Aight so I'm officially back in the states, I say officially since last night was the first night I had a full nights sleep since I got back on July 7th. My sleeping pattern has been absolutely insane so I'm glad I got back with enough time before classes started again to readjust. I hope that after last night my body has readjusted. I know many are eager to hear about the end of my journey and see pictures so I will try to grant those wishes now. This is going to be one very long blog entry and I'll try to keep to some kind of order as much as I can. Just to back track a bit.... Before going to Fiji we hung out in Darwin and then went to Sydney for five days.

===Okay so updating will take a little longer than expected so check out what I have so far and make sure to check back soon (most likely Monday) for more updates.===

Marion arrived in Darwin a couple of days before Elaina so we went to the Markets and the Rapid Creek Water Garden. Then when Elaina arrived we rented a car and went to Litchfield National Park and on a Jumping Crocodile tour. We stayed at James' flat during our time there which was really nice and had some really great views. Below are some pictures of these places. There aren't any pictures of evening outtings....but that's because the New York ladies were a bit jetlagged from their flight and weren't motivated to do very much past 11 PM.
Poffertjes were my absolutely favority thing to eat at Mindil Beach Market. They're these little tiny pancakes, you get 19 of them actually, and then you add toppings to them. I always got mine with Fresh strawberries, bananas, vanilla ice cream, wipped cream and chocolate fudge. MMMmmmmmmmmmmm good! Yes, I have a sweet tooth. And the markets were every Thursday and Sundays so I ate a lot of this!

So this isn't the best picture per say but it's the best outta' the bunch. As you can see Marion is pressing her finger down trying to show the French guy, with very limited English skills, how to use her ditigal camera, yeah it was quite complicated.

Aboriginals playing dideridoos at the market

Mindil Beach Sunset Market

Marion at the Rapid Creek Water Garden

stairs to Florence Falls

at Florence Falls

- M E -

Elaina at termite mound

- U S -

Pics of the Jumping Croc tour and the flat.

This is Godfrey, the oldest croc we saw in our Adelide River Jumping Croc tour. If you look closely you'll see that he's missing his front right leg. Must have lost it in a fight!

Marion and Me on our Jumping Croc tour.

Our tour guide was teasing these guys

Me dancing to my Summer 2006 favorite song. AKA 'My Australia song'

If the ladies didn't want to go out I was determined to party anyways.

One of the many wonderful views from James' flat

Sunset from our flat in Darwin

We arrived in Fiji on Monday July 31st. The end of my summer travels is closely approaching and I'm a bit sadden by that. But Fiji is a great stop before the real world. We are staying in Club Fiji Resort. We have our own Bure which is pretty cozy expect for the huge water bug we had visiting our room the first night. No Worries the ladies let me sleep with the lights on, aren't they sweet. ;-) We'll be staying there during our week here and taking day tours to the other Fiji islands. I plan to go scuba diving. Yesterday we went out with two local Fijians who took us to a Chinese resturant which made Elaina break out a bit and then we went dancing next door at, After Dark. There were many prostitutes there and E danced with their pimp, but she didn't know who he was at the time. The music was very good compared to all the places I've been to in Austraila. They played Marion's favorite song, "Hips Don't lie" by Shakira, tons of Reggae and even Kwaito music. I would upload pictures but this computer isn't picking up my thumb dive so I'll have to do that another day. Although the blog update might be a bit limited while in Fiji since the internet at our resort is 25 cents per minute. I arrive on the 6th of August at midnight if anyone wants to pick me up from the airport. I'll post my flight information is need be. Please comment if interested and you could possible recieve some great Australian wine for your troubles.

New Yorkers learning how to fish at Buffalo Creek

This photo was taken on 07/07/06 at the Magistrates Court at the Chief Magistrate Hugh Bradley's Retirement party. Left to Right: (Me, Renee (intern from Sydney), Danny Cash (criminal solicitor at NAAJA), Matt (Danny's friend) James (also an intern though he won't admit it! aka Admiral James Dawson from London)).

I have one week left before completing my internship at NAAJA. I'm excited that I won't have to wake up early to make it to the office by 8:00 AM anymore and even more excited that two of my friends are coming to join me in Australia. Marion arrives on July 22nd, and Elaina on July 24th. I'll show them around Darwin for a couple of days and then we head to Sydney together so stay tune!

Staying out late vs. A goodnights rest
Staying out late usually wins considering I'm only in Australia for a limited amount of time. I've been drinking beer since I promised my brother I would drink beer and wine while I was here. After all it is what the Aussies mostly drink. After trying many different types of beers I must report what I've know for some time now that beer is not my thing! It makes me burp and well it's not becoming of a lady to go around burping at bars. I am becoming a bigger fan of white wine but still not a huge fan or red wine. In reality I'm a cocktail lady. Yes, yes we all knew this. My favorite cocktail here is Mango Madness which is Balieys and Malibu blended with fresh Mango. Absolutely amazing!!!! They make this drink at the Casino. Yes, I go there just to get this drink which a legal secretary (Rhonda) at work put me on to. I took a picture of me and my mango madness at the casino and attracted a security guard. After seeing my picture he couldn't bare to see me delete it so he determined it was okay for me to keep it since you could only see the bar area ;-)

Off to Jabiru
(Me, Giles, Alex, and Phil)





On the way to Nourlangie Rock.






Some Aboriginal art at Nourlangie Rock.


Pictures for my VICTORIA
Titi and a papa wallaby.
I saw a family of Wallabies during one of our stops in Kakadu park and took these pictures. There was a baby and mum but they were hopping away from me so the pictures aren't too good.
This is Papa Wallaby again.








Another wallaby.

NAAJA
North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency is where I'm doing my internship this summer. I'm working in the Criminal Law Section which represents any defendents who self-identify as being aboriginal. The office is two floors has a Civil Law Section, legal secretaries, and Client Service Officers (CSO), the lawyers are pretty young, very dedicated and the turn over is high, that and along with some other things makes the place quite homely and a bit reminiscent of the BXD. I mostly do legal research, so far only for appeals and the majority of the time I can find all the cases I need in the office library. Sometimes I have to go over to the Supreme Court library which has an extremely helpful staff. I observe court when I get the chance and was pretty shocked to see the lawyers and judges wearing robes and wigs when I went to a Supreme Court trial. But aside from the silly costumes things aren't much different. The black people get arrested and the black people get screwed over, all around the world.

Let me tell ya' about bush court now that I know more about it. Bush court is what NAAJA calls the courts that are held in communities (aka aboriginal land). I went to bush court in Jabiru and Oenpelli. Jabiru is a township located right in the heart of Kakadu National Park. Kakadu is managed by Aboriginal traditional owners and the Australia Government Department of Environment and Heritage. It's pretty small but packed with tourist at a couple of major sites within the park. At the court house (a small building behind the Police station used as a day care and for other purposes when there's no court) the NAAJA lawyers, prosecutor and judge come from Darwin once a month to hold court. Any new arrests that the police made within the month (where the defendent was given bail by the P.O.) is heard, and cases that were not settled in the previous month are also heard during these monthly court session/reunions. If for some reason a defendent is not given bail by the P.O. then that defendent is transferred to Darwin and his/her case is heard there. But I guess some would say 'they're' nice enough not to make everyone go to Darwin...

Oenpelli is just north of Jabiru in Arnhem Land. We were able to drive acros the Alligator River from Jabiru to get there because it's the dry season, otherwise you have to fly. Oenpelli is a lot smaller than Jabiru with only about 800 Aboriginals. There is no court house so 'court' was held inside in a small room, imagine a classroom of any sort with desks and chairs set up to mock a court room for students. In the back there was a kitchen where the lawyers could put their belongings and interview clients if needed. But the other most used option that day was the backyard which served as the waiting area for everyone and where the lawyers interviewed their clients. Everything in the 'court' was brought in by the judge's clerks. The clerks spent about an hour that morning setting up mics and tape records to ensure that everything was on the record. Yet I found it ironic that "We" (NAAJA, the prosecutor and judge) all need special permits to enter Arnhem Land, and go in there and imposed a foreign system of justice.

There's definitely more to say about bush court but I suppose my blog can't be all about that. Besides I don't know who could be reading this. So on a lighter note...
Because I was in Kakadu I did get to a couple of the major sites. I got to see some Aboriginal rock art in Nourlangie Rock and the sunset from Ubirr (which is the Crocodile Dundee location).

I'm going to Jabiru today! This is where Crocodile Dundee was filmed. I'll take pictures and post them when I return. It'll be there for 4 days with two lawyers from work and a client services officer (kinda' like a blend of a client advocate and investigator for those familiar with those roles). Should be interesting. We are going out to 'Bush court', what they call the courts held on Aboriginal land.
More about that and my current work at NAAJA when I return...

Testing.....my blog is acting up :-(

On Monday I went Salsa dancing. The story behind this is that on my way home from the market on day (more about the market soon to come) I heard Salsa music that was coming from a restuarant. I walked over and there were about three couples dancing. I stood by the door and of course was loving the music so much that I started to do a basic step by myself. This attracted the attention of the gentlemen near me (he was old) who asked me where I was from. I said New York. A lady (Ana) from across the table calls his name and asks him where I was from. He replies Nueva York at which point she turns to me and says, "No where are you FROM?" So then I said, well my parents are from the Dominican Republic (I usually say I'm Dominican but then I'm asked the same question anyways...I can't win). But the lady replies, " Yo sabia que esoy movimentos eran Latin!" Which translate to I knew those were Latin moves, for all you non-speakers. Ana then introduced me to the rest of the table and they let me know where the Salsa dancing is on Monday and Thursday nights. So I went on Monday and it was great. They were really really good prehaps I'll learn a couple of things. I plan to hanging out with the Latinos in Darwin for a change.

Everyone wants to see more pictures so here goes....


That's me and my new mates from England and Sweden. It was taken when England played it's first game in the World Cup hence the shirts. I was cheering for England that night so I could round up some support for the U.S. when they play, though I missed that game because I fell asleep. (yeah I guess I'm a wack fan, but it's not my fault there were so many other games and nights out before that!)

Wangi Falls (Litchfield National Park)

Me at Tolmer Falls in Litchfield

Sky after sunset at Litchfield


Florence Falls (Litchfield National Park)

The Queens Birthday was today so it was a national holiday and everything was one big party. It also meant that there was a tax on everything so that wasn't soo great. I rented a car today and drove to Litchfield National Park. Driving on the other side of the road was intersting and I hit the windshield wipes a lot instead of the turn signal since it's on the other side as well. Luckily I have my new mates who are from England in the car with me to remind me which lane to go on when I turned. A small Kanaroo and two Wallabies jumped out in from of the car on difference occasssions which was pretty scary, but I didn't hit them. But hopefully next time I encounter one of them there'll be picture opportunities!

06-06-06
Arrived in Darwin, Tuesday afternoon. Let's see the flights weren't bad at all. The 8 hour lay over in San Francisco sucked because I didn't have any friends there to come visit me. It's probably a good thing I didn't sleep for two days before I left. Which meant I slept on the flight the majority of the way, woke up for meals, and watched on film. Rabbit Proof Fence, which is an Australian Film that my professor recommended I watched before coming here. Lucky for me it was one of the film options on the flight ;-) And for those of you wondering......NO, I didn't get any reading done on the plane! I don't think planes are the best places for me to get reading done, that's becoming a trend.
As for this blog, free feel to comment and ask me what you want to know. I'll try to update it at least once a week and I'll post pictures as soon as I get my wireless up and running.

SUMMER 2006

Here I come....

It's May 22, 2006 and a week from now when I hand in this brief I've been working on all semester I'll be offically done with my first year of law school. I'm excited, but even more excited about spending the summer in Australia. A friend of mine is interning in Costa Rica and decided to create a blog so her friends can keep up with her. The idea is a great one so I decided to follow in her footsteps. Enjoy.