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Dispatches from the Field:
Strange Happenings and Some Well-Deserved R&R
By April Deibert
Sept. 10, 2007
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| Deibert gets to know a kangaroo. |
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Since my last update, a lot has happened. Just as I was down about leaving my beautiful home in South Australia, I learned that I would be heading to another country for an internship at a U.S. Embassy from January to April 2008. The U.S. Department of State is sending me to the ex-Soviet bloc in Central Asia. Interestingly enough, as I fell asleep the night before, I was watching an episode of "MacGyver" set “Somewhere in Central Asia… present day.” So when I woke up to a phone call from the Central Asian Affairs Bureau, I thought I was certainly dreaming.
And so, as I’ve come to realize, reality is always stranger than fiction—randomness comes when you least expect it.
A strange series of events started off not long ago when I decided to take a job at a local night club as a bartender to earn some extra spending cash. I went through the process of applying for a $60 Australian work visa and a tax file number. The pay was good and the hours were flexible. Yet, something wasn’t right. A local friend of mine had warned me from the beginning that the club was “iffy,” but never specified why. Then, last month, I walked into work and found that my boss had been arrested in a drug and illegal firearms sting. Many of his employees had no idea that illegal activities were going on at the club. Needless to say, that Friday I quit. I suppose some advice is meant to be followed, and the locals always know best.
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| Mark Brandon "Chopper" Read, a murderer, comedian and author. |
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| Deibert (left) and a friend pose with Read after his talk. |
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Stranger still was a show I attended a few days later with some of my friends. We had the rare opportunity of being invited to a special event with Australia's most notorious murderer — as famous as Charles Manson in the United States. Mark Brandon “Chopper” Read has been happily living out of prison and doing cross-country tours as a comedian for years. While waiting for him to appear, his manager auctioned off axes with Read’s autograph and a few signed prison photographs.
Read, who has become a best-selling author, finally came on much later than anticipated and opened with a gruesome and detailed ‘comical’ description of one of his first mutilations and murders, targeting a drug lord. He was completely devoid of emotion, but also seems to see himself as a character out of the “The Boondock Saints,” a movie in which two Irish brothers decide to rid Boston of crime by killing mafia bosses. Read’s targets had all been pimps, rapists, drug lords, or those who took advantage of the weak unable to fend for themselves.
At the end of his talk, he invited the audience to ask him any question they pleased. And they did ask — down to the details of how he disposed of victims. Other questions revolved around his self-titled movie, “Chopper,” and where he sees himself in the future. Afterward, people sat in shock, unsure if they should clap or not. Then everyone got up and swarmed to the front of the room to get autographs and photos. My friend Bec and I bravely made our way to the front; I shook Read’s hand and asked for a photo with him. He smiled at me, said he liked my Californian accent, and then thanked us for coming to see him.
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Adelaide's Central Market. |
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Mercifully, in the last two months, I also have had my share of more relaxing moments.
The day after I quit my job, my roommate Frieda and I decided to do what any normal girls would find appealing in the event of no work and no classes --- SHOPPING!
We woke up early Saturday morning with the best intentions of going to the Central Market, even though two cups of coffee later I was still entirely too exhausted to go shopping for cheap bags of onions and local spices. Saturday is the "push-comes-to-shove" day where getting a $1 head of lettuce is as competitive as an auction for Paris Hilton jailhouse memorabilia.
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Hahndorf, Adelaide's German town. |
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The following day, I took a bus ride to Hahndorf — Adelaide's local German town located about 45 minutes away — to buy my first pair of real Ugg boots, have some German eats, and go for a bit of an explore with my close Aussie friends Bec, Andrew, and Steve.
The bus for Hahndorf and Adelaide Hills picks up in downtown Adelaide, and then escorts you through beautiful green lush hillsides and farm stays. Once out in the Hills, strawberry farms and vineyards alternate along each side of the road. The roundabouts are filled with signs for the Barossa vineyards, McLaren Vale vineyards, Mount Lofty and Mount Barker, or Hahndorf. The drive is anything but boring, and most locals will warn you that the ride isn’t for the carsick-wary. The bus drivers know the small back roads well, and aren’t shy with their speed while negotiating sharp mountainside bends and windy passes.
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| A koala in Deibert's neighborhood. |
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| Deibert makes friends with a kangaroo. |
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Once in Hahndorf, I met my friends for lunch at the German Arms Hotel. Afterwards we went shopping for local “lollies” at Melba’s Chocolate Factory, and then we went to Cleland Conservation Park to play with the wild koalas and kangaroos. My friends who took me are all local “Adelaidians,” so their look of boredom when exotic animals gathered around was priceless. I would get wide-eyed when lorikeets and cockatoos would perch next to me at lunch, and wild kookaburras would beg for my sandwich… They shooed them away like pesky pigeons or seagulls.
The next morning back in Adelaide, I woke up to the sight of fog rolling through eucalyptus. The kookaburras were chattering away in the distance. And I remember thinking that luckily I hadn’t been woken up in the middle of the night by the neighborhood koala fighting the neighborhood cat. Then it hit me – this is home. I don’t ever want to leave. So at that moment, I decided that I would one day return to live and work in Adelaide for at least a few more years.
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Deibert worked and studied in Adelaide |
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