few weeks back) did a really cool guitar song. I bought my plane tickets for the Adelaide-Sydney-Brisbane adventure.

Thu, May 25: I met with Charli, who has been driving me to cheer all semester and gave her a thank you card. I went to the gym and did laundry before picking up a few things at the shops and heading to the unibar for SCU’s Got Talent. The winners got $1000, second place got $300, and third got $200. There were some interesting acts and some good ones. I only stayed for four of them, including my friends Eunice, Bri, Gabi, and Liv. They did a parody of “Ice, Ice, Baby” about their time at SCU. It was very fun to watch, but they ended up in seventh place out of seven. I stayed up late writing my Communications report afterwards.

Fri, May 26: I spent the day in the apartment except for when I delivered a thank you card to Meg, the bank employee for letting me interview her.

I may not have time to write another blog post until I’m back in the states, but you can always follow along with my posts on Facebook and Instagram. Thanks for reading!

  Playing Catch Up (3ish weeks) Sorry for not blogging for a while! I would use assignments and the end of the semester as an excuse, but I've also done some fun stuff.