Bloggerang -- Down Undah!

Dreamtime

2009-08-26T16:48:00.001+10:00

That is what the Australian natives (Aborigines) called it. I'm sure there is much that I don't know about what exactly it is, but from what I understood (it's been over a year since I departed the USA), it was the stories they told that arose in nature. Much like our own Native Americans telling of how the world rests on a giant turtle's back, etc.

I had another dream last night, but it was very vague and I don't remember even being in Australia. It was a dream that I had to go back. It's nice to know I really did leave a piece of me there instead of just living, leaving, and moving on. I will go back if I don't die unexpectedly, and if I make enough money.

I just have to.

I missed so much. I want to see Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane, Adelaide, and of course revisit Sydney.

Another Dream

2009-07-10T12:52:00.002+10:00

Well I guess I have to make a new post.

I had another Aussie dream!

This time it was less about places I've been too. Nothing was recognizable.

I just remember seeing Alvin and he came out of a haircut place and couldn't believe I was there. He was shocked to see me and I was happy to see him. We said hi and all that. That's pretty much all I remember. I felt happy to be there though and even though I didn't recognize or know it was Australia for sure, it just felt like it was in my dream.

:)

So yeah. I guess I have to go back someday.

Right now I'm jealous that Wesley students just got back from Europe and Korea and stuff for their choir tour. Oh well. Someday. Perhaps I will teach in South Korea. Working on that now...

Weird Dreams

2009-04-21T15:30:00.002+10:00

The other night I had a few dreams. Well, I'm not sure if I dreamt them throughout the entire night, or in the hour that I had after I woke up before my alarm. Oh well. They were all disjointed and more like thoughts than actual events. Sorta like a daydream but I was napping?

Anyways on to the dreams...all of which had to do with Australia otherwise I wouldn't post them here.

One of the dreams...I was walking outside of a building and it wasn't night just yet...but I had to get home. I'd never been in the building before in my life. So after leaving I got on a bus. I was worried about where it was taking me as it went. It got late into the day and into night and I was still riding it, lost. I got lost in Australia a few times, and sometimes when I wasn't lost I still thought I was. ^_^ (so that explains that dream)

Another dream was more of a feeling or realization. The weird part is that it's not true in reality. I was thinking about how crazy it was to be back in Australia and be taking my last semester there instead of home. Very weird to think this, because it's not even possible to take your final semester away from Bethel unless you petition it. And Wesley doesn't offer anything remotely like my classes now. Just very strange of me to think that dream up...

The last dream I remember was also a thought and not really an event. I remember getting a regretful feeling about not going into downtown Sydney enough while I was there. Like I wasn't making good use of my precious time there. And in my "dream" I resolved to go downtown more often. It's weird because when I was there, I think I went downtown enough. I don't regret the amount of downtown I saw. Of course I could've seen more. There's always more to see. So that was strange too.

I've concluded that my spirit is still in Australia or something. It's taken until now for me to realize it. Not really, because that sounds really sad. But I think I have to go back for sure if I get the chance to. I really miss it. And I miss the people I was good friends with. I try to keep in touch with them through facebook but they aren't really receptive to that. It's a bummer...

Oh well.

I also watched Heroes tonight and one actor (that Sylar transformed into) reminded me a lot of Julian just because of his appearance. Crazy.

Photocontest

2009-04-06T05:43:00.001+10:00

Failed. All 5 denied. But there were a lot of submitters. And they lumped more people in this one than the other semester. Oh well.

Update?

2009-03-09T04:44:00.001+11:00

So yesterday marked the day I used up my Aussie body wash. Ironically it said "soap free" on the bottle. I hope the last few months I used it were actually me cleaning myself. Oh well.

And today my grandparents came over to my house after church. I brought out the TimTams which haven't been eaten since. They had coffee and did TimTam slams. It was hilarious.

Personal Reflection

2009-02-21T08:38:00.003+11:00

And you thought last entry was the last? Heh. The Study Abroad department at my school had everyone meet that went abroad and it was a couple weeks ago. They gave us questions to reflect on. What better way to answer them then here?

1. What did you learn about yourself from your time abroad? In what ways have you changed?
A: I learned that I can be driven if I try. I can achieve great things for myself. I can be independent. Fitting in isn't always the best goal. I am very stubborn. I go against the grain and carve my own path if I really want to. I am now more culturally aware. I have seen amazing sights. I have worldwide friends. Now I watch news programs.

2. How do you plan to integrate what you have learned into your social, career, or academic life?
A: Socially I have told stories and shown pictures. No career yet, but maybe I will take my desire to travel and teach English abroad. Academically I doubt I'll change. Australia gave me time to learn on my own, USA does not. I can't work around that.

3. What aspect of the host culture surprised you most? What does being American mean? In what ways have your definition of your nationality been challenged?
A: It surprised me how similar it was, yet different depending on where you were. Being American is loud, ill-prepared, clueless to world events, and yet, still respected worldwide because of the power. My nationality really wasn't challenged other than now I try to stay on top of world events.

4. What aspect of the foreign culture would you like to remain with you?
A: The laid back aspect that I already had with me. The creativity.

5. What was the most challenging aspect of your trip? Would you have done things differently?
A: It was hard to spend all the time I was given. I would have disciplined myself more to learn more on my own.

6. How did you deal with being (and being treated like) a foreigner?
A: It wasn't that bad as long as I didn't open my mouth. I never got over the feeling of "I'm better than you, I'm American" though. I will have to struggle with that in the future. I need to be humbled.

7. What were gender relations as compared to what you are used to? How does that effect your learned behavioral definitions of what it means to be a "man" or a "woman?"
A: I didn't notice anything different.

8. What were some social roles expected of you? Did you defy or remain in line of societal norms?
A: Study, behave like everyone else. I remained in line. I'm not used to any different.

9. As we move forward, what will be your contribution to the international and local community? How will your international perspective help us grow into an emerging global village? Does it even exist and if so, what direction is it going?
A: I have no idea. I will respect everyone no matter what their background is and I will try to learn as much as I can. I think it is going in a smaller world direction where everyone tolerates everyone else, and hopefully more than just tolerate.

Australia THE MOVIE

2008-12-19T07:45:00.001+11:00

So I saw the movie last night finally. With my mom. It was 2 hours and 45 minutes in its entirety. Worth every penny.

Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman both are Aussies, but Jackman was the one that played an Aussie. Kidman was English. I was happy the love story wasn't the main focus and didn't overwhelm me with sappy crap. The movie was EPIC. The soundtrack was awesome. It made horse wrangling fun and exciting. The acting was good too. The story kept going on and on but I didn't mind because I was so sucked in.

The scenery was amazing also and I loved pointing things out like the Qantas airplane. The outback was well represented and I really connected to the scenes because I'd been there. It was unlike any other movie. My brother can say he's been to a lot of the places in the Bourne movies since he went to Europe. Now I can say I've been to the outback like in this movie.

I'm so glad I got to see it. I can't wait to buy it!

December 7th

2008-12-08T18:11:00.002+11:00

My dad's birthday would have been today. We went to a funeral home that they had his funeral at. The one I missed when I was still in Australia. It's weird that the funeral home chose today to have this event for all the funerals recently, his birthday. A get together and remembrance deal with candles and refreshments. It was nice. Evan (my middle brother) was still at school, but CJ (youngest bro) was there along with my mom and grandparents on her side, and my aunt (dad's sister). It was nice to see them since being home finally. I didn't see my grandparents because my grandma was too stubborn at Thanksgiving.

I didn't know what to expect. It was nice mostly. They had a slideshow of all the dead people represented by that event. They just kept coming...and coming...and coming. I envisioned myself standing up and screaming MAKE IT STOP! because it felt overwhelming at times. A bunch of the pics were hastily photoshopped to make the people in front of beautiful scenery and sunsets and made it look a bit dodgy around the edges. >_< Oh well. Some of the people were so young. There was a kid that got into a bicycle accident apparently. There was at least one army/marine. One guy looked my age. I believe I gulped. It really hits home.

We got to keep a candle with his face on it. And had hors d'ourves. That's not how to spell it but I give up. They need to make an easier name for it. Or spelling. Like "Hor Durves."

So I finally got to officially grieve. But it was long after it happened and it seems everyone has more or less moved on. I thought the emotion would hit me like a ton of bricks today since it was his birthday and all. But it kinda actually didn't. It's still sorta like he's not gone yet.

Maybe Christmas? Or maybe...never?

Ethno Centrism

2008-12-06T19:09:00.002+11:00

So I finally got around to reading the stuff they were going to send me (from school) in Australia, but I got back before they mailed it. It sparked more thoughts of Australia and I figured I should write more about what I've been thinking about lately, with regards to that magical place on the opposite hemisphere from my home, North to South and West to East.

Which reminds me of the way Australians see a map vs. how we see a map (global) in America.

I think during the whole time there, I never shed my ethnocentric ways. It wasn't that I thought America was/is the best, it was more of a "I'm American, people here must be dying to get to know me and will assume I'm so awesome just because I'm American." Of course it wasn't true and never really happened, but I still felt it even though I was unsure why. I think it was because of the Aussie phenomenon. I'm dubbing it that because I don't know what else to call it.

If you (as an American) think of any type of person that would be most interesting, I'd guarantee that an "Aussie" would be high up or at the top of the list. It's just a stereotype I think. Australians and their accents just fascinate Americans for some reason. It's fact. It was the biggest reason why I wanted to travel there to begin with. I'm guessing because they are soooooooooo far away (though other places are farther--must be a mental image thing with the globe), they must be sooooooooo interesting and different from us.

They are and they aren't, I discovered. This comforted me and also made me a little bummed out at the same time. I regret not making more Aussie friends than I did, but I would have had to compromise my own self in order to do that, and I can't really regret that.

I am glad I got to see both schools though. I had the opportunity no other Bethel student ever had before or even had this time. Brianna told us that it was like walking in a musical in Australia at Wesley. I think she made it clear that it was only at Wesley, but I think I accidentally assumed all of Australia was like that maybe. Luckily going to the other school showed me how wrong that way of thinking was. UTS was how I envision most of Australian college students are like. Wesley is just 200. UTS is 200000000000000000 pretty much. I got to see that most of Australia is not like a musical.

I wish I had more time to delve into UTS life more. They invited me to a few random events that I found difficult to get to and experience. Oh well. At least one had drinking, so I'm glad I avoided it.

Now with the election and economy and everything, I'm torn between thinking America sucks and being proud to be American even still. Blah.

I miss Ash. And Vivian. And Alvin. And Lauren. And my bethel compadres. I hope to see Cameron soon at Bethel!

Peace out for now.

Tired...

2008-11-29T17:14:00.002+11:00

Thanksgiving was pretty good. I went to my dad's to clean up stuff in order to sell his house. And also came back with some of his stuff. I raked and brought a TON of pop cans to be recycled. Ended up with over 200 lbs. of cans and $44 for them all. Danny (my cousin) and I first went in my car. Then we both took a car the next trip. Then we did that again for a total of 3 trips but 5 car trips. Now I have my dad's computer. I had to wipe it down a ton since he smoked around it. NEVER SMOKE AROUND YOUR COMPUTER! It's so nasty. His black keyboard was almost white from the ash. Yuck. His dust bunnies inside were black from the ash. I had to wipe EVERYTHING. And it was weird how his system had just been reformatted...hmm...and he also had a note on his monitor about how exactly to restore it. Interesting. I wonder how often he did it...or how recent before he died.

I worked a bit. Thanksgiving was ok. No kids around so it was quiet. I didn't get cornered and asked about Australia which I was worried about. Whew. Food was good and we ate right away.

I was chosen to be published in my school's creative writing semester publication thingy. Woo! My short story. I had to edit a bunch out which was fine although tough. And on the 10th of December, I get to read 5 minutes of it for whoever goes to the reading. Whee! ^_^

I did a lot of Black Friday shopping. All in about 10 minutes and online. Amazon.com and Bestbuy.com: Electric shaver $20, Guild Wars expansion $10, God of War 2 $10, Stardust $8, Office Season 1 $8, Office Season 3 $13, awesome!

And today at buy.com, Rock Band 2 $57. No big deal, but I saved $3 plus tax.

Tomorrow I work all day. Sad. I should sleep...

Moar Updates

2008-11-24T19:53:00.005+11:00

I got most everything sorted out now. The computers are all synced and set to go. That took awhile. I've been playing video games since I missed them so much. I'm planning on going up to Bethel every Monday and sleeping over. I missed the Left 4 Dead (zombie game) demo online for the Xbox. Sad! I did get it when I got home on the computer though. But I only had 1 day left to play I guess, so now it doesn't even work. And I didn't play during the 1 day window. :(

I've been working a bit so it keeps me busy when I'm not settling myself, playing video games, or hanging out with my friends. I see my family too.

I downloaded Summer Heights High which is an amazing Aussie show I loved while there. Still trying to find Lano & Woodley though...hmm...

I still need to take in my TV to Best Buy since while I was gone, it developed lines in the pixels...hmm...at least I have the 4 year warranty. I just worry that I have to leave it there and I will be without a TV temporarily! Sad.

Updated my iPod so now it downloads podcasts without using a computer. Coooool.

Watched some Naruto tonight, up to 80 of 85!

Tomorrow I need to see Becknell and Katrina Chapman about transferring credits. Fun...

It's fun telling people about Australia at work.

I went to the school that had every art covered except for the one I am majoring in. Oh well, shows how stubborn and determined I am to get where I wanna go. Where I'll go next...not sure. I would rather go to somewhere different and see as much as I can than go to Australia over and over...

Notes I've forgotten to post about:

-On one of the last days while there, we watched a ventriloquist. Vivian thought it was a person backstage doing the voices and couldn't believe it was the guy with the microphone sorta moving his lips. Wow, hilarious!

-Near the end, food really got bad. Mariange started not supplying it. I didn't know why. Ash said she was taking it back and I didn't really believe him since it didn't make sense. Juice was never in the fridge any more. I missed it soooooooooo much towards the end. Then I went for bread to see only 2 endpieces left of a loaf. Dang! Mariange saw and told me she wasn't buying anymore since people were leaving. WHAT?! Only like 5 people out of 21 had left at this point, and she started taking the food away/not supplying it even earlier! How unfair...

-Vivian and I were helping Selina download music and explaining the difference between paying and not. Legal and illegal. Vivian called it...unlegal. Selina and I both cracked up and I couldn't figure out if Vivian knew it was because she made up a word or not...

-At one of the last meals I ate, I held a fork and knife, one in each hand. I was finally Australian. They all do this. I've never used a knife really except for cutting tough things. They use it in unison with their fork to eat, no matter what the food is. It's so weird. I did it without thinking at the end.

-I finally realized what "The Phantom Menace" actually stood for. Wow.

-Vivian's Chinese name (I think) is Lok Sang Tung. Alvin's is Ho Wei, I think. Something like that. Cool. Vivian was self-conscious about hers though, and wouldn't tell me. I saw it on her mail from the school. But when I told her I saw it, she denied it as her Chinese name and said it was something else. Hmm...oh well.

-Downloading Java (computer thing) gave me a headache in Australia. The port was blocked or something because it was an abroad connection. Now it's fine. Whew. I duno what they do though without it...

Back Home Recap

2008-11-19T18:30:00.002+11:00

Been awhile since I last wrote. I was busy catching up with my friends. I finished unpacking everything but paper forms and homework stuff I brought home. I drove up to Bethel and slept over 2 nights in a row in Heritage. I handed out souvenirs and saw everyone but Kristin and Karn really. I played through Star Wars Unleashed while they had class. Kia was there so that was cool. I was asked to be a groomsman. A bunch of us watched Heroes on Monday night and then went to see the new 007 movie, Quantum of Solace. It was good but not nearly as good as Casino Royale.

I opened up my PO box today, saw Christina and talked about my trip, met with girls for the Coeval since I am going to be published again this semester. Whee! Becky bought me lunch at Pizza de Luce yesterday and Justin got me lunch at Market at school today. Nice friends. They really missed me as much as I missed them. It made me feel really great inside. I might go up again Friday for an ITS party. We'll see.

I called again to the Dinner Theater and now I guess I might have to stop by tomorrow for paperwork updating. I could have worked tomorrow, but I think it's too soon. I said Thursday but I really don't want to work this week. Oh well. The sooner I jump in, the better hopefully. I wonder how much it has changed...

I had cheesecake tonight since I didn't have it before. So good. The jet lag is still getting me since I woke up at 7:15am this morning and felt tired driving there and back to Bethel. And I even fell asleep on the couch at 9ish, until midnight. I caught up on most of the podasts and online again.

I got a few songs on Rock Band since they were awesome and coming out while I was away.

I wanna go to Target and just window shop tomorrow. And I need to take my TV to Best Buy soon because it has vertical lines now. Weird. At least I have the warranty! I just hope I don't have to wait for it to get repaired...hm...

Home Sweet Home!

2008-11-16T20:37:00.002+11:00

These contact details are no longer viable:

Zack
52 Patterson St.
Concord NSW 2137
Australia

Phone By Appt: 011+61+2+9764+6969

But I'm putting them here so I remember when I read this in the future.

Today I woke up, ate something, bummed around until noon, finished packing, checked out of my room, and Vivian was the only one around. I said a quick goodbye and we hugged. Then I was off! Donn took me to the Sydney airport and dropped me off.

So I'm sitting at the Sydney International airport, after paying $4 for a luggage trolley, accidentally going in the first class line for a few minutes before realizing (I didn't get to the counter even), and then having to repack my bags because the big red one was too full and the little blue one had spare room. That wasn't too bad. Then I got my boarding passes and went through customs. That was a big deal since I forgot to fill out the form beforehand. I didn't know and went straight up to the counter because there was no line. Then he told me I had to fill that thing out and come back. So I did, and then of course the line was a mile long. But it went fast. My passport checked through and I was on to the metal detector x-ray thing. I was worried about my bottle of lemonade since I didn't think you could have liquids. Turns out I was right and they made me pull it out. The guy asked if I wanted to drink any before I gave it to him. I said nah, but he convinced me after asking again. So I chugged a bit and handed it over. That was fine, people got confused about my other bags since they were sitting there for awhile, but it was all good in the end. Then I walked a little bit more before I got tested for explosives AGAIN. Oh well. Facial hair = definite terrorist.

I walked on to Gate 61 and got in line to get double checked again. Maybe quadruple checked. I guess I was too early. It was 1:45 approximately when I went, and he said to come back at 2:30. The flight boards at 3:30. I just walked back and am sitting at Gloria Jean's Coffee which is Australian only, I think. Just typing on my laptop and eating gummi bears. So glad I fit everything in. Well, except the crappy towels that I could throw away from home. The nerve-wracking part of the journey is over. Now I just gotta sit and wait another half hour before I go back to gate 61. Waiting and boarding and flying isnt' that big of deal. Especially once I get to America. Only one hiccup left I'm worried about--getting my bags in San Fransisco and checking them again to Minneapolis. And the stomache ache I always get around flying...

Cheers!

Update again:

So I went at 2:40 and turns out I have to go back at 3:30. I guess I misheard or the guy misspoke. Oh well. Now I'm off to the side sitting on the carpet and I think I'll finish History of Man - Part 1, the movie I started yesterday on the train. At least it's clowdy and wearing heavy layers (since it will be snowing at home) is not scorching!

Update againagain:

I boarded and everything. I had an aisle seat on the side, right next to the place where they set up the food. The light coming from there was annoying at times, but they used a curtain a little bit. No one sat next to me and that was awesome. I used my pillow for my back and the extra one for my head. And it got really cold up there so I even used the blanket. The movies playing were meh. First they started off with TV shows. How I Met Your Mother was the only one I watched. It's not a bad show. After that it was a trainwreck of horrible shows. I don't even remember which followed. After a few shows, they played Kit Kitridge: American Girl, or something like that. Abigail Breslin starred (Little Miss Sunshine). Dang, she is the queen of airplane movies. On the way to Sydney they played one with her and Ryan Reynolds about him finding out who her dad was. Then on the way to Sydney they also played Nim's Island which has her and Kate Foster. So 3 movies with her in it, all on the plane rides. I didn't watch this one. They showed Mama Mia! next, but I bet Caleb will make me watch it eventually, so I tried my best to avoid it now. After those, they showed even more horrible TV shows. The Suite Life of Zack & Cody? Those Disney kids are crap actors. Then some show I haven't heard of, Wizards of Waverly Way. A sitcom about wizards on Disney and I didn't see any "magic" other than the intro. I didn't watch either. Well, by not watching, I mean I looked every now and then, but never used audio. I read lips or something.

This one flight attendant was sorta annoying. She was doing her job, I know, but she told me to sit down for a couple of minutes when I was just getting up to jam a thing in my backpack and sit back down, and the seatbelt light was off. And one time she turned to the side and her big butt went over my armrest and into my personal space. Touching me. Ack.

This flight went better than the first by a long shot. I think I might've slept more in the first though. But here I actually went into a deep enough sleep to really know I was just sleeping, when I woke up. It was nice. And it was amazing NOT flying with all the World Youth Day kids that were sooooooo annoying the first time. Door open, door slam, door open, door slam. That door was never still during that flight. This time, nobody was annoying and standing up for super long periods of time or anything. It was like flying with...adults! I loved it. Now I feel old though. Oh well. I only got up about 2-3 times this time, about the same as before. No DVT or whatever it is with the swelling of the feet. Someone told me about that before I left. Whew. I didn't spill any drink on anybody this time also. There was this little asian man with Canadian residency in the window seat. I wonder how much English he knew. He wasn't a bother though, so that was good.

Finally arrived at San Fran and my iPod battery is still going strong. Maybe I'll push it with a movie during the next 2 flights. I found my bags easily enough, and rechecked them on to Minneapolis without hassle. What a relief. Then I got through customs without any trouble, unlike just about any other time at an airport I've had. It was nice! Then I found my gate and now I'm waiting there. I put my charge cord into an outlet to charge my laptop (not like I need it anyways) but nothing happened. I think I have to pay. Lame. So my body clock thinks it's 6:44am when it's 11:45am the previous day in San Fran, and 1:45pm the previous day at home. My flight boards in 10 minutes, so no real waiting around. I just sat for abuot 20 minutes after I sorted everything out and went to the bathroom. 42% charge left on my laptop. 2 bars of power on my cellphone. It should last...

I'm wearing my retainer now since it was awhile that I went without and when I woke up on the flight, I could literally feel the difference in the shifting of my teeth. It was weird.

I wonder if I get snacks on the 2 hour flights. I hate pretzels though, so I guess it doesn't matter. The big leg of the journey is done. Now two tiny ones that don't even compare. But they are still annoying. And my hair is already showing it's unwashedness. Oh well.I just saw a dog walk by. I can't wait to see Dok! 5 minutes til boarding, apparently. The luggage trolley here was free! I duno why I paid $4 in Sydney, but oh well. I guess I'll pack up now! Cheers!

I got to Denver just fine. The flight was awkward with a buff guy next to me. I slept a little on the flight even though it was 2 hours long.

I got to MSP just fine also. The flight was better since the person next to me was normal-sized. I think I slept through the takeoff. How tired was I! My family picked me up, we walked to the luggage thing, grabbed em, and away I was.

I became teary eyed at a few things. Once the plane touched down, for some reason tears welled up. I held them back though. The other time was right after when a flight attendant said, "You get an A!" to someone for doing something. It brought me back to America.

At home I started unpacking, maintaining my computer, looking for my TV warranty since apparently it is broken, eating lasagna, Olive Garden salad and breadsticks, and sharing my souvenirs with the family. Also playing with my dog. I didn't know how much I missed home. But now I have to deal with missing those friends from back there.

I'm gonna sleep in and call the dinner theater about a job and then maybe drive up to Bethel to see my friends. Fun!

Last Half Day Here

2008-11-15T11:11:00.002+11:00

Farewell, oh continent of Australia, I knew thee well.

I figured I'd blog before I leave for the airport, since my Saturday is going to be sooooooooooooo loooooooooooong and I'm too lazy to even calculate how long.

I'm due for pickup here at Student Housing in about an hour.

I woke up at 9:45, washed up, heard Langsoon play piano, and had a bleak breakfast. There is no milk so cereal didn't work. The only bread available is 3 end pieces. I had one toasted with butter. No juice either, so I had water. I'm not complaining, oh wait, yes I am.

Then I walked to Woolworth's for some airplane snacks. Gummi bears, chocolate cookies, mixed nuts, and a litre of their lemonade. I had to spend $10 in change. I had $10.10 but I seperated the .10 so I'd know how much I had. The bill was $10.20. The exchange rate is .64 now, groovy. I gave my $10 and completely forgot about the .10. But an interesting thing happened. I was getting my $5 from my wallet since that's what we do in America, pay for everything. But here I got my reciept being .20 short and that was it. I felt so weird.

If someone did that over and over and over like in Superman or Office Space, you could get rich!

Now I'm packed all but the laptop. I really hope I get under the weight limit...

I think I'll just hang out and wander around the kitchen until I have to go now. After I pack up everything.

Seeya when I seeya.

Super Productivity a Go-Go! Last (full) Day!

2008-11-14T18:04:00.005+11:00

I knew that Langsoon was taking Alvin to their new workplace for form filling out or something and I wasn't sure but I thought I could see Alvin or his place then so I woke up at 8:30. Turns out he would be at his place at 6:30. Fair enough, I had lots to do anyways! I had breakfast and got ready and waved down Susan before she left for Uni. I had heard she was heading there, but she was about to pull out before I ran after her and waved my arms frantically. Good thing the traffic is awful and it's super hard to pull out there, especially in the morning. So I hitched a ride from her, got my evaluation form printed at the library, filled it out in 10 minutes with a pencil I found, and went to hand it in.

Lorna thought it was funny it was done in pencil. Oh well. I also got 6.80 that I was owed. I chatted a bit with Lorna and David Johnston and then I was off. I felt like running to the bus stop which is weird, since I never had. It was a nice jog even with flip flops on. I was bursting with energy even on 5 hours of sleep. Luckily I ran because I got to the bus stop right before the bus. Cool how life works sometimes. I tried watching Stand By Me (movie) on my iPod but quickly realized it was in Spanish. Whoops.

The bus ride however, felt like an eternity. Finally I made it to Burwood and then luckily the bus back home was just right around the corner. I scored again! So I got back around 10-10:30 and already accomplished so much! But then I bumbled around looking for something to do or someone to do whatever I was gonna do, with. Selina was cooking and I ate one of her tiny cupcakes. Good stuff. Andrew was walking around. I put away some dishes. I wandered around. I did my first load of laundry and took a nap while waiting for it in the dryer.

Then around 2:30 I finally left to go to The Rocks. Bus to train and I was there. I walked around, ducking in and out of stores and through tight alleys and up and down stairs and all around. I found at least 10 million new pathways. I took 87 pics and got some videos.

Facebook photo album #1!
Facebook photo album #2!

I went to the same store where I got some boomerangs and got some shirts for souvenirs. I went for another store and got a sweatshirt. It was so cheap! Hope it doesn't unwravel into one thread or something. After that store, I left the underground mini mall thing and came out another opening. I had no idea where I was! But you never do when you're in The Rocks. Sorta. You just have that feeling since it's so much to take in and a lot looks similar and so many different ways it's difficult to keep track of them all and where they lead. The exchange rate was between 64-66 while I was there and tonight it's .66. A far cry from .98 like when we came.

After that whole thing and I was tired from walking around with bags in the hot sun (it was 80 degrees, after all, compared to about 35-45 at home...with snow), I decided to go back. But I was hungry and had some change to use up before I left. So I had what anyone would have. Amazing ice cream. Cookies and Cream and oh so gooooood. But then I remembered no food on the train. So I decided to walk and eat to take a picture of the Blackbird Cafe where we ate with Cameron's parents but I didn't bring my camera that night. So I walked and walked and got to the end before the Opera House and then I remembered we were at Darling Harbour and not Circular Quay which is where I was. They both are on the water and are awesome places to visit and be a tourist, so whoops!

So I walked back after my ice cream, got on the train and went back. Two days in a row I've started walking back home from the train station (a 10 minute walk) and I look back to see the bus that goes back home. Oh well...the walk is nice. Though it was pretty hot still. Then again, the weather was on my side, after I left, it got cloudy. It's supposed to rain on the day I leave. That's good timing! Good thing I didn't stay much longer. Then I did the second load of my laundry, bummed a little bit online, talked to people, and dinner rolled around pretty quickly. They BBQ'd for us, sausages and some other meat I'm completely blanking on. Weird. And salad. Not bad for a final meal. Praying was a bit awkward. We were all set to pray. Then Mariange went to look for Langsoon who left the table suddenly I guess. Someone had the bright idea of praying quickly before she got back. So Ash did. Then he finished and she came back. She didn't know what happened and launched us into her prayer of everyone saying something. So we did that after awkward looks. Then she wanted us to sing a little song. She said one verse in her accent and I'd never heard of it before. (she's done this before with other songs I'd never heard of) And she said, "Ash, you know this one!" and he didn't. So we all looked at each other and she was waiting for us to all erupt into perfect harmony the song she was thinking of. Never happened. We all just inched to the food and the song didn't come into fruition.

One surprise was Alvin riding his foldable bike from his house to have dinner with us. So that was cool, I did get to see him after all. After dinner, Langsoon drove Alvin, Ish, and me back to Alvin's new place. I would have liked to see it and his fiance (they are getting married next week!) but he said she was already resting and it wouldn't happen. I was pretty bummed but at least I got to see Alvin and say a better goodbye than before. It was pretty tough. I've said goodbye to half of the 4 people I got along best with here now. Tomorrow Ash and Vivian...and I hope Vivian is even awake!

So we drove back after some pictures were taken. After that I watched the Office online and an episode of Naruto and talked to some people. I've realized a couple very important things recently. One, various circumstances and factors always come into play when you least expect them. I learned how to be light on my feet with regards to planning things. I didn't get to drive here, but most of the cars here are a stick shift and I've never learned yet. That wouldn't be pretty. I did get to experience the bizzarre feeling of seeing headlights coming at me (in the passenger seat AKA the American driver's side) and thinking they were going to pass me on the left of the car, when they passed on the right. Freaky. I did get to see Alvin off although I missed his fiance and place. I'm lucky in that regard alone. I have to learn to accept things I cannot change and be happy with the things I can. I sound like an AA vintage coin keepsake.

Another thing I feel embarrassed that it took so long for me to realize is just exactly how I fit in. I always thought Wesley was not the best choice because I like to read and write and that's the one art they are missing. In the end, I think I couldn't have chosen a better place to not fit in. But here's the catch; not fitting in is exactly what makes me fit in. As a writer, the more experiences I can get, the better. Not fitting in is perfect material to use. I fit in exactly by not fitting in. Kind of a bummer it took me until now to fully realize it, although I don't think not knowing hindered me in any drastic way. I'll never know.

At least I can take this revelation with me to wherever I find myself in the future.

And Becky slightly chided me online for planning to have a party when I got back when I should be living it up here while I still can. I tried. It was very difficult when everyone has their exams while I have nothing to do. The 4 people I really connected with were Alvin: busy with his new place, fiance, job hunting (although, huge bummer, he was supposed to get picked up today by Langsoon, but never did! So he could have hung out with me all day at the rocks! How sad. I didn't know or have any way of contacting him though...), Lauren: she wasn't around much either, or else packing, and she left yesterday I think, Vivian: she's busy and still goes to school to prepare her presentation on the 19th, and packing her stuff, and Ash: also busy with his school stuff, he went today and is going tomorrow.

So yup, I did my best with what I could. It was tough when literally no one was able to do anything even though I had all the free time in the world. I don't blame myself for being lazy those days, although I realize I could have done a lot more than I did. I have to be content with what I accomplished while here, and I can't change anything. I saw a lot and could have seen a lot more. But it never ends. There's a point where I have to hang my hat up and be happy even though the possibilities I missed are endless. Even if I hit all those, I still would have missed a lot more. I saw the Blue Mountains, Ayer's Rock, the Outback, The Rocks, Darling Harbour, The Opera House and a show inside, a couple museums, Canberra, a flower show, The Dark Knight before most everyone in the States, two (and technically 3 since I took a shuttle to another) college campuses when everyone else only saw one, two beaches and one was world famous, downtown Sydney, tried many new foods, rode on a motorcycle, learned guitar basics, made teh few and strong relationships I did, and that's off the top of my head. I'm sure I could triple the list if I thought harder about it...

So yup. The thought going through my head now is a song lyric: "Just get me to the airport, put me on a plane. Hurry, hurry, hurry before I go insane. I can't control my fingers, I can't control my brain. Oh no no no no no."

Manly in Manly!

2008-11-13T23:50:00.004+11:00

So I got up at a decent hour to do stuff before I talked to my mom on the phone to use up the last minutes on the card. I left at about 2:30.

After that, I went on the bus to the train station and then took a train to Circular Quay. I found the ferry just fine but then I sorta freaked out since I had no idea where to go after that! The ferry was the coolest part! I had no idea where Manly was exactly. The ride was about 35-40 minutes long! I took tons of pics! I got off the ferry, walked along the pier since there was only one way to walk, and then sure enough was the beach right to the left. It was about 1000x smaller than bondi. But less crowded too. I liked Bondi much more though. This was just another beach. The ride over there was better than the beach. Bondi was not just a beach. Bondi was a beach fit for the world. Still I'm glad I saw the drastic change between the two! This time I didn't get any in my mouth. Yesterday I thought I cut my lip before I remembered that it was salt water...haha.

I laid on the sand for a little, dipped my feet in, and laid in the sand more. I decided not to swim because it was just a hassle. So I laid for a little over an hour before checking when the next ferry was gonna leave. I had time for a quick bite and was a bit hungry then, so I had another super expensive cheeseburger from McDonald's for $2 before getting on the ferry again. Love that ferry!

I got back around 7 again. I didn't really eat because it was Mariange's leftovers tonight. I had toast and peanut butter a lot.

The exchange rate is at .64 now.

It's about 70 degrees Fahrenheit now and past midnight. HOT. I still can't believe I went to 2 beaches in NOVEMBER. Crazy. But I'm kinda looking forward to snow. I just looked in the mirror and actually think I got color in my face today. Slightly reddened. Not burned which is good. Yay! I will come back and people will hopefully know by looking. Not pasty white.

Langsoon drove Ish and I (after we waited in his car for about 10 minutes at least while he tried to get it to start...) to Alvin's place. It turns out it was a surprise and he didn't know. We got there and he wasn't there. Bummer. Ish and I went walking a ways down by a park nearby to see if he was there with his girlfriend. He wasn't. Sad. We turned back.

A bunch of us finished the 2nd season of Dexter tonight. I still haven't seen the beginning of it. We then watched the first episode ever. And now bed. I said goodbye to Lauren last night and Doug tonight. And as you can see, Nilli wrote a blog as me just before this, while a bunch of us watched a ventriloquist that Vivian actually thought he had a guy backstage doing the voices...

Tomorrow the plan is to see Alvin in the morning somehow through Langsoon, go to Wesley quick and do an evaluation while I get reimbursed for meals at Blue Mountains, and then the Rocks until 7ish. The rest of the night will be goodbyes and hanging out and packing up. I will miss this place!

Here is the first photo album of today!
Here is the second photo album of today!

2008-11-13T22:43:00.002+11:00

So today is the last day I get to spend with Vanilla - she flys back to Perth (one of the most isolated cities in the world) and I'm probably never gonna see her again which is a bit depressing. So we're sitting out the couch watching Strassman Live - a ventriliquist. I'd consider marrying her exept her family want her to marry colour. Oh well. I love Vanilla. Shes great. She has a really funny laugh.

Bondi Beach!

2008-11-13T00:47:00.003+11:00

I set my alarm but ended up sleeping in accidentally...I remember my dream sorta. I dreamt of fog and a nature scene. Very thick fog. I think I thought I was at the beach and it was a crappy weather day. But it ended up being very nice!

So I ended up leaving for Bondi at around 2:30pm after a quick breakfast. At the bus stop I was BIT by two ANTS! I couldn't believe it. Normal, tiny ants. Like little pinpricks. I rode the bus to the train station, rode the train station to Central, found another train to transfer to that went to Bondi Junction, rode that and got off to look for a bus that went to Bondi beach. Found that and rode a bus to the beach. It was SO HUGE! Bondi is world-famous.

I've never seen a bigger beach. I took a video! I won't put that up yet though. Here is the photo album! Only the video truly captures the size of the beach though.

I don't know if I wrote about this before or not, but so I don't forget, how funny is it that the Swiss girls thought "fines applied" meant "thank you." The bus says, "No smoking. Fines apply." Hahaha...

And our bell peppers are called "capsicum" here. Weird.

Bernard and Mariange are back now. I guess Bernard's mom is not in any better condition than before. Bummer...

I went in the water after finding a spot for my junk. I trudged through the sand. The waves were decent. Big enough to move me, but not make me go under. Whenever the waves came at me, it was like a shot of adrenaline coursing through my veins. WOW! It was so cold! Quite the jolt. So I did that for a little, watching other people do the same as me, jumping up at the waves and having fun. I eventually laid down and my towel was rather small...but oh well. I laid there for awhile before going back out and getting wet again. I laid a little bit more and decided to go back. I hopped on the first bus I saw because it was going to Circular Quay. Probably not the best idea. Let's just say I sacrificed length of travel time for certainty of knowing where I was going.

Circular Quay was the last stop and the one I know of. I didn't know how long the bus ride would be to get there. I had no idea where Bondi was or where I was in Australia. I still don't. I looked like such a tourist gawking through the bus windows and everything. The bus passed "Bondi Junction" which is where I got on the bus from the train. The bus passed "Museum" which is another train station I've seen but not gone to. It passed "Martin Place" also. Every time I saw a train station, it was always after the bus left and getting off at the next stop would probably make me lost since the bus traveled so far since the station. Although at Martin Place, I was too indecisive to get off. So I ended up on the bus for about an hour until it finally got to where I knwe it was going. If I went to the other stations, I would have had to transfer trains though. Circular Quay has one straight to where I needed to go. So I did gain that.

On the bus ride the guy next to me was a little worried about getting wet when he noticed I was sitting on my towel. I was more sitting on it because it was easier than because I was wet. My towel was more wet than my swimsuit because of the sun. But he felt it and it was damp and he didn't like that at all. I said sorry and did a little to move it. It was not close to touching him at all, but oh well. And on the train ride a bunch of Indonesian or Polynesian or something-nesian kids sat by me. Every once in awhile, one would look me in the eye. They were all talking in another language and I have no idea what language it even was. I was pretty paranoid about them talking about me...oh well.

I ended up getting home shortly after 7. It was an all day thing! I didn't wear any suntan lotion and I don't think I got tan. Maybe tomorrow at Manley beach.

I ate leftover chicken. I guess Joel cooked tonight (whoo!). We said goodbye to Lauren and then played in the laundry room by going inside the dryer and taking pictures...

I never watched an episode of Naruto or played Guild Wars. Kinda proud of that actually.

Then after that I watched a ton of a TV show called Dexter that's from Showtime. I like it. And now I'm gonna go to bed before getting up to talk to my mom and then head off to the other beach.

I'm torn though. I might have to go to Wesley. I had to get money because I was never reimbursed. I also have to print and hand in an evaluation. Dang. That ruins my Friday. Sorta. Blah. We'll see.

And I found out my flights leave earlier than before so I don't have to sit at Denver for too long. That's awesome.

Aussie Snacks!

2008-11-12T01:02:00.003+11:00

I felt bad about this morning. I was too tired and went back to bed instead of helping Alvin unpack. I should've gone to bed sooner. So I didn't get to see his place. His girlfriend comes tomorrow but he said he will be too busy with her and finding a job to really hang out so I'm crossing that off my list.

Today I went to the store and got Aussie snacks including tim tams, vegemite, milo, and banana lollies. I have 2 bags of banana lollies and 2 packages of tim tams. The vegemite is the smallest, since you don't need a lot per person. The milo is a pretty decent size tin. Exciting! Ish and I helped Alvin bring back his groceries since he got so much. So I sorta redeemed myself from the morning. Ish was in the same boat with the not helping him unpack.

Got back and did the usual. The Swiss girls made chocolate fondu and that was awesome. Dinner was ham in a white-sauce pasta. Tomorrow Mariange and Bernard are supposed to get back. We'll see how that goes...it sure has been nice though.

I looked up the people in my classes next semester. Looks like a lot of overlapping, because we're all English majors. So that will be cool.

I also watched Heroes and a podcast. Bush's secret service codename is Tumbler and Obama's is Renegade. Cool. No Veteran's Day down under. They have National Remembrance Day which I think is the same.

I also made my Christmas list:
-$10 iTunes
-Xbox Marketplace points
-Rock Band 2
-Electric Razor Kit
-Wii Fit
-iPod power adapter
-A list of movies that keeps growing that I have to chip away at

A couple days ago I saw a scale behind the curtain for Mariange's entrance room thing. I weighed myself. I sure hope that's broken. I think it's broken. It says I gained 15 pounds. Although, if it is true, it's not all bad. I haven't noticed weight gain in unwanted areas...and my pants still fit the same as always, so I want to get home and weigh myself just to be sure. Weird.

One thing I remember saying I would do while here was visit as many churches as I could to experience as much as I could. I wanted to try a new church every week. Now I see the folly of that goal because the logistics of it are horrible. I am glad I went to Hillsong as much as I did, and even got to the Korean church once. I sorta wanted to go to Hillsong in the city, but transportation wouldn't be pretty. Not having a car here sure hindered me in ways I had no idea about. I envy Cameron and his parents with the rented one. Also, now that my time here is winding down, I'm trying to cut back on money spending as much as possible. So I'm extremely limited in things to do. I think I'm even waiting to get home before I see Burn After Reading. It'll be cheaper.

I need to buy a souvenir shirt for myself, my mom, and friend still. I will probably do that Friday.

The rest of the time here I have to:
-Go to Bondi Beach (tomorrow)
-Go to Manley Beach (thursday)
-See Chopper (movie--it's in the common room) --I won't die if I don't see it. I saw Ned Kelly and that's Australian without the F-word every other word...apparently
-Video at The Rocks (friday)
-Pack and go!

Now I just gotta keep this! I'm going to bed earlier than previous nights for motivation.

Blah, I Wanna Come Home!

2008-11-11T03:29:00.003+11:00

Slept in again. Played Guild Wars. Watched Naruto. Ate. Watched TV.

5:30 rolled around and Selina, Saskia (Swiss girls), Alvin, Cameron, and I departed for Town Hall for the dinner with his parents. They were meeting us there after their Sydney tour. They are also going to climb on the Harbour bridge, have a wine tour tomorrow, and have seen a ballet already. They are also going to Cannes and Brisbane with Cameron later on.

We got to the Blackbird Cafe at Darling Harbour at a little before 6:30 and I met his parents. They're nice people and we all had a good time. I had a T-bone steak. Soooooooooooooooo GOOD! I missed steak. In the beginning of the eating, I accidentally slid my steak too far to the edge of my plate, so gravy spilled off the edge of my plate. It wouldn't have been a problem if the table was solid. The table had a bunch of holes in it for a design (little stars that by putting your elbows on the table, gave them funny shapes and feeling) and I felt a little tap-tap-tap on my thigh. I thought it was a bug or something. I looked and didn't see anything. A little bit later I felt some soggy gravy on my pants. Blah. Oh well, I wiped it off and by the end of the night, you couldn't tell.

Oh how I love the Rocks/Darling Harbour at night! Oh man, it's the coolest place in the world. I think I will miss the Rocks/Darling Harbour more than some of the people I've met in Australia...

For dessert I had some chocolate cheesecake stuff. I couldn't finish it and could barely walk to the train station after. Wow. We also had appetizers in the beginning: calamari, shrimp, and brushetta. Mmm. I had a pink lemonade. I'll have to visit his parents when they stop by at Bethel next semester.

We walked back without Cameron and his parents, since they left together. But we didn't leave before grabbing heaps of free post cards from the restaurant! :D

After getting back, I played more Guild Wars and also helped Vivian as best I could...with memorizing what the SPCA is. Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. It must be tough not having English as your first language and then giving a presentation in English. She'll be alright.

The exchange rate is going up and now is at *checks* .66. I guess not. It was .68 before.

Tomorrow I said I would go with Alvin to help him unpack. Not sure if I'll regret that decision or not.

A Missed Opportunity

2008-11-10T00:52:00.003+11:00

So I was going to go with Alvin today...and I set my alarm for it too. I got up and was ready, and my door was open slightly. I guess he knocked, but it was so soft of a knock, I thought it was on Ash's door, so I didn't open it. Then Alvin left without me. Oh well.

I packed half of my stuff today. All the stuff I never use and clothes I don't wear and paper work I don't need but want to take home. I also played a bunch of Guild Wars.

Later on for dinner, I went biking again with Alvin to the video store and then Pizza Hut. This time I wore a helmet, since apparently it's against the law to not wear one here! Guess I'm a criminal. Haha. He was too lazy and didn't want to unfold his foldable bike, so he grabbed Julian's instead. Julian's doesn't have any brakes though...so Alvin went way slower. He also had flip flops. I had shoes. So I rode way up ahead and waited at a bench for him to catch up. He asked if we could switch bikes since I had shoes and it would be easier to stop and slow down. I agreed.

As we continued, the pedal started wobbling on the left. I was like..hmm...then a few seconds later, the pedal just flat out fell off the bike. We laughed about it because it was so crazy. We were starting to walk our bikes back when we decided to just go to Pizza Hut since we were so close, then turn back. So we walked our bikes back to Pizza Hut and got a pizza and Pepsi (Aussie Pepsi tastes different slightly, and not as good, I think) and walked the bikes back.

I watched a little of Naruto after, and talked to people. I'm gonna miss 'em.

Oh hey! The new "Australia" movie comes out November 26th in the US. I think I will have to see it. Now do I want to see it with family or friends...hmm.

I might go to the beach tomorrow, but I'm not sure. Carmeron's parents are here and they are taking him and some of his friends here for dinner at this cafe at Darling Harbour, so I got invited to that. Woohoo! It's really nice of them. They rented a car and are driving here, I can't imagine how they are doing the mindflip.

A couple things I've been meaning to blog about recently:

-On the bus last week, I saw a World Youth Day backpack! Someone was wearing it. Oh it brought me back to July when I first got here and all that was going on. I'm so glad I was here for it!

-The soap I'm using...I duno about it. It says "soap free" on the bottle. It's not like my normal soap gel. It does lather up though like normal soap. I hope I'm getting clean these last few weeks of being here...it feels more liquidy than my normal stuff. Weird.

Also, when I was on my computer today in the common room, the TV was on and I was watching that too. There's this comedian here with the last name of Rove and he does a show called Rove, and is also Australia's announcer for the "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" show like our version of Jeff Foxworthy, but funnier.

First we watched Australian Idol. They still have 2 hosts. I miss our 2nd host that quit after the first season. Just Ryan Seacrest isn't enough. One of their hosts here is gay and that actually was a little weird...but I wasn't paying close attention at that part. They are down to the last 4 contestants and all are male. It was "American Hits" themed. They all sang "American Hits" but what song from America isn't a hit, right? Haha, just kidding. But that theme is a bit broad...

It was interesting about how much they talked of the recent U.S. election. They kept coming back to it! "Here's your chance to cast your important vote for your favorite idol! Well, except for the recent American election. Which is why we had our show themed after their country! It's full of change and very fresh! How exciting!" It was kinda cool and really odd at the same time.

The weather is in the mid 70s. I heard that the Dakotas had a blizzard yesterday! Crazy. The exchange rate hovers around .67 still.

Then moving onto Rove which is sort of like a Late Night show/Daily Show/Colbert Report type dealio, he spoke a ton of the election. They had a bunch of pics from the election and the best captions ever. Like Palin waving to a car and the picture had (unedited, I think) a dog sticking it's head out of the back window of the car. "Palin waving goodbye to her campaign manager." And John McCain waving with both hands to people..."John McCain telling us how many votes he actually got." And before this, Rove was talking about, "How change is in the air. It's so exciting, a monumental election just took place! New Zealand elected it's new prime minister, John Cain!" It was all pretty hilarious and also odd how it was so U.S.-centric. Tonight really was an eye-opener. I know my adviser at Bethel will love to hear about it!

There's also this beer commercial making fun of Americans. A woman in an airplane with the door open and goggles on is yelling: "We're taking the carbs out of our beer and giving them to people we know will truly appreciate them!

Americans!" Then she kicked a crate out of the plane and the rest of the commercial has unsuspecting Americans outside while crates fall and crash from the sky. Pretty funny...

To me, Australia is, above all, a goal I set out to achieve and accomplished. It's also a sign of how stubborn I can be. And if I want to put that in a positive light, how determined I can be also.

The rest of the time here I have to:
-Go to Bondi Beach
-Go to Manley Beach
-Go to Woolworth's and get aussie snacks
-Go out to eat with Cameron's parents
-See Chopper (movie)
-See Alvin's new place and girlfriend
-Video at The Rocks
-Pack and go!

Last Day of Weekend Jobs!

2008-11-09T00:54:00.002+11:00

First, did you hear of the spider that got a dead bird in its web and started to eat it?

Yeah.

Slept in, finished all the Naruto episodes on my computer including the movie, watched 2 more online, watched all my weekend podcasts, played Guild Wars, ate some nasty chicken nugget type things. They are more like chicken fingers. We put them in a George Forman type grill. Too bad it only cooks the outside really well. So the outside gets burned a little and it's really hot when you eat it, but the inside has the fake chicken and it's a little uncooked and really gross.

Oh, when I woke up, I cleaned my room. I threw away a ton of junk. I did my weekend job and accidentally, someone else's job. That took a bit of time but oh well, the place is cleaner because of it. Now it's only a matter of days before it's filthy and disgusting again. Can't wait to leave dirty dishes lying around everywhere. If it happens at school, I'm gonna have to try not to throw a tantrum! Oh well, they aren't as bad as the people here.

I didn't go anywhere because the weather was yuck. Not sunny and not even hot. Not cold either, just blah. No movie because I forgot. But that's on the agenda tomorrow with Alvin. Shopping is also. He is really trying to hang out with me as much as he can before we depart ways. He's moving out on Tuesday to a new place nearer to the school, by himself. His girlfriend is also coming here Wednesday, which is way sooner than originally planned. Now I guess I'll get to meet her. I'll hopefully see Alvin's new place too. Looks like Melbourne is out of the question. $250 for a plane ticket round trip. Yikes. Better luck next time.

I really hope I get a nice beach day before I leave! It's making me frustrated...I might have to go on a crappy beach day just to say I did. Bondi is famous I guess. I also have to go to The Rocks again for a video!

I think I'll start packing tomorrow also.

Where does the time go?

2008-11-08T01:08:00.004+11:00

I started off my first day of "summer" by not setting my alarm and sleeping until I woke up. So nice. Then I had breakfast in the afternoon and learned how to make animations in Photoshop. I came up with this:

So that was fun and cool and actually productive!

I am fine with how my music library is now, I'll wait until I get home to finish it. I watched the Office and my podcasts.

I watched a ton of Naruto and then played Guild Wars. We were close to getting 10 pizzas from Pizza Hut since Joel apparently fainted and had to go to the hospital. Right after ordering them, we found out he was alright and coming back to cook. Sad. We ended up having Kiesh or however you spell it. I am not a fan of that at all. Blah. I didn't even finish mine this time...

After dinner I played more Guild Wars and I think I'm gonna watch more Naruto now. I will be able to watch all of it that I have on my computer before I get home and have to watch 7 more.

I also can't believe the email I got about Bethel having problems with racial discrimination and Obama being the president elect now. I don't know what to say. Hopefully it cools down by the time I get there.

I would have gone to the beach but the weather wasn't the best. :(

I've been doing a lot of thinking about what Australia and my trip here means to me. I'll write about that soon.

I didn't go to the Rocks for live music since we got done with dinner too late, and I was lazy, and also wanting to be safe.

Tomorrow I want to go to the beach but it might rain. Hmm...maybe a movie! Burn After Reading looks good.

No More Uni!

2008-11-07T00:22:00.003+11:00

So I stayed up til about 4 last night filling in the note sheets for the exam today. Blah. At least I slept until almost noon, but I was still dead tired. I went to Burwood by bus #458. At Burwood, no buses came! I even saw the NEXT #458 bus go by. -_- What a waste of a half hour. I could've slept in more! Oh well, finally one came and I rode to school. I got there with about 10 minutes to spare. I needed to talk to Lorna to set up a ride to the airport on the 15th and ask about a ride to the dance. I took care of that and then went on to my exam...dun dun dun!

It went better than I thought. I dreaded it, but it was easier than I imagined. The sheet I filled out helped some, but not as much as I would have liked. She even gave us hints for what to study. Didn't really help...and I heard one girl took the entire 3 hours. I only took 1 and a half hours to do it. Whoohoo! And I kinda gave her a piece of my mind in the teacher evaluation. I filled out a lot...I wasn't "too mean" I hope. I was less worried about getting to the dance since I had time to go back now! I also went to the graphic design room and grabbed my photography project (and vivian's) from her cubbyhole, and took them back.

I went to the bus stop but saw the bus stopped. I started running. It pulled away. I thought I would continue to run and get it at the next bus stop but it kept going...so I was a little bummed. But it worked out for the best (again) because a few minutes later, Angela came up to me and told me Donn had the Tarago minivan parked and could take me home! Rockin'. So I just went with them, Angela, Donn, and Stephen. It was MUCH faster than public transport would have been (about 2x as fast).

Got home, showered again, got all ready and stuff, and finally we left. Doug drove the big bus/van which was nice. We were all stressing over how to get there. I wore normal light brown cargo pants, a white t-shirt, Cameron's green polo shirt, and my black sweater over that. And Ish's nice shoes with 3 pairs of socks so they would fit. I felt pretty underdressed. Most guys had jackets or ties. Oh well.

The dance was more or less a metaphor for my entire stay in Australia, although with a slant towards the worst. Because I have made few friends (but great friendships in them) and not gotten to know a lot of people, I was rather pathetic looking at the dance. First, I didn't know which table to go with. I wanted to go with Cameron, but he went ahead and got with the ASC girls I think. Not sure. Then Ish stepped up and got a table with the graphic design people. The girl asked what table I wanted, and I was like...uh...then she asked if I wanted to go with Ish. Sure, why not? Someone to talk to. So then I bummed around a little and saw some people from classes, a few pictures with their cameras (I only took a few with mine of the crowd dancing), and then we went to sit down. I guess someone took our seats. So we went out and got a new table, with music students (mew-zoze/musos) which was...ok. I didn't know any. I'd talked to one briefly before.

The salad I got was squid. Yummy! I liked it, Ish...not so much. Dinner for me was beef. It was awesome! Dessert...not so much. But I'm to blame. They had 2 salads, 2 dinners, and 2 desserts all handed out at random. Not sure what the other salad was exactly. The other dinner was chicken with marinara sauce. The desserts were some chocolate cream puff thing and some fruit pie. I was originally handed a chocolate thing. It looked good. I asked the girl next to me if anything was in it as filling. I guess there was. I looked at what Ish got, and it was a fruit thing. He was gone from the table at the moment. It looked to me like it was cheesecake, and it had strawberries and kiwi on top. I switched ours. Shhhhhh.

Too bad it wasn't cheesecake.

It was like sweetened meringue. Yuck. Oh well. I ate it all. It was just sweetend fluff and fruit. I talked a bit with the girl next to me. Her nickname is Chill...her real name is Chilo. From the Phillipines, but lives here and goes home every 3 years. She loves America more than Australia, haha. I barely danced. Only a little bit when I went on the floor to get in the circle to watch people do crazy things in the middle. But I could barely see. And at the last song of the night when I was pulled on to do the YMCA train. Other than that, I probably looked pretty lame just sitting there most of the night. I have a new story to write though. A Socially Inept's Guide to Not Dancing. The sequel to my last awesome story, A Cynic's Guide to Mortality. Speaking of which, I need to email that to Bethel for the creative writing thing. By their Friday. I'll just wake up and do that.

During the dance I got up and left twice to walk around the block at night. Kinda spooky just after halloween and in the dark and alone, but it was nice to get away from the commotion and be with myself. I had an awkward moment with a girl from my photography class. We weren't close at all but she came up to me and was like, "bye zack" (our last time seeing each other) and then she went to hug I think, but I have no idea. She...missed...or something. She brushed my arm. I was confused. Then I was the decisive man and went for a real hug since I didn't know what to do or say. Then after that it was an awkward pause for both of us. Then I broke the silence. Probably a mistake. I said "I'll miss you." But then I realized that's a lie. Then I said, "Maybe." Whoops. She said, "Oh gee, thanks Zack." but it wasn't in a super cruel way so I didn't feel too bad about it. She started with awkward, she got what was coming. Maybe. I don't know. I don't think she'll be too crushed since we barely knew each other. Me and my big mouth. I doubt I'll ever see her again though, even though she's an American.

Finally we left after the YMCA and got home at about midnight. I gave people their clothes back, talked a bit with Vivian after I gave her her stuff that I grabbed today, and went upstairs to watch the Anderson Cooper podcast and type this blog. The podcast was about Obama's win and I almost got emotional seeing the other countries from around the world cheering for him during the election, and everyone in America going wild with tears and happiness. I hope everyone can put aside their differences and realize what a gigantic step forward America has just done. I'm dead tired even though I only danced for about 10 minutes all together. Crazy. I'm also trying so hard to get my video game fix in. I hope my laptop can run Guild Wars!

Tomorrow I have...NOTHING on the schedule! Awesome. Although 7pm at THE ROCKS AKA MY FAVORITE PLACE IN THE WORLD (maybe I can do a video this time!) there will be live music! I think I MUST GO!

Hmm...now I might look into flying to Melbourne for a couple days. I have nothing else to do! And a friend to see! Exciting. I'll find out by the end of the weekend...

There is a cricket game on the 14th to go to, but everyone but me opted out so far. I can find replacements, but I think that will be tough. Guess I won't go...oh well, I heard it's rather boring to watch.

Last Day of UTS! Obama!

2008-11-05T23:50:00.003+11:00

So I ended up staying awake until 4:30 last night because of the videos in my powerpoint. I didn't think it would take as long as it did. First I had to find some on youtube, then I had to download (which took forever in my room so I literally went outside in a shirt and shorts at 2:30am and 3:40am with my laptop, walked towards the house with the good internet, connected to that, and stood outside in the middle of the night for a few minutes while the things would download, and I did that twice) then I had to encode, but because I didn't pay for the encoder, it stuck an ad on the middle of the video. So I found another, but this one only did the first three minutes of a video. I tried minimizing the ad and how much it was on the video and it took way too long.

And then I woke up rather early to get to UTS because we were supposed to go 30 mins early to make room for all the presentations. I got there and only a few people actually were there. No teacher though. I bummed around with my iPod until more people showed up. A substitute we had before was our teacher again. So our real lecturer was only there for the first class. Crazy. She marked our papers though and we got them today. I got a C++ which is also a computer programming language. But it basically translates to an American B+ while still making me feel kinda bad about it because it's 2 grades below the highest and only 1 above "pass." I can't wait to get back to our grading system. She really only marked me down for sentence structure. But here, if you make one mistake over and over, you get a lot of marks down. At home, they recognize it as one mistake and you get one mark down for them all, because they trust you learn your lesson for next time. We are nice, they are harsh. She also marked "kids" should be "children" in my paper. I guess I'm not thinking like a teacher. Oh well.

So being there early was a waste since we started at 1 anyways. Luckily they grabbed an audio/visual cart for us to use. That was the one thing I worried about. I brought my laptop in case I had to just play my slideshow on that for the class, but it was nice I didn't have to. But it sucked that I had to carry it around all day. It's heavy! I worried about my bag breaking like before. Tape keeps it together to this day. The presentations were good. We had 15 minutes each. I thought I would fly through mine but that wasn't the case. I initially was a bit awkward talking because I was racing through it as fast as possible. I misjudged the length of the video clips I had, and with 1/3rd of my presentation to go, I got the "1 minute left!" warning. Crap. So I raced even more to finish it up and at least I didn't stumble over words by then, but it wasn't as well done towards the end. I think my finish was strong though, so we'll see.

I ended up leaving before 2 people presented (it was already 3:25 when I left and our class usually goes until 3:00) just to catch the shuttle back. Then I got home at 5pm like usual. Free of UTS! I will miss that class, and the chance to watch up to 6 episodes of TV during the travel time. And the fast internet alongside the non-ancient computers.

I just vegged (vedged?) out after I got back. Dinner was early at 5:30, we had some scallopy potato-y stuff that wasn't too bad, salad with onions and feta cheese and green peppers, and breaded pieces of fish. Mmm. Which reminds me, I think the train or subway station or underground tunnel smelled like tomato soup. Weird.

I wanted to go to Julian's (a guy I live with, married, last sem. of uni for him, a couple years older than me) guitar recital, but I forgot about it. I didn't want to eat and run either, since they were leaving as we were praying. Oh well.

Then I went to do my note sheet for the exam tomorrow, that I get to use. I'm gonna be up late finishing it, since we can cover the entire 2 pages, front and back, with notes. At least I can sleep in since the exam is at 2pm-5pm. I heard an ASC girl took the entire 3 hours. *gulp* I'm nervous since this is the class with the teacher that shouldn't teach. I dread that class. At least the amount of anxiety will just hit rock bottom and I will be as happy as the Obama family was today, when it's over. And my grades on the papers so far should keep me afloat no matter how well or poor I do.

I was sad that I had to be gone all day and miss the election news. I had no idea it would be calculated this fast! Did Florida ban voting for people over 65? haha, kidding. I guess the biggest surprise is how much of a landslide it was. I thought it would surely be closer to 50-50 with the electoral votes. Crazy how much America is clamoring for Change. Now we just have to play the waiting game until January and hope the country doesn't go further south until then.

Tomorrow after my exam is the end of the year dinner/dance. Armed with my new swing dancing knowledge (I won't call it skills just yet), I just might dance. Probably not unless I really have to though. The dinner will be nice! I hope my clothes are formal enough to fit in. I should be fine. I'm borrowing a pair of Ish's shoes. They are a little big but we'll see what I can do...

Cheers! Pray for me and the exam!

I Can Swing Dance?

2008-11-04T23:17:00.003+11:00

Slept in again (feels like the longest weekend ever by now) and then I got around to studying for my exam. Then I got around to taking it before dinner. I have a bad feeling about it. The difficulty was way higher than the first exam in that class. Yikes. But I think I did OK enough.

Dinner was garlic bread, salad, and spaghetti. It's the one thing that Mariange did better, actually. But it was still pretty good. Dinner last night was omitted in my entry yesterday because I forgot. I remember we had a weird potato salad type thing, something else, and some awesome chicken breast. I missed chicken!

I looked up last night the warranty for my iPod and I guess it comes with one that lasts until November 20th. I was like, whew, I can get it fixed when I go home! But then I read the year...2009. So I have a bit of time which is good. But I'm guessing they only fix stuff not under "dropping it, getting it wet, etc" and that's good since nothing like that has happened to mine! Yet. Well I did drop it last night, but luckily I had the covering on and it still works like before. So the issues I'm having aren't related. I think I'll go to the awesome Apple store Friday.

I didn't go to the pub because my alarm never went off. I use my iPod as the alarm and I accidentally set my clock on it wrong. It was PM instead of AM, after I reset it to fix the problems (which didn't work). At least it still works overall. Just a few minor issues.

Now I am in the process of putting together my presentation for UTS tomorrow. It should be ok. Romeo and Juliet vs. West Side Story. Fun.

After that tomorrow, I just have to put together a note sheet for my exam by 2pm Thursday. That lasts until 5pm on Thursday and I'll be done for the semester! Woooo!

Oh, during my homework I got up to see the commotion in the other room. Some people were practicing their swing dancing for the end of the year dinner. I thought why not? and joined. So I can *technically* swing dance now. But only the basics. Sorta like me and guitar. I'll only use this skill if I have to...

Exchange rate is just under .69. Here's to 75+ by the time I leave!

An Aussie Cut My Hair!

2008-11-04T01:18:00.003+11:00

Slept in again, quick breakfast, then I went to the mall for a haircut. I knew I saw a place for an $18 haircut before, so I was looking for that place. But Ash told me about "Just Cuts" and I saw it on the info thing in the mall and found it, went there, saw $25 cuts and continued to look for the cheap place. I walked around the entire mall before I found it...then I had to wait for the 2nd hairstylist to get off his break I guess. So I waited a bit and then got it done. I didn't do anything crazy Aussie or whatever, but he did cut it differently. Like...quicker and more rough. Back home they are more slow and relaxed. I think it looks good and people at student housing like it too. Whew. I was so paranoid before...

I have been meaning to talk about this in past entries, but I always forgot. Here, they don't tip. Not at all. I learned that from Gary, the guy I had a smoothie with in Chinatown. Maybe I talked about it, but I can't remember. So I felt kinda awkward leaving the haircut place without giving a tip. Oh well.

Then I picked up a plastic film thing to protect the screen of my iPod. No scratches, yay. And it doesn't make it bulky like the other cases. It came with a film for the back to protect that, but the back is curved and has this black piece in the corner. The film is shaped to not cover that. But the shape of the film doesn't fit the shape of the iPod back. And the back is curved on the iPod, so it doesn't adhere very well on the curves. I gave up and it is unprotected now. Oh well, the screen is all the matters. I also got hair gel, in case. I don't think I brought any here. If I did, oops. Then I looked for 3x5 cards for my presentation. I couldn't find any like at home. I did get sticky notes that are the same size, but yellow, and sticky at the top. That'll work. Then I went back and worked again on my music library. So close to being done! But now my iPod is showing signs of trouble. I'm getting an update now that I hope fixes it. Otherwise I will bring it to the Apple store probably Friday. If all goes to plan, I should be finished with everything on Thursday.

After I got back, I biked with Alvin to the video store. We didn't end up renting anything, but the trip was fun! Down the hill the way there and up it on the way back. I used Ash's bike. People wear helmets here I guess. Weird...

I can't wait to get home and use my electric toothbrush! I almost forgot I had it. And the bristles should still be stiff since I haven't used it at home much since replacing the head. I couldn't use it here because of the power adapter not charging it.

Another thing I haven't mentioned is their public school system. They all have uniforms! It's opposite to back home. Private schools here don't have uniforms. It's very weird though, I usually only see girls. It's not that I don't notice the guys, I just don't see them. I pass at least one all girls school on the way to my own Uni. I actually think I might pass 2 or 3. I'm so glad I never had to wear a uniform...

I don't know if I mentioned that I had an Aussie kiwi last week or not, so I'm saying it again. Not much of a difference from the kiwis we get.

I finished reading from one book that I need to before the takehome exam, which I will do tomorrow when I wake up. I'll study tonight and before I take it tomorrow. I might go to a pub tomorrow also, which is basically a restaurant. Not a bar in the sense of what we think a pub is. Just a disclaimer. :P

Tick tock to the election and tick tock to my coming home! Wheeeeeeee...

I Cut My Own Hair!

2008-11-02T22:48:00.005+11:00

So I slept in...and stayed in bed way longer than I wanted to originally. I reasoned that weekends throw off the bus schedules and it would probably ruin my attempt to get a haircut in town, so I just stayed in bed longer and reasoned I'd do it tomorrow.

Then I washed my hair and got a scissors and cut the bangs off. It's nice to see again! And it's quite noticeable.

Then I read some, had breakfast, and eventually it came time for the Darling Harbour event. We left a little late because everyone had to get ready. Myself, Alvin, Langsoon, Ish, Saskia, and Selina all went together. On the way there I watched an episode of Naruto. Also on the way back, another episode.

We got a little lost that lasted for about 2 minutes then found our way. We sat on the harbour and they were doing a thing about the past 25 years. I've only been there for a couple months so it wasn't interesting to me at all. Finally at 6 they started. There were tons of people there. I took some photos and a couple videos but the battery was running out so I didn't take as much as I'd like to have.

So many people were there! Here is the photo album. It was cool to see so many gathered in one spot and singing so loudly. Reminded me of a Dr. Seuss scene. At one point the speakers went dead and I don't think the band noticed, but everyone kept singing. They still played and had the words up so it was amazing that it kept going. Then everyone cheered when they got it working again. Before it started I got Langsoon, Alvin and I subway sandwiches. Gotta love the BMT. Towards the end Alvin and I went to Maccas but the queue was so long, so we got ice cream instead. I had forest berry cheesecake! Oh so good, like Cold Stone!

We left early since it was getting dark and cold. But Ish and the Swiss girls stayed behind. Cameron was also there but not with us. Apparently they had fireworks after we left. Cool. Not that bummed that I missed it though. It was cold!

At home now and I read some and now about to go to bed. Haircut tomorrow hopefully! And I will try to finish one exam and prepare my entire presentation, or at least half.

The rate is still .66 today. And on iTunes I accidentally bought 2 songs! Ack. Not even good ones too. Sucks. It was kinda cold out today. I need a nice hot day to go to the beach soon!

One reason I can't wait to go home is because of the timezone. In America, stuff happens. I'm asleep when everything happens. Huge events are always in America. TV is basically American. Movie releases are mostly American. Video game releases are American. All my good friends will be awake when I am!

Hopefully the Last load of Aussie Laundry

2008-11-02T03:32:00.003+11:00

Slept in, woke up, breakfast, music stuff, went to Burwood with Alvin and Langsoon.

We ate at a Chinese restaurant and it was amazing. I had Singapore noodles. Green peppers, onions, bbq pork, baby shrimp, good stuff! $8.90AUS too. Not bad. Alvin paid for all of us and it was my farewell meal, he said. I hope it's not one of those goodbyes before you actually leave and then it becomes really awkward.

We walked around Burwood a bit after that, most of the stores were closing though. Even in the mall! 90% of the place was closed and it wasn't even 5:30! Alvin said Aussies have a different priority than Singapore and America. Here they care about their families. I was like...oh yeah...everyone else would rather shop than be with the family.

The exchange rate today is around .66. And I did my weekend job which was mopping the laundry room. Also I did my laundry. It should last me the rest of the time here.

We went back and I read a lot to catch up before I do my exam. My iPod had a problem because of me adding album cover art and having it be too big to handle so it would freeze and lock up, and so I have to do a bit more to get that fixed. Oh well.

I'm aiming to get a haircut tomorrow! And then I'm going to Darling Harbour for Hillsong's 25th year celebration! I will bring my camera and it looks like it will be amazing!

99 degrees.

2008-10-31T21:14:00.003+11:00

Yup, it was that hot today. Not too sunny where I live though. I would go to the beach or get a haircut but I didn't know where it was and got a little lazy.

I went OCD on my music library instead. I slept in a ton and then got most of the organizing done.

Dinner was pork, sweet potatoes, potatoes, and peas with gravy. Yum. I was on washup so I did that.

Halloween isn't really celebrated here, but the ASC people are having a party tonight and I decided not to go. I would feel awkward since I haven't gotten to know most of them. I could've went as Wolverine though...Cameron went as a baby. I can't believe it...

Now Harry Potter 2 is on TV. Vivian's perfume semi-exploded just now. That was quite an event. Nilli used it for her costume and must've dropped it on Vivian's floor in her room before leaving. Too bad the "spray" mechanism is stuck in the on position now and it just keeps going and going. Now Ash and I smell extra nice.

The sunset was beautiful so I grabbed my camera and got a few pictures. Since I had my camera out, I was inspired to finally do a video tour of the place. I don't think I'll put them online though. I will probably do another, quicker video tour tomorrow during the daytime too. It was dark when I did mine.

The rate is .66 now, but on the news just now, a guy said a recession might happen and it could go to .40. Crazy!

I think I'll watch the Office and hopefully finish my music stuff tonight before bed.

I know I want a huge nice meal when I get back. Steak or Olive Garden, if possible. ;)

Last Day of Uni

2008-10-30T23:40:00.003+11:00

Slept in, watched 2 TV show episodes on the bus rides to class.

It was the last day of class today and pretty good, our third class about Revelation by the guest teacher. Very interesting stuff. I failed at being the tech wiz guy that Marianna said I was and couldn't get the DVD/VCR combo thing to work. Oh well, we still got Narnia to play on his laptop. Backup plan of his, I guess.

After class I got the shuttle home. I went to the common room to hang out and was in the room during the 4th time Made of Honor was playing. At least the music isn't bad. I streamlined junk which is just what I do when I'm bored. Hopefully I won't much more time on facebook than I need to. I spent a ton of time on my music library again, and converting more videos to iPod format. Dinner finally happened at 7:40 instead of the 6:30 usual. I was starving. We had keesh. I have no idea how to spell it. We also had some noodle salad stuff and normal lettuce salad. The keesh was good the first time. Mine was a small piece and it had ham in it. I went back for seconds and it didn't have ham in it and was bigger. I didn't like it at all.

After that some of us went back up and watched TV. I went through my music library again.

The exchange rate is way up to .67 now! Amazing. The higher it goes before I leave, the better.

The rest of my academics here look like:

-Take home exam due two weeks from this past Tuesday (and the reading I have to catch up on)
-Exam next Thursday. I get hint sheet to write as much notes on as possible before then.
-Presentation next Wednesday at UTS

That's it! I am enjoying the free time and relaxation I have. I think it will help my transition back home. Hopefully. By being free to do things, I can experience more if it comes up. Not sure if we're still going to the cricket game on the 14th, but I asked. And the end of the year dinner is on the 7th. My ticket is paid for, so I guess I will go. I will borrow nice clothes most likely. Tomorrow I might get a haircut. And do homework. Maybe the beach! I don't think I'll go to the Halloween party though...hm...

Open Minded Wins!

2008-10-29T22:34:00.003+11:00

So I woke up at 9:30 with my iPod as my new alarm clock.

I went to UTS, watching videos on my iPod whenever I wasn't walking, and listening to music when I was. Good times!

Looks like I bought it at the right time, too! The rate is up to .649 now...

The bus was sorta late to take me to the train station. The train I rode also made a ton of stops before Central (downtown) and I didn't think it would take as long as it did. The tracks were down last weekend for repair, but at least they were up today. I thought I would be late today! I sped walked down the tunnel downtown and I've never walked that fast. My legs burned. I should speed walk at home to keep strong.

The shuttle bus at UTS normally leaves at 11:32 and gets where I need to be at 12:14 according to the schedule and my past experience. I really hustled to make it on time and got there just a few minutes early luckily. But it ended up leaving at 11:48 anyways! So I would've made it if I strolled along. Oh well. It was raining all day today so maybe that had something to do with it. We still got there at 12:14.

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but the bathrooms at UTS have numbers on the door. How crazy. Room numbers on the bathrooms. So weird.

The computers were all taken and they didn't have wireless so I watched more videos on my iPod while I ate my lunch. Eventually time rolled around for class and I went. Only 1 other girl was there after 20 minutes of waiting. She hasn't been there in over a month of classes. She missed last week and the first half of the movie which was last week (it's not that bad, she is kind of annoying...and I guess she was in the hospital keeping up with her work but they made her go to class to get credit). So the substitute asked if I wanted to stay. I said not if I was the only one (it was pointless for the other girl to stay) so he said we could go early. So I caught the shuttle back right away and ended up home at 2:45 instead of the normal 5:00.

I came to the common room and enjoyed a little peace and quiet before Jenny joined and put in Made of Honor in. I forgot to put it in my blog, but we watched that last night. Not a bad movie. I also forgot to mention another prank. They put vegetable oil in the scrubber. That is hard to clean up. I also learned today they tilted a picture on the wall, put a sticky note on another picture, moved some stuff around, switched some plates in the cubbyholes (not mine).

I did more music library fine tuning today, podcast watching, more figuring out how I'm going to get clips for my presentation, and watched some TV while doing this.

After class tomorrow I have nothing to do. This weekend I have no plans. I think it looks like it will rain. That's what the iPod says at least. Weather back home is similar but colder, it looks like.

Oh the title! I tried Vegemite finally! It's pure yeast extract and purely Australian. They spread it on top of toast with butter. I have heard it's horrible and wanted to taste it. Aussies say it's an aquired taste even. It's salty and has a weird taste. It wasn't the worst thing in the world, like how a lot of Americans see it (probably because they put a lot on). I don't think I'll have it ever again though...

I also tried Nutella stuff. It wasn't that brand but it was that hazelnut spread. I was always afraid of the hazelnut bit of it since I hate nuts and didn't know it was chocolatey. Now that I tried it, I love it!

There is a Halloween party I guess, on Friday night. I suppose I could go to that. But that means dressing up. I'm so lazy. And it's run by someone from the ASC program and I haven't really gotten to know most of them. Some yes, but not the one running it really.

Oh the paradoxes I live with. In my room I can get things done. But the internet is slow. Even if the things I need to do don't involve the internet, just not having internet bothers me enough to come over to the common room, where the internet is fast. But in the common room, there is a TV and if someone's in the room, it's always on. I intended to watch a ton of movies I have on my computer over this semester. I have had the time of course, but yet I'm always sucked into whatever is on this TV. Usually it's stuff I don't want to watch. But I come for the internet. I end up not getting much done because I get sucked into whatever's on. I just can't win. Although, I have best of both worlds at home...which is one thing I'm looking forward to.

It's interesting to note that I don't miss the shower at home anymore. I've gotten used to the one here most likely. I assume that when I get home, the high water pressure is going to be such a huge change for me. It will be like water bullets shooting out of the faucet at home. And no cold draft coming from the window, that will be nice.

Home is looking nice now. 17 days left. Tick tock, here I come, emotional rollercoaster...here I come.

And I just changed my laptop DVD player's region code for my project. First step to success! I hope...

Not Really Productive

2008-10-29T01:01:00.002+11:00

Today I woke up early to ride the shuttle to school. I noticed the kitchen clocks were set ahead slightly and fixed them. Also a part of the pranks...

Class was good. Our last one, now I have to do a take home exam due in 2 weeks. Exciting...

After that I road the bus back home. I talked with Cameron and Alvin about stuff. I almost went to see Burn After Reading, but it was $10 and Alvin didn't want to go since it was too short at 96 minutes.

I set up my laptop in the kitchen and again messed around with my iPod, watched Heroes, and helped Alvin set up computery things on his own laptop.

I did that until dinner which was soft shell tacos with chicken and lettuce. Pretty yum. Now I want a taco from home.

After that I went back to my room and did more music library trimming. It's the worst because it's so tedious and I can't multitask.

I eventually went over to the common room to borrow someone Australian's laptop to burn a movie. I couldn't figure out how even with that laptop...so I hope I figure it out in time, or come up with a good solution. This weekend I can devote to that and the takehome exam. Also on Thursday I will get a sheet to write notes down for another exam on either the 6th or hopefully next Monday. I talked to a girl in my class at the bus stop and she said someone was leaving early and taking her exam on Monday so she wanted to try to do that too. If I could get both my Theology exams done by next Monday, AND get my presentation done at UTS on Wednesday the 5th, that would be amazing. 10 free days before going back.

I realized I'm facing an enormous emotional rollercoaster very soon. I'm going to be the first to leave now. Though I think Angela is going the same day to NZ. Maybe Cameron too, but if not, he's probably leaving Student Housing with his parents to go around and then to NZ. Sonja and Jenny aren't leaving til December, but they probably are leaving Student Housing too around this time. Not sure about Bri though. Well, most of the people here will be going shortly anyways, so staying around wouldn't be that good.

The dollar dipped to .60 today still and now it's at .62. I hope it keeps going up...

The pranksters made it super obvious who they were tonight. I guess Ash and Lauren did it. Not sure why...usually Ash is actually funny when he does things. Maybe they were bored. Of course now I'm thinking of harmless but annoying pranks to get back at them. We'll see what I come up with...since I did get honey on my hand after all.

Cheers!

What is a Laptop?

2008-10-27T23:05:00.002+11:00

Today I rode the shuttle for my last Photography class. We presented our pictures and I did get the slip cover things that I needed, before class so everything was fine. After that we did these transfer things. I was mostly time keeper for the class, which was fine. They were wet so I had to leave them at school in Vivian's pigeon hole thing. Hopefully I can grab them Thursday.

After that, I went back on the bus. My iPod is so awesome! I have watched video podcasts and episodes of cartoons that I've downloaded on my computer prior to Australia, played music, while riding the bus. They will make tons of money off of these in the big cities (such as Sydney--I noticed 1 or 2 people with them today).

I got home at about 1...ish. and Ish was about to walk with Alvin to Burwood to the mall. I guess Alvin was going to sell my iPod for much higher right now and get an iPod touch like me. Oh well. I will try to not hold it against him. Dang capitalism. He hasn't sold it or bought a new one yet though. I walked with them even though I was planning on napping when I got back. I'm pretty tired now. We walked around the whole mall, Alvin looked at iPods but decided not to get one yet. He did just get a car and then opt out of it so I guess he felt like getting a toy instead. We got bubble tea, his treat. It's not that bad! I like the gummies they put at the bottom most. I had grape gummies...and then when it was just ice and gummies left, we were in Target and I was trying to suck them up but they'd be tough to get up the straw and finally they'd just shoot down my throat like a bullet. One time I coughed and felt like I was drowning even though it was just a sip. Yikes. We looked at DVDs and phones and video games too.

On the way back I made a note on my iPod to add the Aussie way of saying "leisure" to my slang. They say "layshure" which is interesting. Also banana is said weird by them, but I don't know how to phonetically differentiate it. So I won't. I also tried to look up a Bible verse that Alvin was referencing. Got back and I went to the common room. Summer Heights High was in and I have to try to burn that or something! It's region locked so buying it wouldn't help. Hmm...it's so funny. I watched that while messing more with my iPod.

Eventually dinner rolled around and it was white sauce pasta with chicken and mushrooms. And salad. Not bad.

After dinner we had a huge meeting with everyone because last night someone played some annoying pranks on everyone. They were pretty elaborate too. Honey smeared on the fridge handle? Yuck. That was the only one that affected me, since last night I went to get a drink and got my hand a little smudgy. I didn't think it was a big deal. Just someone's lame attempt to be funny. Meh. I also noticed the milk was red and green with food coloring. No big deal also, reminds me of St. Patties day at home. This "prank" was also stupid and I didn't mind. I guess they also locked the kitchen door, put sugar on the ceiling fan in the kitchen, and put jam on the seats. Stupid people. They also put red food coloring in the Milo powder. That really sucks. Turns your tongue red. And I think food coloring is not good for you. Not sure. But I guess I won't be having Milo any time soon.

The door was after I went to bed and probably after I left for school because it was open in the morning. The milk was done again later on, I heard. My morning milk was white, that's all I know. The sugar on the fan...was probably the worst. A couple people had to clean it up off the table and I bet that was a huge pain. I feel sorry for them, and I didn't even notice. I don't even know how to turn the fan on. I didn't even know we had a fan really. Then I heard of the jam on the seats, but I didn't see or feel any so I duno when that was. I sat down in the morning and was fine...so that made everyone in a crappy mood and it really sucked. The worst part about it is that no one knows who did it. Or else they aren't confessing and most don't know who did it. All the people I would remotely accuse (and hardly) are just as mad as me, so it's crazy. I wonder if it was someone not from Student Housing. But they would have to be let in. Weird. Unless someone forgot to lock the door. But that's still weird, why would someone let themselves in and do pranks and leave? And it happened on two occasions at least, so it was elaborate. Arg. Oh well. I would be surprised if it happened again.

After that, I went back to my room and actually used my laptop. No need since I was on my iPod before! I guess I am a little obsessed and over the top about it...I suppose the exciting feeling has mostly worn off. Although I'm the kind of person to delay that as much as possible...

On my laptop I cleaned up my music library a bunch. I trimmed the excess songs and am working through fixing some of the information. I'm OCD when it comes to that. It's so tedious! Luckily my exams are a couple weeks off yet.

Ash got curious and messed with a sensor like fire alarm thing and he set it off. So for about 10 minutes it was blaring loud in the hostel area. Eventually they got it to turn off but it was quite eventful. Luckily it wasn't super late.

The dollar actually went even further down to .60846...I hope it doesn't go too far down more so that I regret my purchase...

Downtown Smoothie!

2008-10-27T01:32:00.002+11:00

Today I woke up at noon again and ended up going downtown to meet a friend in chinatown. It was a guy I knew online and I was kinda nervous. Then he was late to the pagoda gates! Well, first I got there way early since I didn't know exactly where it was. Then I went off to the side to wait. Try finding an Asian guy you've never met before in a sea of Asian people. I so badly wanted to prove "they all look alike" wrong. Technically I did. So 2:30 passed, and that was when he said to be there. I was like..hmm...then I peeked in chinatown and walked through, scanning everyone. Then I noticed there's another entrance on the other side! It's like a giant hallway with a ton of Asian restaurants on each side. So I looked around at that gate and didn't see any guy waiting. I turned back and walked through again. After getting back to the other gate, I glanced around again. I saw this guy standing there and looked at him. He looked at me. I thought it was him, but I wasn't sure. I also didn't like the fact that I could have been staring at a random guy! So I looked away and walked past and back to where I waited before. Then I stopped and waited. Luckily I was right, and he noticed and came up to me. A lot easier finding a lone American I bet!

After that it wasn't too awkward. We walked to a nearby coffee shop. He got an iced coffee and I got a strawberry smoothie. We just talked about our lives and it was a good time. Only awkward when we ran out of things to say, then we scrambled for more and eventually found stuff. I think we were there until 4:15 about. He was nice and paid for my smoothie. He studies at University of New South Wales and wants to be a doctor. Cool guy. Probably won't ever see him again though. Never know. He pointed me out in the direction of the train station so I wouldn't get lost. I walked around a bit trying to find it before I got there, after all.

Road the train back, walked a little bit back and then I saw Doug, Sonja, Jenny, and Alex (Aussie guy that doesn't live with us all) in nice clothes. I guess they were going to the Wesley concert they were singing in. Cool. Then I took about 5 steps towards home before I saw a van with Ish in it. It was Donn driving to Hillsong! I didn't know what time they were gonna leave so I hoped I'd get back in time to change and still go, but I guess not! So I made a quick decision to hop in the van while they were at a red light, and away we went. I wasn't really dressed for the occasion, but oh well. I missed Hillsong. It was a prayer service the entire 1-1:30 long. I was tired standing up that whole time. It was really good though. I got a good feeling about my dad and felt that I didn't need to worry about him. I am thankful for that. At one point they had all the American students go up on stage in the front and we all prayed for the economy. They let 3 students pray with the mics even. I didn't go up for 3 reasons though. 1) lazy. 2) i was farther than most of them. they were practically already there! and 3) i think they were all from hillsong college.

After that, we drove home and I messed around with my iPod more and on the computer a little. I helped Alvin out with my old iPod since I sold it to him. The rate went to .62 so I have so far made a wise decision...

My iPod can:
-have a kangaroo pic i took as the wallpaper
-tell time, world clocks, alarm, stopwatch, timer
-calendar
-read my email
-save contacts
-youtube
-google maps
-weather
-calculator
-be a remote control for my music on my laptop
-notepad
-Bible
-lightsaber
-Facebook
-Black Jack
-Sudoku
-Stocks
-Tell a person about themselves based on their birthday
-Tell me places to eat nearby and reviews and how much I'll spend and what type of food it is and where it is
-air hockey
-pac-man
-fake lighter
-solitaire
-Block game
-Tell me movies that are currently playing, upcoming, reviews, trailers
-iTunes store to buy music or videos
-play the national anthem
-display currency conversion rates
-Instant messenger
-German common phrases translated and even audibly spoken on the iPod for me to mimic
-look up items and compare prices online
-display nearest gas station, restaurants, hotels, etc
-play videos
-slideshow photos (i have all my australian photos only on it)
-browse the web
-Nike device to sync with special shoes for workouts

Oh...and I think it plays music too.

Newest Facebook Photo Album!

New iPod!

2008-10-25T23:18:00.002+11:00

That's the most exciting thing of today.

So last night the exchange rate went down the tubes. For Australia. .61! I couldn't believe it. I checked it first thing in the afternoon when I woke up and it was still stuck on .61! So I resolved...that I needed an iPod. A touch, 16gb. My email devotional made me laugh. It was about seizing the opportunities and not procrastinating. Do things NOW! I think I misinterpreted it...haha.

So I asked people around here where to get one. There is an Apple seller by the Burwood bus stop and the only other place I know is the fancy huge Apple store downtown. They told me JB HiFi would have it cheaper. I looked online to see it was $4 cheaper at $415 instead of Apple.com's listed $419 (in AUS) so Angela and I went. It seems like we are the only people that want to get out of the house and are actually around the house to do so. Ash tagged along since he was going to a beer tasting festival downtown also.

Too bad the traintracks were getting stuff done to them. We took a train to the main terminal (a lot like Grand Central Terminal in NYC) and that was fine. We walked a ton to the place and luckily found it. My legs are sore now and I'll sleep well tonight. I accidentally wore pants. It warmed up a lot since yesterday. Huge mistake. I got the iPod first thing and was so excited. My mood hasn't been this high in awhile. I made sure not to open it before we got back and I could check my bank account to see if I really did pay what I thought, with the transfer rate. $415 AUS (tax is included in the price) turned out to be $259.51 in USD. At home it would be $300+tax. Sweet.

After JB, we walked to the Circular Quay (pronounced "key") and Ash went his way. Angela and I finally got to the Botanical Gardens by the Opera House. I had no idea what to expect. The place was gigantic. I took pics and will put them up tomorrow. After getting there, 10 minutes into the walking around, we saw Saskia and Selina, the Swiss girls! How crazy seeing people we knew from home in such a random spot! It was amazing with how huge the gardens were. They were going to a concert.

After we were done with that, we walked and found a place near the train station that had buses lined up to replace the trains. It was packed, and we went to the terminal place again, before riding a train back to Strathfield and walking the rest back. Once home, I had to play with iPod, which I've been doing mostly the rest of the day. I didn't have much of a dinner, just leftovers. As far as movies that have been playing while I messed around, Mr. and Mrs. Smith and the Happening were in.

Tomorrow I'm gonna try to go to chinatown to meet someone I know. We'll see how that goes. Hope I can find it!

Up and Down and All Around

2008-10-24T22:54:00.002+11:00

Slept in til noon. I woke up from a dream where I was in a little boat in the water with other people in other boats and I had a stack of dollar bills that I was stealing from someone. Over the loudspeaker they said they caught a thief and were pursuing. I wasn't worried because in my dream, I apparently thought there was another real thief and what I stole wasn't really enough to care about and chase after. It was all $1s, anyways. I duno what it was about...

I went to Burwood's Kmart to return my $17 shorts. So that's good. Though the exchange rate is good for buying, bad for returning now. Hmm...dang! Oh well. Haha...

I also was going to print off my photos for my portfolio. But I went in Kmart and completely blanked on the size I needed to print. So after bumbling around without a clue, I decided I'd leave and come back tomorrow after I asked Vivian what size to print. So I looked at my watch and sped walked to the bus stop outside. I saw it pull away. So close. So I sat on the bench and decided to listen to my iPod for 30 minutes until the next bus came.

Less than 10 minutes later, Vivian runs up to me asking me what I was doing there. Crazy coincidence, she slept in later than me I guess. She was doing the same thing at Kmart, her photos. So I asked her what size and we both went back and to the kiosks. I picked lucky and got a good kiosk. She wasn't as lucky. I got a ticket that said it would be ready at 10AM the next day. So did Vivian. But some girl that worked there said mine was ready to pick up right then! How my luck had changed from missing the bus! Good thing I did miss it after all. Vivian still has to go get hers tomorrow since the connection wasn't as good on her kiosk. Bummer.

After I got mine (they look nice!), we parted ways. I went to Wesley to get a folder binder thingy that I don't really know what it looks like, and she went downtown to get some special paper for class Monday. The bus to Wesley came way early so it was lucky I was there. I got to Wesley, went to the reception desk, and sorta tried to explain what I wanted to her. She gave me a 3 hole punched clear paper sleeve thing. I didn't know if it was right or not, but I ended up taking it and leaving anyways. I rode the bus home and got back at about 4:30.

Then I loaded the Office and caught up online. Then dinner was good, we had a beef stir fry that was different from Mariange's. Carrots and potatoes this time!

After dinner I watched the Office. I walked to the video store and Alvin rented Stardust, Enchanted, and Ocean's 13. We watched Ocean's 13 and planned on watching Stardust but he said not tonight for some reason he didn't go into. They watched the Mighty Boosh and I watched my AC360 podcast.

The dollar is .61 tonight!!!!!

I can't believe it. The lowest it's ever been! That iPod is looking tempting and feasible again...hmmm...

People keep talking about the overall morale of student housing and how it's gone up since M.A. and Bernard have left. It's kinda refreshing and couldn't have come at a better time.

I think I will have to get the right folder binder thing on Monday at school before class, or else turn it in with the wrong thing. The teacher was unclear so I duno what else to do. I have nothing to do tomorrow but figure out how to get a region 2 DVD to burn and get the files on my computer, so I can use clips for my presentation.

I want to go somewhere tomorrow, but I don't know where to go. Maybe the gardens by the opera house? The weather is sorta back to normal after that recent cold blast.

Flowers in the Morning

2008-10-24T01:39:00.002+11:00

So I slept in and woke up to a big bouquet of flowers from Bethel's International Studies Office. Those were nice.

I think I am going to submit a piece of writing for the Coeval through email. The submissions are due by the 7th of November, so I imagine that by the time they select them, I'll be home.

I also worked with someone at Bethel to figure out credits and such. I won't know for sure until it transfers, but it's looking pretty good. Interim off will be extra nice! But I will have to work...oh well.

So I went to class, got there, no computers were open in the library. Sad. They don't have many and they are all very very old so it makes the annoyance smaller. I did have to print a coversheet for my photography portfolio though. I went to class and it was pretty good. During the 20 minute break, I got my printing done luckily.

After class, I rode the shuttle home with the new driver since Bernard had to go back home, Donn. He is the one that drives the van or shuttle to Hillsong, so it's an easy transition. And plus, he knows how to accelerate and decelerate! B&M being gone also means the door that goes from the kitchen into the stairwell (happens to be next to their curtained off space where they live) is now open at night! Previously they actually locked it, so they could sleep easier. But now it's open 24/7 since they aren't around to wake up! It's a lot easier walking and convenient. And I can skip the last two steps and land on the ground with a loud thud! without waking them. Nifty. And I can eat breakfast at 11:30 on days like today when my first class is at 2, without Mariange walking around the kitchen eyeing me disprovingly for eating so late. Ah so nice. A lot of stress left with them and the bittersweetness keeps getting sweeter for the people here.

Also after class in the kitchen, I talked with Joel the cook and Ash. I guess Mariange was a control freak of the highest calibur. "On Monday you fix this. On Tuesday you fix this for them. Wednesday, make this." And so on. I think we have been eating the same meals every week since I got here. I had no idea. I knew she had a cookbook the size of a matchbox, but I didn't know we ate one meal on one day and another meal on another. It makes sense and kinda creeps me out. He said he was gonna cook a roast and she told him to use rice. Good thing he didn't! I'm so sick of rice right now. Rice, Curry, Shephard's Pie...if I never see them again ever, I will be content.

Tonight we had great pasta. I told him about my distaste for M.A.'s shephard's pie and how because it looks like lasagna, it hurts more. He said he was gonna cook lasagna next week. He is a godsend!

After that I worked on my photography stuff after watching Anderson Cooper's podcast. The dollar was at .65 but I don't think I'll get an iPod unless it takes a nosedive even further. Just not in the cards right now.

People watched a Million Dollar Baby and the Truman Show while I did my work.

Project 1

Project 2

Project 3

Project 4

Tomorrow I have to go to Kmart to get them printed nicely. And also Wesley to get a sleeve to put them in. Whee...

Whoops...

2008-10-22T21:05:00.003+11:00

I got up for class and accidentally stayed on the bus too long. I ended up in Burwood like I would do if I went to Wesley. But today is UTS day! So luckily I knew where the train station was in Burwood, so I just had a short walk to there and took a train to Central where UTS is. I made it on time.

For class we had a male teacher and his accent + voice = whoa. He was an older man and I guess he will teach us next week also. We are watching an entire movie over 2 classes (usually we just watch the intro and talk about it) so that's cool. It's Matewan, from the 80s. I've never heard of it. It's not bad.

I got home at 5 and dinner was at 6:15ish. We had BBQ chicken and salad and potato wedges. Wow, practically American! I liked it.

Last night I messaged my good friends at home about my dad and that was good to get it off my chest. I told Alvin before I left this morning. We talked after dinner and that was good. I also mentioned it to Ash. I'm just worried about my little brother above all. Also I chatted a tiny bit with Cameron about it. I think before I go to bed, I will write about my thoughts.

The dollar is hovering around 67-69 cents.

I hope my classes transfer how I want so I don't have to go to Bethel for Interim. That would be a nice break. We'll see. I'm sure I could petition and everything will turn out fine.

It was the coldest day in October in 45 years here.

Overslept!

2008-10-21T19:29:00.002+11:00

Ah! So I got to bed at 11 last night which was amazing. I was well rested and set my alarm for 7:15. I actually woke up at 7 and didn't get up because I wanted the extra 15 minutes. Next thing I know, it's 7:56 and the shuttle leaves at 8! Ah! I raced downstairs, washed my hair, and looked to see if the shuttle was there or not. I saw Langoon pulling out in his car, so I waved him down. He's in my class so that was lucky. He missed the shuttle too so I got really lucky when he gave me a ride.

Class was ok, and I rode the bus home after. I didn't really dress warm so waiting for the bus was hard since it was so cold out. It's supposed to be summer! Finally got on the bus and then was about 15 minutes early at the burwood bus. I decided to stop by the donut shop quickly before it came. Oh, Australians think it's really weird to eat donuts for breakfast. They see them as a snack. Mine was double chocolate marble. The frosting was weird though. It was more solid than normal. Like I could have broken the entire frosting off as one piece. It was like a piece of chocolate from a candybar. Still wonderful! I miss donuts.

There is not a day that goes by where someone without a muffler (or a modified muffler to make it super loud) doesn't drive by. It's ridiculous. I won't miss that for sure.

Then I came home and went online to figure out stuff dealing with my registration for Bethel. I still have to sort out if I need an Interim class. I'm kinda thinking I won't spend $500 for a class I don't need. I also watched Heroes online and talked to my bro about my dad. The funeral will be while I sleep, I think. He said he'd email me with how it went.

Bernard and Mariange are now gone to the island off of Madagascar where they are from, to see Bernard's mom in the hospital. They're gone til the 12th of November, just a few days before I'm off. It's a sort of bittersweet that's more sweet than bitter for the people in Concord Student Housing. We have a new cook, Joel, and so far...it's good. Today he asked some people's opinions actually. Unheard of! Before we were asked but nothing was done about it. Hopefully he'll actually listen...

Tonight dinner was great. We had slices of pork, green beans (oh how I missed green beans!), and potato and pumpkin hunks. Mmm.

I suppose I'll try to get to bed early tonight too. This sleep thing works if I try hard enough! But it's my UTS class anyways, that will be awesome no matter how sleep deprived I am.

Still Sore, Still Tired

2008-10-20T19:18:00.004+11:00

So got up for Photography. That was pretty good. We were treated to the local coffee shop by the teacher and we took pics of the food. I had some freeon cake thing and a hot chocolate. Yum. I didn't even bring my school bag. After class I rode the bus to Burwood (and I caught it right in time! it's also where I transfer to the bus to take me the rest of the way home) and got out and went to the mall. I looked for teatree oil and stuff for my photography project due next week, but couldn't find anything. :(

I went to kmart and Target. I did get some more cash to last me...hopefully the rest of the time here if I'm really lucky. I doubt it though. I left there too and barely waited 5 minutes before the bus came, how awesome!

Came home and had a piece of toast, watched a little Bourne Ultamatum since it was at my favorite part. Also some Naruto. Then I went to Woolworths for some candy and Tim Tams. Then I came back and started putting up my pictures, tagging them, and captioning them. Tons of work! I'm still doing it...and it's 9:30. Although I have been sidetracked by Eight Legged Freaks and Crossroads, and dinner, which was cooked by Joel, the cook at the other student housing. It was pasta and salad. The salad was heaps better than what we're used to. It was more than lettuce, so that's why. The pasta...must've been an Australian thing because from my perspective, it didn't have a very strong taste and the sauce dripped right off the noodles. Sorta like some beef stroganof but worse with the runniness. And there was chicken in there so that was good. And bits of bacon I think.

I'm shooting to get to bed by 10:30 tonight so I will be well rested for class. I'm so tired and sore still from the trip. I didn't get nearly enough sleep last night, either.

Mariange and Bernard leave tomorrow...

Links to the photo albums on facebook!

Kangaroo shots 1-60

Kangaroo shots 61-120

Album 3

Album 4

Album 5

Album 6

Blue Mountain Excursion Day 2!

2008-10-20T03:11:00.002+11:00

So this was today.

After sorta sleeping, I woke up on time and without any help from an alarm clock. Amazing. I ended up taking a shower just to wash my hair and because I didn't pack a towel (my other regret besides not bringing my running shoes and not shaving), I used dirty clothes such as my t-shirts and jeans. It worked pretty well. I remembered soap and shampoo this time, and my flip flops! We had breakfast set out by Brett the tour guide. I ate cereal and 2 pieces of toast. Cameron spilled the apple juice all over the table and I had orange juice. He later drank apple juice when it was cleaned up.

The tour guide packed our lunches too which was nice. Chicken sandwiches, granola bar, and an apple. We ate and tossed our sheets into the laundry hamper and checked out. After gathering everyone together, we set off. We went to a lookout area that showed a good view of the Blue Mountains. We snapped a few shots and then went on to the "Grand Canyon Circuit" trail. I guess they have a Grand Canyon too. They also have a Maple Grove, and I saw the sign for the place as we were driving. At the lookout there was a place that reminded me of the Cair Paravel ruins in Prince Caspian, the movie. Nifty.

Then we went on the long haul. We walked for a few hours up and down and all around these stairs. They were man-made with stones. Others were luckily placed stones in nature. It was rough! My arm was sore from the cave and now both my arms and both legs are sore from either the cave or the walk or both. We were all out of breath at the end. I was running out of room left on the camera for pictures. We had to keep watch of our feet so we didn't misstep. It was pretty tricky. Looking up was very amazing but also not smart if you still walked. I was scared when I was taking a video with the camera while walking and balancing. Luckily I didn't fall! I'm glad Bernard didn't go on this walk because we would have been slowed down I think. He rode a train back to Concord because he didn't want to walk that much. I'm still so amazed he did the cave! He is a bit rounder than any of us...and older too! His mom is 93!

While we were walking I did accidentally CLONK my head on the rock really hard because I was looking at my feet. It hurt but no headache came of it and I was fine. No concussion I assume...and we made it out of the entire place by noon. It was rough!

We got in the van and ate lunch. We were driven around to a bunch of other view areas to take more pics. We had ice cream cones at once place while we waited for Doug and Sonja to do a $14 train up and down the steep cliffs. We went to another town called Leura and went to their shops for an hour. Well all but Jenny took 30 mins, but we had to wait an hour for her. Oh well. I got lemonade for the first time here, fizzy! It was great! We went to a vintage clothes/books/stuff in general store, a tea store, a candle store, and a stationary store. Pretty boring to me but whatever. After that was done, we drove home. It rained a bit on the freeway. It only took like an hour to get home. How weird is that? Traffic I suppose...

Then I caught up online, took a shower, watched some TV and podcasts, blogged a bunch, saw Bourne Ultamatum on TV, put up my pics, talked to my mom on the phone (found out my dad has passed away and the funeral is Tuesday), and now I'm off to bed.

Blue Mountain Excursion Day 1!

2008-10-19T17:41:00.008+11:00

It started Saturday morning. I got up early to leave at 8am. The showers were taken so I ate before I washed my hair. A minor inconvenience but I was worried I wouldn't get the chance before we left. And besides, who in their right mind gets up before 7:30am on a Saturday?! In the end, I was ready and off we went with the same tour company as before, but a different tour guide. But still as cool as the first!

The ride took like 2.5-3 hours there and I slept 90% of the time I reckon. I we all listened to our iPods while the driver cranked his own tunes up. Bernard went with, along with Angela, Jenny, Sonja, Cameron, and Doug (Aussie we live with), and me.

We stopped around 30-40 minutes away from where we live at a wildlife park. It was so AWESOME! We got to see many Aussie animals but the best were the wallabies and kangaroos of course. The way the "cages" were set up was so that it was just a fence but not a good one. They could walk right through if they wanted, so there ended up being a place where a ton of them just were chillin' around in the sun. They would lay around or lick each other's backs or entertain the people or chomp on the ice cream cones filled with kangaroo feed. I ended up taking 120 pictures just of them! And a bunch of other animals took up other pics...but after a couple hours there, we took off. We saw an echidna but it was just showing it's back. We saw a few koalas and I pet one and got a pic. I got to watch him get on a girl that worked there's back and get put away. They are so crazy looking! We also saw albino kangaroos, penguins, colorful birds, wombats, wallaroos (no idea what that is), dingos, and emus.

We drove to the Blue Mountains and went to the Jenolan Caves straight away after that. Driving in the area was crazy. Steep cliffs on each side with trees all around. I listened to the Jurassic Park theme on my iPod when I woke up, for effect. It worked. There was civilization eventually. We stopped for lunch and all had burgers. They put beets on their burgers. Bleh. I bit mine once and opted to take it off the burger. I had chips too (fries) with chicken powder on them, and a coke.

Then we had to get geared up to climb in the cave! We had to remove everything in our pockets. Cameron was the only one that brought his camera in and we passed it around, so I'll have pics of inside the cave later when he gets around to it. There was this other random kid around my age that also joined our tour. Talk about awkward. He was from New Zealand, a showoff, and pretty immature, but oh well. We all had to sign release forms in case we died or lost stuff in the cave. I was nervous! We were driven up to a place to get into our cave duds. We all put on overalls that covered our arms and legs. We put a bandana on over our hair. We got a belt around our waists. We got some straps that went around the thighs and waist. We put on helmets with lights attached. I regret not shaving before I came because my hair underneath my chin hurt so bad against the strap from the helmet. I was worried about my shoes since I forgot to pack my running shoes. I wore my main shoes and I guess we were going to get really dirty.

So we were lead by a short girl and old guy that worked at the cave place. We were driven up to the plug hole. We got clipped up and went one by one repelling down. It was so scary! It was especially scary for me since my shoes have HORRIBLE grips! I slipped at least 3 times. Luckily 2 ropes held by 2 people made me not fall (myself and the old guy). It was a short repelling down though. Then we unclipped and got a little more comfy without all the buckles.

Then down into the dark cave we went. They stopped us every now and then to tell us stories about explorers and how they used to do it. There are railings at some places. My hands got pretty dirty right away. We saw tree roots hanging down. That was cool. We had to shimmy through a tiny, tiny, tiny, hold early on. We had to shimmy through an S curve later on. It's called that because it's a cramped tunnel that is shaped like an S. Talk about contorting! We had to kneel at one point, put our feet behind us in a crack, and straighten ourselves out so we'd slide down this shaft on our bellies. At one part, they told us to turn our lights off. It was complete darkness unlike anything I've experienced. So peaceful. They told us to wave our hands in front of our faces and we did but couldn't see them. But the funny thing was...we could. Our brain told our eyes that something should be there, so we saw a shadow image and it was darker than the darkness. So strange! Two of the girls said they couldn't see it...weird. We also had to slide down (not on our butts because of the bumps possibly hitting our tailbones) on our sides and swoop around in another tunnel. We had to go under a short tunnel and out. We did lots of climbing up steep slopes, but no real wall climbing with our hands. Eventually we got to a lit area and cement steps. We walked down nicely and were told more stories. Then we saw other tourists not a part of the cave tour. They were just walking in the well lit and cemented tunnels. They got to see us with our dirty blue overalls and hardhats equipped with lights. It was hilarious! Then we got out to fresh air and I was so sweaty. It was hot out and I was in full overalls with a helmet. Finally we got out of those clothes and I still had pants on...but at least my shoes were fine. Barely got dirty and the grips were only bad during the repelling (actually called abseiling here). Whew.

After that we got our junk back from our pockets and left awkwardly while that other kid stood there staring at us. Then the tour guide that brought us there (not the cave people), drove us to a quick photo shot of the blue mountains. We got our pics and then continued on.

We got to Katoomba and found our hostel place. It was SOOOOOOOOOO NICE compared to the last place we stayed. Nicer than the hostel we live at normally too. In some respects. I got a full size bed because no one claimed it. I loved it. It was nice and spacious too. Cameron, Doug, and I got a room and NO strangers slept in the spare bed. The girls got the other room (Angela got the big bed in their room), and Bernard and the tour guide, Brett, got another room. I guess Bernard snored so loud so that Brett barely slept...

After settling, the tour guide said dinner would be ready at 7. We decided to walk around the hostel and explore outside in the town. We went down the street looking at the little shops and barely anything was open on a Saturday evening even though it wasn't even 7pm. We crossed the road and went up the other side to see the other shops. There was a super nice hotel palace looking thing. I got 2 pics of that, haha. Most of us were hungry by then. Dinner seemed so far away. I followed Doug, Sonja, and Angela into a tiny, quaint restaurant with mostly desserts and drinks. Doug got a hot chocolate, Sonja got something else, and I split some AMAZING blueberry cheesecake that was very soft, with Angela. Then we all walked the rest of the way back to the hostel to find them sitting with 4 Dominoes Pizzas for us and a couple of bottles of pop. We digged in and after that settled on watching The Talented Mr. Ripley in the theater room. It took us forever to figure out the remote and decide on a movie. Other random guys joined and watched with. The movie was meh. Not enough action or plot for me.

After that we all crashed at about 10:00-30 in order to be well rested for a 8am departure. I didn't sleep well because of what the sheets were made out of, but I did love how big the bed was.

Max Brenner's Again!

2008-10-17T23:39:00.003+11:00

My day started off with going to Wesley even though I didn't have class. Vivian asked me to help her out with some picture taking of an iron (ironing clothes iron). So I didn't think anyone else would, so I said I could do that. We got there a little before 9, bummed around a little, then went to the photography room before there was a class at 10. Last time she took pictures of the iron, she used light from a window in that room and the iron turned out blue in every picture. We didn't know why. But I think I figured it out today. The curtain that was in front of the window (but pulled back for the light) was reflecting the blue onto it. So weird. We took pictures and even stayed to take more during the other class since the teacher let us. After that we went to the library and I pretty much bummed around on my own laptop, enjoying fast internet. She did some stuff on photoshop I think. I ate a sandwich and decided to go back on the bus since she didn't really need my help after that.

So the bus didn't come for some reason but the next one did and I got back around 2. I took a nap until dinner at 6:30 which was sausages, buns, and fried onions. Not bad. Aussies love their sausages. Kind of like a brat and hotdog mixed. (they don't have those really)

Then I had to do the dishes and then went upstairs. I really wanted to get out of the house tonight so I said that. I ended up going to Max Brenner's again with Lauren who drove, Susanna the RA, Vivian, and Angela. Four girls to one guy, reminds me of Bethel's ratio. That's how I roll.

We drove to the train station instead of the actual place this time, so parking would be easier. My travel pass worked and we hopped on a train to Paramatta. This weird, slightly drunk (so he said) kid about my age sat in our car and made weird conversation with us. He mentioned a car crash that made him lose his sense of taste and smell. He got off at our stop and I was relieved that he didn't follow us. As we were walking to the restaurant, my travel pass wasn't accepted. It says to see the attendent for help. It was 9:30 and no one was in sight. Everyone else got through. I ended up hopping over the baricade.

It was a longer line than last time at Max's. I was going to get a mint chocolate flavored hot chocolate (next time if I go) which is the same as last time only I got an italian thick hot chocolate with dark chocolate. But same form. I decided to get a different thing and went with my first frappe ever, a Peanut Butter iced chockie. It was amazing except for the huge fly flying around me towards the end. And I got a bunch of peanut butter in my mouth at once that wasn't sweet at all, and left a nasty aftertaste. And it was difficult to drink towards the end. Vivian took pictures again (I took a few too with her camera) so they'll be up soon probably. In the restaurant there was a pipe on the ceiling overhanging everything and I didn't notice it last time. It said "100% Pure Chocolate --->" and my jaw dropped. Where's the fat kid from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?

After that we had an adventure going home. My card didn't work again and this time I tried to go behind Lauren as she went through. I wasn't fast enough and slammed into them. A woman behind me was probably startled...but I ended up hopping those too. So we're walking...I looked back and saw a guy looking at me. He might've been an attendent but I duno. He didn't pursue me, I think. I couldn't check because right away because the girls noticed our train was leaving in 1 minute or something. So we all raced up the stairs 5 at a time to catch it, we ran in and made it. We sat down and talked...and talked...and talked...and then someone realized that we weren't seeing anything familiar. Hard to tell at night, you can only judge by the stops you make. They were strange ones. We found out we went the wrong direction and were waaaaaaaaaaaaay far from anything. We got off at the next "major" station which was 3 stops away from when we noticed. It was Penrith. We saw a train leaving in about 10 minutes that was going to all these stops and Stratfield (our stop) was one of them. So we waited. Then we noticed an express train was just next to that one and only went to like 6 stops and ours was also one. But it came like 8 minutes later still. So we waited for that one and ended up getting home at about 11:45ish.

I watched a podcast and The Office when we got home, had some Oreos (my nightly ritual) and milk since I have so many. Thanks again mom! <3 And did this while Aladdin was on.

Right now the thing I miss most from home is my own bed. The sheets stay on all the time, it's much bigger and I can starfish it if I want. My feet don't reach a cold metal bar at the end at home. My pillow is amazing at home. Not so, here.

Also I was reading my email devotional and it was about husband and wife reconciliation. The guy said something about his "mate" and I've been in Australia so long that I actually defaulted to the "friend" meaning of mate. That devotional was seriously messed up until I figured it out...

Now I have to get to bed because tomorrow we're off to the Blue Mountains for 2 days! I won't post any blogs but I will take tons of pictures! Cheers!

Voting Thursday!

2008-10-16T23:39:00.002+11:00

Today I slept in and went to class on the bus. Halfway through my trip I stopped at the mall and mailed my absentee ballot off. Wheee.

Then I went the rest of the way and class was the best so far. Still could be better but it was somewhat interesting learning about Revelation.

After class I came home and went online until dinner which was rice and beef and mushrooms. Mushrooms. :( And if I never eat rice again, I will be just fine.

I went to a show called Medea at my school, put on some drama students. Really good acting, but it was too intense and serious for me. I like to laugh and that was just too serious...

After that I came back and now I'm watching the final presidential debate.

So the bathrooms aren't very well supplied ever. Sometimes I have to go to the other bathroom to grab extra TP. And even worse, there will be no paper towels. So I wash my hands and walk upstairs to my room to use my own towels. It's even worse when I have stuff with me. I set it on the steps before going in the bathroom, go to the bathroom and wash my hands, go upstairs and dry my hands, go back downstairs to grab my things, and go back upstairs to my room.

Then there are the bugs and spiders. They are bigger. Today on the bus ride I saw this fly...a normal fly, but probably 2x the size of an American fly. I was scared. Then I've seen 2 spiders in the house building so far. One was a week or two ago on the wall high up above the girl's bathroom. It freaked some people out. I think they sprayed some stuff towards it. Then a couple nights ago I saw a BIGGER spider also on the wall high up in a room.

Tomorrow I guess I'm going to school to help Vivian on her photography stuff. I have nothing else better to do so why not?

Candy in Class!

2008-10-15T22:43:00.005+11:00

Last night I got roughly 9 hours of sleep. It was a great day.

From 10:36am (when I left) until 5pm (when I got back home), I only had 2 hours of class. The rest is my travel time. Such is my Wednesday. Again we had another teacher that wasn't really my teacher. We watched a bit of 10 Things I Hate About You (Heath Ledger, 1999) which is an adaptation of Taming of a Shrew. It's pretty funny.

The teacher gave us candy too. Aussie candy. Cadbury is Australian, I believe. It's huge here for sure. It's like their Hershey's. I had a Boost bar which was good. I had a Crunchie which was nasty. It's chocolate covered honeycomb. Real honeycomb. I've had it here before (honeycomb bits) but I don't think I wrote about it. It's gross. Kinda like dried ice cream, but sweet and a taste I can't really explain. Also a Time Out! bar. I also had a Picnic bar. It was like caramel, nuts, and chocolaate. And also a couple "Minties" which are mint candy that you can kinda chew, but it's hard to, so I sucked on them.

I forgot to write about something odd that happened last week at the UTS campus. I was walking up the stairs and at the top...were two pigeons just chillin'. So strange. It's a normal event at that campus though. Another time I went into the mini-cafeteria there and saw a pigeon walking right beside me on the floor. Crazy.

The dollar jumped up to .69 so I don't think I'll get that iPod. Probably for the better...but if it goes down a bit again...we'll see.

I've been keeping up with Anderson Cooper's daily podcast and it looks like Obama is leading at the polls.

It's 61 degrees F tonight as I write this at 11pm. We almost went to Max Brenner's tonight but the driver of one car said she couldn't go. Maybe next week...

I might have to get a haircut while I'm here. I'm kinda nervous. I don't know if I want to. It's long as it gets usually. And it's getting warmer here so it would be nice. But then if I get it too short that will suck when I go home to winter. Hmm...

I watched another hilarious Aussie show. It's called Summer Heights High and this one guy plays 3 different characters, a delinquint, a drama teacher, and a foreign rich girl at the same school. It turns out a lot like The Office but if Michael Scott played Jim and Angela, and they were all equally funny and different. Now we're watching a show called Balls of Steel that has these people come on the show showing clips of what they've done. Always hilarious and awkward stuff. Right now a guy dressed up in a devil costume laid out a bunch of collected dog poo in a small area so people were forced to walk across. Then he walked by a car wash and dumped a button of brown stuff on a car that just came out of the wash. Last time I saw another guy jump on a European and see how long he could hold on. Another girl makes it awkward for a guy by flirting with him in front of his girlfriend. They also have two guys called the Pain Men that take turns doing super painful things in front of the audience. Some of the show's "skits" are misses though. A lot of hits though. Lano and Woodley is still my favorite show here. The Mighty Boosh is pretty funny too. Sean McCollem (spelled wrong) has a good show too. I can't tell unless someone tells me if the show is from Britain or Australia.

I'm excited for class tomorrow because it's being taught by a younger guy instead of Marianna, DJ's wife. My next assignment is due Nov 5th! A presentation. Well, I have to do a little bit for photography but that semi-doesn't count.

I miss my DVD collection at home. :(
Last night I remembered that I have a TV at home too...almost forgot! haha.

Spread so thin

2008-10-14T19:14:00.002+11:00

So I really haven't been taking care of myself yesterday and today. Both days I forgot to pack a lunch. Well I forgot yesterday but I overslept today and didn't have time.

I barely got any sleep because of my paper and procrastination. Surprisingly enough, I don't think my paper suffered. I'm proud of it actually. 63 words OVER in fact. And done at 2:15 when the cutoff was 4:00, so not bad at all.

I barely ate breakfast too since I overslept. Got to school, rested my eyes before class, class was ok, I was way too tired to remember it all. I did talk to the teacher who is 100% American and 100% Australian as he says, about voting. He does still try to vote in the US. He has dual citizenship I think. He has a strong aussie accent but was born in Chicago if I remember right. He lives in australia. He still hasn't gotten his absentee ballot from what it sounds like.

After class, off to the library to finish my paper. I worked on that until 2:15, only stopping once to get "lunch" which was out of the vending machine. I had burger rings. They are like Funions but smaller, less salty. cheesy, and...burgery. Yummy. And there were lots in the bag compared to the mostly filled with air Funions. Although by the end of the bag at the bus stop, I was whincing because of how salty and bitter the flavouring was.

Handed my paper in to the box and off I went, dead tired on the bus. Didn't sleep through my stops, so that was good. Luckily when I got off at Burwood (halfway), the other bus home was right behind it so I just transferred and didn't have to wait at all! It was also lucky that I took the time to look behind the bus...otherwise it would have left me.

Got home, cleaned up other people's mess a little, got another birthday card from my grandparents, ate some toast and drank some milk, then I took a nap until dinner.

I slept through dinner by an hour or a half hour, depending on when dinner is now. I'm so confused. It's been 6:00 so far every day and last night it was written that it would be at 6:30. I don't know if that happened or what, but I woke up around 7. Now I'm fighting with the internet's speed while blogging. I think I'll go over and eat something better now.

I'm just so glad I have no more papers this semester. I can focus on getting rest and paying attention in class hopefully. And studying for the exams coming up. And I do have a presentation to throw together by Nov. 5th.

And a little bit of photoshopping needs to be done, but that will be fun.

It's not even 8 and I wrote my blog, I am not going to bed soon, but we'll see. I'll edit this if anything worthy happens before I go to bed. Cheers.

Sleepy Monday

2008-10-13T23:58:00.002+11:00

Today was tiring for just about everyone I came into contact with. I'd never yawned as much before in my life. I've gotten less sleep though. Weird. Photography was good. I was inspired for my project as I tried to get to sleep the night before. Talk about last minute inspiration. I took a picture of a classmate reading a book from behind, and the angle was over her shoulder. I should have put more effort into it and done it earlier, since I want to have an image, instead of text, in the book pages. I figured I'd do it in photoshop. I still think it wouldn't look as good if I printed a picture and taped it to the book or whatever. We tried putting a mirror there and got a weird shot of the girl's face on the page, but the mirror was obviously there so I duno how I can use that.

The teacher's mannerisms are hilarious. Someone was asking for his help and opinions and he kept saying, "yeah. yeah. sure. yeah. sure. yeah. ok. sure." and nothing like what she was asking. I was cracking up silently. It's just how he is. He says yeah a ton. A lot of aussies do actually. "Yeah" or "hey" are their filler words. A lot like our "like" and "ok." I forgot to pack a lunch besides a banana so I was hungry as I worked on my paper for the rest of the day in the library. I got a little under half done. I'll try to double it tonight and then finish it off after class tomorrow by 4pm. After that I rode home, then ate some candy, and tried to see if there was a deal still going for a computer game that I played last night called Peggle. It was 50% off this weekend, for $5 instead of $10. I tried buying it before dinner. All of my ways of buying it failed because I am in Australia and it requires you to be where your card is from. Paypal would have taken a few days (the deal is probably over now) and so I got lucky when I asked a favor of someone I know in the States. He gave it to me as a gift and in the next few days when I am able, I will reimburse him. With a dollar extra for his trouble.

Dinner was a bit later than normal so I went upstairs to the common room to wait. Friends DVDs were on and a bunch of people were watching. A bunch of people were also laying around half asleep or asleep. It was crazy. Everyone was so tired today. Some didn't even have dinner. I don't blame them. It was lettuce and that Shephards-Pie-but-not-really stuff and a hard roll. The pie stuff has meat, potatoes, and some sauce. It's like lasagna, except instead of noodles, it's potato mush, and instead of tomato sauce, it's an excuse for sauce that has no distinguishable taste and is probably there just to keep it together. I especially don't like it because it's so close to lasagna which is a favorite of mine, yet it is nothing at all like it. It's like white chocolate. Nasty.

After that I went back to my room and ended up beating Peggle. I feel a little bad I wasted so much time, but I think I needed it. I just ate some Oreos and milk and now I'm gonna work on adding 1000 more words to my paper.

I also heard Ash and Andrews .midi compositions for their class. It's heaps cool what they've done. Their assessment is an original piece in midi format. Midis are things that you have these set instruments (most popular ones used are usually available) and you pick the notes and it puts it all together for you. And they layer it with other instruments, etc. It's really cool hearing their works progress.

It was about 80 degrees F at one time today for sure when I checked, maybe higher when I didn't check. Also, someone online that I have played Xbox with online and he has heard my voice, he asked for a voice clip last night on the computer and I spoke just a little. He said he heard a slight aussie accent. I don't believe him. It was just sorta funny to hear from someone.

I have taken a strong liking to making fun of Ash's making fun of American accents. He does one and it's so over the top American, it's hilarious. And now when I do it back, it's just as hilarious.

Cheers!

Iron Man

2008-10-12T21:12:00.002+11:00

A little more than a month left...sad.

Today I slept in after a good talk with a couple of people last night.

I ate...then Alvin asked if I wanted to watch Iron Man. He rented that and a few more. So eventually a bunch of people watched it. I love that movie. After that he put in Jumper. By then I was half watching the movie and half playing a game on my laptop (Peggle). Then he put in Spiderwick Chronicles after that and I left pretty quick. I took an hour or so long nap and now I'm gonna work on my paper.

Some cool links:

A website about Didgeridoos.

Youtube clip of a "didge" (didgeridoo) being played.

2 meters, 1.5 meters, 1 poi...point 5 meters, crash!

2008-10-11T21:40:00.002+11:00

On at least two vehicles I've ridden in so far here have had technology to monitor what is behind the car when it's backing up. A woman's voice (with an accent--Aussie or English, hard to tell) says the distance of the vehicle's bumper in relation to the next object such as a wall or another car, so you don't hit it. It's really nifty while being slightly annoying.

Next weekend I'm going to the Blue Mountains (fri-sat, I think) and going caving and such. Should be a blast!

These past few days have had me unsure of using my heater or fan while I sleep. Back and forth. Last night I just had both off.

Today I voted with my Absentee ballot. Now I have to mail it in ASAP. Higher taxes to protect a long list of things in MN? Hm...

I know one thing I won't miss when I leave. Cleaning up after everyone's mess. From the first week, it's been so bad that they had to number our bowls and plates and mugs. It helps, but not much. Some people take their dishes to their rooms or the common room and sometimes they leave it there. Then when they need dishes, they use other people's stuff. I haven't seen my mug in a few weeks. It's not a huge problem since I hardly use it. Last I saw it, it had cold soup in it for days, just sitting on the counter. It's gone now...and another problem is when people use silverware (not numbered) and just leave it dirty on the counter. It piles up and soon we are running low. Other problems include people cooking and then leaving the dishes and also not cleaning stuff enough. Bah.

Today I woke up, ate a quick breakfast, and went to the Opera House with Angela to see The Narcissist. It was great! Yesterday we didn't know if we'd get tickets. She said she thought they were sold out since it looked like that on whatever site she was at. I went through the process and it looked like we could have bought some. We decided to risk it and not pay $60 per ticket, and instead go the next day (today) for student rush right before the show. Good thing we did! We got to the opera house and asked around and found out tickets were available and only $29 apiece. So we got those and the seats were great! Row G...so 7 rows back, which is good since the first few rows weren't sold because they were TOO close, and the stage would have been above eye level for them. So we literally got the best seats ever. Almost dead center, but just a little to the left. Not a problem. The tickets I would have paid full price were the exact same, but 2 rows closer, which would have been worse actually. The set was crazy. Very trendy, bright, and futuristic. There was a coffee table that said ME in huge letters. In the crack of the top/middle of the M, was a magazine and in the top thing sticking out of the E was a drawer! I want it.

The play was a comedy, and pretty good. We didn't get the jokes about politics (except a couple) and other famous Australians, but it wasn't all over our heads. I didn't know the main character was gay. But I guess he was and that was alright. A few lines I liked most were: "Weddings are fiction." and "Welcome to our home!" (done as if the listener was a special needs person when she wasn't) and "You look like Red Riding Hood on crack" and "If the people don't matter, then you should be a liberal!" (their liberal party is our republican). At the end for their "bow" they all sang bits of "I Touch Myself" and I was cracking up.

We got back at about 5:30ish. I ate a leftover omelet from before, a banana, yogurt, and a piece of toast with peanut butter and Aussie honey. It's not as sweet and tasted sort of burnt. Weird. I miss frozen pizzas.

They put in the Muppets Movie and I was online and partially watching. Now we're watching West Side Story, which is good since I think I'll present in my UTS class, comparing this to Romeo and Juliet.

Facebook photo album of today

Parliament Schtuff

2008-10-10T21:15:00.003+11:00

Woke up, quick breakfast, got to school and bummed around on the computer until the shuttle left with the other Americans, David Johnston, his two sisters, Lorna (his secretary), the Swiss girls, and Bernard drove.

It was...interesting.

First we had to drop DJ off somewhere. We got lost finding that. Then we found it and got lost finding the Parliament place. Then when parking, the car park had a clearance of 2 meters and the van is about 2 meters. Yet still we went on. We ended up slightly scraping the top of the van and barely getting the side going down. Then we all jammed into the elevator and found Reverend Gordon Moyes and sat in a room to eat cookies and juice. He gave us an overview of the government which is a lot like USA because both are British colonies. We got a tour of the place and it was mostly like ours at home.

When leaving, we bent some guard protecting electrical wires in the car park...exciting. And we drove back home after that. I went online until dinner which was stir fry. Last night before bed I flipped through e-copies of a magazine I get. Convenient! Before I thought it was a hassle and I'd rather have the print copy. I guess it does come in handy.

Tomorrow I'm planning on getting student rush tickets to see the comedy play, The Narcissist at the Opera House. Hope it's not sold out!

The dollar is .65 now! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

I got my absentee ballot in the mail today! Whoo!

Not a Bad Day

2008-10-10T00:31:00.002+11:00

Slept in and had a great night of sleep. I went to class and was a little bummed out we didn't have the young, guy teacher (that's next week).

Class got out early so I ended up chatting with some people until the shuttle left. I also renewed my library books for a paper due Tuesday on the Hell debate.

Rode that home and went online to thank the people there that sent me birthday wishes, then dinner was pot-pie casseroley type stuff that I used to call Shepherd's pie. Meh.

The people made the meal enjoyable.

After that went back to my room and online a little more. Tonight I caught up with the most recent President Debate. Interesting stuff. Anderson Cooper is my hero. I have a bunch of e-magazines that I haven't been reading. I will hopefully get to that this weekend.

I watched the dollar go from .66 last night to .70 and I was a little sad. I think if it gets to .60 or lower, I will rush out and buy an iPod touch since it will save me $50 or so. Talk about a souvenir. :-P

I also walked to Woolworths (Woolys) which is like a convenience store, with Vivian. (she bought energy drinks for the coming weeks.) Not many people are around these days because now that the musical is over, which I sadly missed, they have Mozart's Requiem to do. I think that takes place this weekend, because Donn (the Hillsong shuttle driver and Wesley Institute groundskeeper) said he had to go to that instead of Hillsong this Sunday night. This will be the 2nd week in a row of not going to Hillsong. Sad. I guess I will have to wake up early and maybe go to the Korean church like before. It's only a few houses down and about a minute to walk to. They had...interesting...snacks afterwards. Compressed rice flabby things.

They watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail while I watched the debate. Now I'm off to bed before tomorrow which I have no class, but have afternoon tea with someone from Parliament. Yay...

My Birthday!

2008-10-08T20:31:00.002+11:00

Well last night I was up a bit late so I opened up my card and gift from my family. Plenty of treats inside and I will enjoy it all! And a nice crisp $50 trapped inside a box that I have to figure out or smash open. I still haven't tried. Then I went to bed.

Last night we watched a TV show/documentary on obese kids from the US. I think I'll do my best to not each before bed from now on...

I woke up, took a bus to the train station instead of walking, did my regular journey to UTS, and actually got there early. It was good since I had to print my paper out there and I had no idea how to. So I got there and wandered around to find the computer lab we saw during the tour. I found it pretty quickly. I logged in and had to fiddle around a little to get the thing to load all 3 files I needed to print out. I hit print and ran into a snag. I didn't know where the printer was!

I nudged the dude next to me and he pointed me in the right direction. Nothing came out. The printer sat there saying READY at me like it forgot what it was. I looked around and saw a kiosk that had my student ID number and said "Print Jobs" and when I tried, I of course had insufficient funds.

So I walked around trying to find a place to put funds in whatever I had to put my funds in. I asked a lady at the student center. She gave me (wrong, I think) directions to a machine and I walked around until I found it. I put $2 in just in case, even though it only cost .66. I went back to the computer lab and was happy to find my print jobs weren't gone. I printed them off just fine and couldn't find a stapler so I just waited for the shuttle while reading some Catch-22.

Shuttle'd to the other campus, napping on the way, went to the library over there and asked for a stapler. Got one and took care of that. Then I bummed around in the computer lab until class. We had another sub so my main teacher has only been there for 2 classes so far. Haha. Class was ok. We got to leave early and I followed my classmates to the spot to hand in my paper. Then I caught the shuttle back early! So that was awesome. I was home almost an hour earlier than normal. I took a short nap before dinner.

I got more cards and that was nice! Dinner was chicken and rice. Not bad. I'll have to munch on my treats from the family later. And the economy is changing so fast! It was .74/1 and then earlier today it was .68 and then it was .65 and now it's .66. Great news if it keeps dropping. I should buy something...but nothing big and not a lot.

We watched some of The Mighty Boosh which is a show from New Zealand maybe? Or England? Or Australia? I duno, somewhere, pretty crazy funny. Then I got the Peggle trial on my computer and played that a bit. I'm pretty tired now so I'm off to bed. Happy Birthday to me...

Nothing else special, but it's not a big deal. I'll celebrate when it's more convenient and safe and when more people are around to celebrate with. They did sing for me at dinner and that was nice.

My Tuesday

2008-10-07T21:27:00.002+11:00

Today was productive.

Class in the morning.

After class I stayed in the library and did 90% of my paper.

After that dinner was spaghetti, the only meal I'm not sick of yet.

We watched Hercules (Disney) since some people here miss animation movies.

I watched Heroes online to catch up. Then the SNL skits of the VP stuff. Good stuff. Tonight I'll finish my paper and tomorrow I hand it in.

Last Day of Break

2008-10-07T00:31:00.002+11:00

Finally break is over.

Today I watched a bit of movies while working on my homework. I did all the reading for one class, did some photoshopping, and started my paper. Prince of Egypt, Stranger than Fiction, An American Tale (again) was played. Stranger than Fiction made everyone want cookies, so Emily (aussie girl) did. I don't know why, but they were crunchy.

I did laundry yesterday and today.

Now I'm battling the internet before going to bed.

I was going to walk to the movie place to rent Ocean's 11 and 13 with Alvin but then he had stuff to do so I didn't.

I finished all the leftover pizza from the previous days. I made an omelet with Alvin's guidance. It's been so long since I did. And not to mention a foreign kitchen. It was really huge and had no cheese. Just ham and onions. I realized that cheese is vital and so I melted white cheese, either mozarella or swiss, I couldn't tell. Still I wish it was cheddar, which I haven't seen in months.

Comparing accents, mimicking accents, making fun of accents, anything with accents, you'd think it would get old after this long. It never does.

Now I'm going to finish my dark chocolate with pieces of mixed fruit inside and head off to bed.

.74 is the conversion rate now. Woo!

Day of Rest...and then some

2008-10-06T00:04:00.003+11:00

Today I got work done! And watched Heroes and an episode of Smallville.

I also walked to Pizza Hut again with Alvin this time. Ahhhhh pizza is so amazing.

It kinda stinks. The weather is too gross to go to the beach. A lot of people are still gone for break since Monday is Labour Day and we have no school. I don't know where to go other than where I've already gone and that usually involves money.

I'll talk about Bernard (pronounced Ber-ned) and his driving. He drives the shuttle to school and back, and he runs the hostel/house with his wife Mariange.. He does not know how to accelerate at all. It's either pedal to the metal or break for the stop light ahead. Stop, go, stop, go. I won't miss that after I'm gone...

And here's a conversation today between a girl and Mariange. Kinda funny...

M.A.: "The girl is back from camp."
Girl: "Oh...what?"
M.A.: "The girl is back from camp."
Girl: "Oh...all of them?"
M.A.: "The girls are back from camp."
Girl: "Oh...cool."
M.A.: "No, I am askeeng yew."
Girl: "Oh...no, I haven't seen them."

I forgot to mention how stupid I was when I packed for the trip. First, I was emailed to pack "warm clothes" and I took clothes to keep me warm instead of cool. I misread and ended up packing only 1 pair of shorts and 1 t-shirt not for sleeping in. I ended up wearing the same clothes most of the time...oh well. I also didn't pack soap or shampoo since I thought the resort would have it. Wrong on that count too, but I found some. They had dispensers and most of them didn't work. Then I didn't remember to bring my flip flops. That was horrible, but I made due. It just brought down the trip a little in quality. But it was my fault really. Oh well. :)

I also had a dream last night. I dreamt I was home. But I think it was actually the library at school HERE and I felt like I was home. I was with my friends from home. And I had a scary feeling of being at home and realizing I wasn't done with my classes yet! Then I realized I was dreaming while dreaming...and I don't remember after that.

PIZZA!

2008-10-05T05:18:00.002+11:00

Today I was unproductive since going to the beach wouldn't have worked as it was too gross outside. I caught up on the economic situation a bit and the VP debate with podcasts.

For dinner I had had enough. I NEEDED Pizza Hut pizza. I walked 8 minutes to one, got a large pepperoni, waited 10 minutes on a bench, got it, jogged home in 5 minutes. I nearly ate all of it but I wanted to savour more for later. If this is how I'm expressing my desire to be at home, then so be it! Mmmmmmm. I think it's been 2-3 months since I had pizza like this.

Not much else to say. I missed talking to my mom because I was watching Smallville (so much of that today...ack) and the VP stuff on my laptop. Forgot completely...

My Favourite Place in the World

2008-10-04T04:48:00.002+10:00

Today I slept in and got all my souvenir shopping done at The Rocks. I put up 48 pics that I took in under 2 hours while there. I love how vertical it is there. It's very European according to Angela who has actually been there. I can imagine so from pictures and movies. So many stairs and I think it would take a year or more to go everywhere in the rocks. Best place for hide and seek EVER.

The dollar is doing better at 77 cents. When we got here it was about 1:1. It was 84 before we left on the trip. Cooooool. I did some exploring and took a bunch of pics.

After coming back I watched some of Heroes, got 2 birthday cards, and ate. It was so hot again and so I sat on the balcony with some people, watched the storm. It was too far away so we could just see the lightning but not hear thunder. We went out to Coles (Cub foods pretty much) and I restocked my soaps and we also got ice cream.

The first album of 60 pics from my trip

The second album of 60 pics from my trip

The third album of 38 pics from my trip

My favorite place in the world. And a napping cat. 48 pictures!

Tell me if those don't work.

Uluru DAY THREE!

2008-10-04T04:10:00.002+10:00

The night before, we found out from DJ that we were going to do a sunrise thing at the rock. We had to get up at 4am for it. He found out it was more of what we did on Day 2. He decided not to go and asked if we wanted to skip it too. We all overwhelmingly said we'd rather sleep in more. We spent a non-refundable $95 on it though. Sad, bummer.

So I got about 10 hours of wonderful sleep that night. The night before the Ukrainian guy told Cameron not to turn the A/C too high (I assume so he could sleep without so much noise) so it was very hard to sleep. I hardly got any because I was so hot in bed. This night however, we already had it full blast and they didn't mention it so we just left it the same. I think the sleep was worth it.

We did breakfast again without the walking around, and Cameron decided to stay sleeping. I walked over and the girls were late again. We met up after I went to the supermarket with DJ and his wife though. Muffin, banana, apple, pineapple juice, and 1/4th of DJ's sandwich thing...yum.

After that I went back and packed up and checked out. Towels needed a $20 deposit that you'd get back after returning. I asked for one the first night and the guy said not to worry about it. Sweet. I also went souvenir shopping one day. After checking out, I waited with Cameron in the lobby for the shuttle to the airport. Angela joined us later on. Sonja and Jenny went swimming I think. It came and still DJ and his wife weren't with us. We went on and called them. I guess they weren't ready in time. We got to the airport and waited for them. They got on the next shuttle. We played cards in the meantime. They got there and we did the whole thing of getting checked in. This time Angela was tested for explosives. DJ was asked if he spoke English too...I thought it was funny. We waited for the plane and then got on. Hancock played on the way home and I watched it all. Not bad but I won't buy it ever. It's an aeroplane and not airplane though. Funny.

They have these cool baggy things for your trash! Kinda fancy mesh actually. You eat your stuff and put the rubbish away in there. Easy.

We got picked up by Bernard (French speaker that runs the hostel/house with Mariange, his wife--both from Madagascar) even though he had a tough time getting in position with the van. Oh well. Then we brought DJ and his wife home and then us home. Watched Smallville, told everyone about our trip, put up all my pics that night.

Uluru DAY TWO!

2008-10-04T02:54:00.002+10:00

The next day was the tour. Breakfast was a huge hassle. Cameron and I woke up and showered then found out the shuttle didn't run until 10:30. We were gonna meet at DJ's room at 8:30 so he could buy us breakfast. We left and walked 15 minutes in the super heat, dying. Finally got there and realized it was only 7:30 actually because we were mixed up. We walked back 15 more minutes (should have just stayed there and waited, also we were walking the longer way around without knowing). We took a 15 minute nap and walked another 15 mins back on time. The girls weren't there. We left without them at 8:30. We walked to one restaurant, looked around, decided to keep looking. We found the other restaurant after getting lost and walking a ton in the HEAT. Continental breakfast for $26. Yeah right. So we walked back to the first place, decided to go to the supermarket and then there. Luckily they were near each other. We finally met up with the girls who were late. We had breakfast which was good and then went to the shuttle to take us to the tour of the rock.

Us 7 joined a tour already in motion that stopped at our site for a bathroom break. It had been already going since 6am or something. We joined at 11:30am. It was 98% full on the bus. I sat next to a really aussie quiet guy. We got a sandwich and snack for lunch. We had 2 tourguides with very strong accents and they took turns driving and using the mic to provide stories and details about things. I learned a lot and it was very interesting! It was cool to look on one side of the bus to see the desert and plantlife, then to the other side of the bus/trail and seeing the effects of torching. No grass, all red, blackened trees. They really control the scorching well.

The outback is like a Dr. Seuss book. Red sand, green plants, and blue sky. That's it. And the plants are as crazy as the ones in the books. I want to see Arizona now to compare. I've never been to the desert before, and if I get to AZ, I suppose the experience will be watered down now.

We stopped at one rock formation and were given 34 minutes (17 as far as we made it and 17 back) to see it. There was a rock fall at the end so no way to see beyond. I thought I would die from sunburn. I only put a little on before we left from DJ. I didn't bring any. (I didn't tan at all) We went up and came back and ended up waiting FOREVER because of some foreign chick that sat ahead of me. She took so long and it was pretty rude. I guess they had a huge talk about being late and the time constraints, before we got on the bus. And the tourguide was telling us to give her a nasty look when she got on (it really sucked to just sit and wait) and to make things worse, a bunch of people applauded her. I didn't know why. Sarcastic clapping just doesn't work. Whatever.

We went on with more stories and info and driving and stopping at a few other places including a cultural center. No photos were allowed out of respect to the Aboriginal people. We got ice cream to refresh us. MMMM mint drumstick. More driving and some stopping. One place had pictures drawn in the rock a LONG time ago. Crazy! And above my head were boomerangs drawn at one site. I also ate food from the brush. Like tiny green beans.

We drove again to another spot in front of Ayer's Rock (Uluru is the proper aboriginal name) and had a picnic dinner. They gave us champagne or red wine or orange juice. I had orange juice. It was a little weird, not as sweet as I'm used to. I had a sip of Cameron's red wine. It wasn't horrible, but I didn't really like it. A bunch of other tours were at that area too, with their own food provisions (a cup of peanuts! *scoffs*). We also had awesome sausages with fried onions, and salad. Yum. We ate as the sun set and watched the rock appear to change colors as the sun set. It was awesome.

After dusk, we all got in the bus and drove home. They dropped the 7 of us off at our place before continuing their journey back to whereever they came from. I went to bed after showering the red dust that got on me.

Uluru DAY ONE!

2008-10-03T18:55:00.003+10:00

We woke up super early. I don't know why. We were supposed to leave at 7 but some of the girls were a little late in getting ready. We left at 7:20 from student housing. We got to David Johnston and his wife's house (principal of my school and his wife teaches a class of mine) at 7:30 and ended up waiting in the van for 40 minutes because that's when they were going to be ready. They had tons of stuff to do before they were ready and we got there way before we were supposed to. It was kind of ridiculous making us leave so early, but whatever.

We got to the airport without a hitch. I LOVE aussie airports. Security was a breeze compared to airports at home. They don't have terrorists, I bet. Didn't take off my shoes even. I did get randomly tested for explosives however, but that was just interesting so I didn't mind. The guy rubbed that thing on my in areas on my body and then scanned it. My character wasn't explosive enough, and we went on.

Some of us were thirsty and DJ (david) belongs to a group that gets special stuff at that airport. So he brought Jenny in as his daughter for "a drink of water" and a super long time later she came out saying she ate a nice breakfast. She brought us apples. We played cards and worked around poor communication to finally meet up with everyone since we didn't see them come out. Eventually we all got seats waiting to board, and DJ told us about the trip. He said Lorna (his secretary) went all out on this trip and used his credit card. It wasn't refundable but he wanted to refund. So we had to. This got me excited since I thought it would be super nice!

The plane ride was smooth enough and the new Indiana Jones movie played during the flight. I watched the good parts in the beginning before falling asleep to my iPod. On touching down we got to this tiny airport and the wave of heat just blew me away. Wow. Probably 100+ degrees. I had pants on. It was death. We got our luggage and rode a shuttle to the resort area.

Checking in took awhile and Cameron and I shared a room of 4 beds (2 bunks). One of us had top and one had bottom. We had to share with 2 random people. We got there and that room is about as big or smaller than my room at the hostel where I've been staying at. The difference is this room held 4 people and mine is just myself. And there was stuff on both of the bottom beds. Weird. So we were told we got bed 3 and 4 (top and bottom of the right of the room) and so I kinda wanted bottom so I ended up moving the stuff off. Cameron went to do stuff and I laid down until he got back. I had no mobile (cell phone) and I was seriously confused about the time. I thought I heard we went forward a half hour. I didn't know how to change my watch though, and Cameron thought we went back a half hour. We were confused. There was a separate building for showers and bathrooms. Blah.

Anyways, I was napping and then the door opened. This meek old man with a strong Aussie accent said, "Wot are ya doin' in ma bed?" but not in a mean-spirited way. I explained to him that we had the side bunks and he said not to worry about it. Then he left. I resumed laying in my bed. Shortly after, a meek old woman with a strong Aussie accent said, "Was ma husband in heah just nah? Did ya tok to him n sort it out?" I said yeah and she asked, "Oh so is it just youuu and your mate then?" I didn't know what to say, so I said yep. She was fine with those answers and left shortly.

I don't remember what happened then but I know Cameron eventually saw their stuff gone. (I assume that when they checked in, they asked for the bottom beds since they were old and didn't want to climb up the ladder, then the resort said sure but did not make a note of it and/or tell us about that...maybe)

We had to catch the bus to take us to the Sounds of Silence dinner under the stars. Cameron and I went to DJ's room at another building (much nicer) at an agreed time. We were gonna meet up with everyone but the girls never showed up. DJ tried to call them and so did Cameron. No answer. Cameron guessed (rightly) that they went swimming. Also, their room was in the same area as ours. And our swimming pool was closed. They went to another building's pool. Luckily they were on the shuttle when we got on, and all was good.

We took a bus ride with a bunch of people and another bus completely besides ours to the middle of nowhere. We walked up a trail and there were chairs set out. Not enough for everyone though. A lot of people were fine with standing and chitchatting though. We took a ton of pics. Champagne was handed out. I took a glass and it was ok. I don't like how bitter it is...so I almost finished mine before getting a Coke instead. Orderves (my misspelling is so bad, I can't find the proper one) were served and I tried them all and liked them all. One was crocodile and one was kangaroo (although I didn't know it at the time) and salmon was another and also a veggie one.

After a little bit we were escorted forward. We were roped off in a trail so that snakes and dangerous thingies couldn't get us. Pretty cool. Walking on we got to the dinner tables. It was still light out. I took pics of the trail and at the tables. We sat down and talked a bunch. Eventually we were told about the buffet style serving and we got our food and a guy playing a didgeridoo played around the tables. He told stories of Aboriginal people and about the outback. The sun eventually set and looking up was amazing. Someone else pointed out stars and told stories of them and how Aboriginals used them in the past. We saw horoscope signs too. Alpha Centauri, the Northern Cross (or was it Southern? I can't remember) and Jupiter and Venus very clearly.

There was an Irish crowd that got a little loud but that wasn't too bad. (Apparently the next night there was a French group and a huge fight started because they were too loud, DJ told us because he heard from the Didge player at the supermarket the morning after) I tried white wine and it was harder to drink than the champagne from before. And a fly made a suicidal dip in it later on, anyways. We had pumpkin soup prior to the meal. It was great when I added salt. I ate kangaroo on a stick, crocodile ceasar salad, fried veggies, a mussel, some fish pasta that I didn't like, lamb, and I can't remember anything else.

We talked at our table a bunch and eventually dessert was opened up. The best brownies ever were there! I also had carrot cake, bread pudding, some other stuff that I forget, and hot chocolate. After that we talked more and went back on the bus. On the ride back, a few camels ran past our bus! Right in front! I saw a glimpse of one! Just a flash though. Awesome! In the wild and everything.

After that, we went to bed. We got back to a Ukranian couple in our room instead of the old people. We hoped they hadn't been replaced. Oh well. These people were younger and nice. I didn't talk to them much, but Cameron did.

Huge Blog...tomorrow

2008-10-02T21:24:00.000+10:00

I'm tired now and tomorrow I will blog about everything. Pictures are up on facebook of my trip.

I think tomorrow as a free day, will be souvenir shopping!

On the Rocks!

2008-09-29T22:44:00.002+10:00

Today's highlight was going to the Rocks and having Pancakes on the Rocks!

I had 2 chocolate pancakes covered in powdered sugar and chocolate sauce. It also had chocolate and vanilla ice cream on top instead of whip cream, and there were strawberries on the side. Soooo good. I also had orange juice and funky Aussie bacon.

Now tomorrow morning at 7am I'm leaving for the airport for a short flight to Ayers Rock: http://www.ayersrockresort.com.au/ and I'll be there until Thursday! I will bring my camera but no laptop!

Cheers mates, seeya in a few!

What day is it?

2008-09-29T00:57:00.002+10:00

Doesn't matter.

Oh, Sunday.

My highlight of today was Hillsong. Not much else besides that.

Beach tomorrow? Pizza tomorrow? Homework tomorrow? Photoshop tomorrow? (yes) Blue Mountains tomorrow? Never know...

I leave Tuesday morning to Ayers Rock, by plane. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Aaah, Day of Rest

2008-09-28T01:57:00.002+10:00

Today I photoshopped a bit, my project is...coming along not so nicely.

First I wanted to have a hand coming out of a book. Then I wanted to make it look magical. So I got glitter. I lost it or something and I ended up cutting tinfoil for makeshift glitter in class. That didn't work and you could barely see it in the picture. Two blurry dots was all. So he told me to do it in photoshop, make a bunch of tiny dots and copy paste them all over. I looked up a tutorial online and it looked good on the example, but when I tried it, so fake and just wrong. I've found another site with a better way though, so that problem is solved. But now the hand...how to get it to look like it's emerging from the book...hmm...

I should get pizza tomorrow. I miss it so.

Almost Tuesday!

Friday Li[brary] Day

2008-09-27T02:39:00.002+10:00

Library all day, got my essay done. Nothing exciting at all...until I finished.

Break time! Wahoo! I checked out a bunch of books for my next essay so I hope to get some done before going back.

The musical was today and tomorrow, but it's $20! I opted not to go since I was too tired.

It also is tomorrow but I duno if I want to. Oh well. Maybe I will go to the beach or shopping or something. I did more photoshopping!

Cheers!

Fursday Thursday

2008-09-26T00:03:00.002+10:00

Woke up, went to school, watched the beginning of Horton Hears a Who (paper due on my birthday comparing the book to the movie), went to class, came home, dinner was salisbury steak-type stuff, rolls, and lettuce, and sweet potatoes, and yams, or something. After that I showed Vivian stuff in Photoshop and learned new things myself! It was cool, and Indiana Jones was on in the background, followed by You've Got Mail.

Ahaha, it made me remember dialing up into the internet. Good old days, wow. F-O-X.

And now I'm gonna stay up pretty late working on my essay before going in tomorrow to finish it, print it, and hand it in at 4. THEN my break will officially start.

Can't wait...

Nothing Rhymes with Wednesday

2008-09-25T00:57:00.002+10:00

Woke up early, got a ride to school from Langsoon, wrote a fourth of my paper in the library, came home on the shuttle, dinner was breaded fish stick type things.

Watching Napoleon Dynamite that came from China (pirated) with the subtitles on is the funniest thing ever! They did NOT translate well at all! Oh we cracked up a lot.

I did a bunch of photoshopping for fun and watched TV. Tomorrow I'll go in early again and work on my paper until class.

Looks like I won't be going to Canberra again...oh well.

Tuesday Snoozeday

2008-09-23T22:49:00.003+10:00

Slept in a little, stayed home, got work done, reading a bit so I can go to bed earlier than usual in order to go to school tomorrow for the whole day to work on my essay.

Totally sad that Heroes is not here yet.

Rock Band (1!) comes out the 7th of November here. And to think that at home the sequel is already out and in the hands of millions. Not to mention the US has had the first for about a year now.

These sort of time conundrums (second time I've used that word today, how cool is that?) also add to the eeriness of Australia. In Australia, I'm experience time before most everyone else. I can joke about being in the future. Yet on the other hand, a lot of goods make it over to Australia much later, a la the past in regards to America. Also, the beauty of the internet (or a phone) causes a universality of all time via email, instant messenger, etc. But then again, the internet sometimes fails me like last night when I tried to play online pictionary through facebook and got booted out of being the "drawer" because it detected "that I was away" even while I was still trying to draw the Berlin Wall! Dang internet. Oh well. So these 3 paradoxical places in regards to time...very weird.

And my laptop mouse is low on batteries so I guess I'll get some tomorrow.

Monday Funday

2008-09-23T01:12:00.003+10:00

Photography in the morning. Ah, it was really good and fun and I helped and everything and I enjoyed class...until we got to my stuff at the very end. I was rushed because everyone else took a bunch of time. Well, not everyone else, but half the class of 5. And in the end, my pictures are 'eh' worthy. I can still do a lot before it's due though, but right now I'm not happy with it. Oh well...

After that, I went home, missed the bus by 5 minutes or less. Oh well, I just listened to my iPod (which is getting more broken, oh well). It was very windy today and I got a ton of dust blown in my eye while waiting for the bus. I'm fine now but dang it hurt.

I napped until dinner since I stayed up late last night...

Dinner was spaghetti which is my favorite meal I've decided. I am sick of the other stuff. And even tonight it was super salty. Blah. Oh well.

I caught the end of the Emmy's after photoshopping my project for a long time and getting fed up with it and needing to fry my mind to cool down. I saw the news after and I guess here the stock market bounced back up $54 billion in a few hours which is great! The dollar is now 83 cents. 86 just the other day.

I found out I don't have class tomorrow also. Wheee. At least I hope Lauren is right. She's in my class so she'll miss out too if she's wrong...I suppose I'll just stay home and work on my essay then. I have 5 books to work off of. No travel time wasted, easy lunch, good stuff.

Might go to Canberra again this weekend too. Wheee.

Lazy Sunday

2008-09-22T01:06:00.005+10:00

Slept in, didn't do much all day...boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooring.

Oh! I did go to the Burwood mall. I got 3 pairs of shorts since I only packed 2. Also got dark chocolate and a big bottle of Vanilla Coke since I miss it so much from the states. And a new belt since mine is broken.

I noticed one weird thing today. They don't have stop signs! None. At all. Weeeeeeeeeeeird.

Edit: Yes they do, just very few.

Went to Hillsong. On the way back at Maccas, I tried a mint drop waffle cone which was new! It was amazing.

Good stuff.

Saw Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind again, love that movie.

Trying more Photoshop stuff now.

Caturday

2008-09-21T03:07:00.004+10:00

Today we didn't do much. I didn't do much. I had leftovers from last night while we were gone. I walked to the video store and rented some movies with people. We watched Bourne Surpremacy. I did laundry. I talked to my mum on the phone. I saw the season finale of Smallville (season 1) again.

A good resting day after yesterday. Whew!

Super sad about Heroes and the Office. I don't think the Office will play here at all. I don't know when Heroes starts (monday in the states) and someone online said mid-october...hmm...sad. Rock Band 2 came out and I wasn't there. Sad.

Speaking of sad, I noticed today (since the weather was SO HOT for a change--we almost went to the beach actually) that I only packed 2 pairs of shorts. That's a huge bummer. I will probably buy a couple pairs tomorrow at the mall.

I forgot to mention seeing kangaroos in the wild on the way back from Canberra! I didn't take pics because it was weird, it was like seeing deer at home. So casual. This is how being in Australia feels. On one hand you are experiencing something completely new and unique to this continent, but on the other hand it's just so normal and casual nothing feels any different from before. If I say it's eerie to be here, I'm referring to this feeling. It doesn't help that at every moment I simultaneously wish I could A) stay in "this semester" forever and B) be right at home. Eerie to the max.

9 days until Ayers Rock! Can't waaaaaaaaaaait...

pictures! on facebook! too lazy to put them up twice! hope this works! lemme know if it doesn't!

-Album 1
-Album 2
-Album 3

Canberra (pronounced Can-bruh)

2008-09-19T23:37:00.002+10:00

Today was a huge day!

Woke up at 6:30...aaaaaaah. Then we left for Wesley at about 7:20. Then a paid driver drove a bunch of us in a bigger van on a 4 hour trip. We stopped once and I had a chocolate muffin and orange juice.

Slept some, iPod'd some, finally got to this vantage point. We saw tons and the guide pointed stuff out. Then we drove a little bit and got to the flower festival called "Floriade" that is put on every year. The theme was films and the only 2 I recognized were Babe and Moulin Rouge. We had lunch there and spent an hour in all at this place.

Then we left for the Australian Museum that was built really recently. We only had an hour there too so we ran through it pretty much. Crazy architecture!

Then we left for the Parliament building and I learned about what the flag stands for and a bit about their government from the guide. Their official animals on the seal are the emu and kangaroo because they can't walk backwards, only forwards. So Australia is progressive. Funny.

Then we left for the Australian War Memorial which is another museum based only on war. We only had 40 minutes so we ran through that. At the end before we left, we saw a ceremony where a guy played the bagpipes.

Then we went on our way home a little bit after 5pm. We stopped once at Hungry Jack's (Burger King) and got home at 8:45ish. Whew!

I took a TON of pictures and I will post them tomorrow! Cheers!

H-

2008-09-18T22:45:00.002+10:00

Got my paper back in class today. My first aussie essay. I flipped to the back to see the grade since during the paper all she did was tick words mostly. Then I saw the big D and "It would have been an H- but it was a day late." I'm sorry, but it wasn't late...so I let her know and she changed it. The H stands for High Distinction and D is just lacking the "High" part. H is as high as they go and they don't give many because for some reason, they are stingy about grading unlike in America. The teacher said H means essentially it's publishable stuff. Wow! And I thought this essay of mine was pretty shoddy...

So that was my great start to the day. Came home, dinner was sausage in a roll.

Watching the news now. I saw the USA weather and that's just weird. Who cares about America here? We don't put their weather on our news. Oh well. And I guess Sarah Palin glasses are all the rage. Makes me barf. I guess some baby formula used an ingredient in plastic to hide the fact that milk in the formula was watered down. Now a bunch of babies have been poisoned over here. :( And also a whale washed up on a beach, dead. It stunk and was HUGE. News!

Have I mentioned the orange soft serve ice cream cones at McDonald's yet? Well...they are orange and now yellow. Weird. Taste fine though.

Tomorrow, off to Canberra! We're leaving at 7. Aaaaaaaah. And not to mention it's a 5 hour drive. Bleh. Getting back at 9 at night I guess...

And Aussie Slang is to your Left

2008-09-18T00:43:00.003+10:00

I started a tally of all the slang I've run across so I don't forget it when I get back home. Enjoy.

Today I rode on a motorcycle for the first time in my life. I was going in a bit later to school and so was Doug, who has a motorcycle. He also has a van and I assumed he was taking that. I asked to go with and he said yeah, but...I'm taking my bike. So that was exhilarating! I had to get all geared up and stuff. On the first straight away we took off and wow, like a roller coaster that doesn't end! Turning was crazy also.

I went to the library, got some books, went online, then at 1-2 was The Gathering, which is basically like Chapel at Bethel. My first time going here though. It was good. A lot smaller than Bethel. After that, back to the library until I went home. Dinner was some tuna pasta that we've had before. When you bake noodles, does the top always get crunchy? It was like a casserole and the whole top layer of noodles were crunchy like uncooked. Blah.

Then we watched Friends (on DVD) and I took a nap accidentally. Then I came back and watched a bunch more aussie tv. One food commercial had bleeped out swear words and it wasn't even late. So weird. This one TV show we watched was Kitchen Nightmares (I am pretty sure it's American) and the f-bombs weren't even bleeped. They just handle this down under by showing a warning before the show. Wow. Swearing in general is a lot more relaxed here overall. Even at school and home.

The weather a few days ago was PERFECT. Spring has started recently and I could tell. But the past few days have been windy and chilly.

Also, in Australia they have these psycho birds. They sound like children, literally. I've been walking home and heard, "AAAAAAAAAAAAH!" and was thinking about how annoying those kids were. But I couldn't see any. I realized it was BIRDS. It's crazy!

The last thing I want to comment on is riding the bus. It's about the same as in the states, I don't ride the bus at home so I can't compare really. I have a cool pass that I slide in to pay. But the bus driver has a schedule to stick to so he sometimes starts driving before everyone is sitting. The younger people can handle this...and it's funny when they lose their balance. But I feel bad for the old people...I haven't seen any accidents which is good, but close...

Cheers!

Awesome day is awesome

2008-09-16T22:25:00.003+10:00

Today I had my first exam in the morning. He just had 5 short answer essay questions and I think I did pretty well. I didn't really know one of the questions but I knew enough to do fairly well on it, I hope. I was glad to get it over with for sure.

After that, I went home since I got done early, it was nice. I did some homework, took a nap until dinner, which was lo mein, asian cuisine.

After dinner was the BEST. Some people went to Mug 'n' Rug at Wesley for a movie event thing. I didn't go...but someone at dinner mentioned Max Brenner's Chocolate shop. I thought it was like a store to get chocolate and wanted to stock up. Eventually a ton of people got excited and went along after originally it was 1 person mentioning it, me saying we should go, Angela agreeing and saying she'd go, another guy also agreeing, another girl saying she'd drive if we couldn't fit, and 3 more people along with that car. It was not at all what I expected.

It was a fancy sit down restaurant focusing on CHOCOLATE. It was amazing. Driving there was fun already because comparing accents NEVER gets old. I'm halfway into my trip and I still love to do it. We got to the area and it was like the airport, even though it was just a bus station.

I ordered an Italian thick hot (dark) chocolate. It was like drinking a melted special dark Hershey's bar, but not too rich and not too thick to be unbearable. I tried some melted milk chocolate on some bread stuff with chocolate bits on some parts. Soooooo gooooood. All of us had a great time there and there were pics taken. I'll put them up here as soon as I get my hands on them. Definitely my highlight in recent times here!

My trip to Canberra is weird. Now they are talking about Saturday, and Friday. I'm very confused. A lot of people can't go to either so I'm not sure if it will even happen. I haven't mentioned WHY most of my trips are planned for the last half of my stay here. It's that dang musical. Everyone I came with is in it, except me. A bunch of people I live with are too. But there wasn't a musical bone in my body until I picked up a guitar here so there's no way I would be in it. But it takes up everyone's time...all the time. So that's why the Blue Mountains didn't happen and that's why Canberra might not happen this weekend. Arg...people.

Tomorrow I should go in and work on my new essay all day, so we'll see! I have nothing else to do...so it shouldn't be hard to get off my bum.

Fotographia

2008-09-15T23:14:00.002+10:00

Got up early to get to class, got to school but the graphic design computer lab was locked or something. So I went to the classroom early, realized I forgot my pictures to hand in/present (no big deal, I will do it next week), set up for taking pictures which ended up not happening due to time constraints, oh well. Easy setup at least. Then the head of the graphic design needed our room for stuff. We were originally going to help, but ended up watching. It was still interesting. He has this model, an old bald man that is sick and he has taken pictures of him and done sketches. This time he wants to have "man's struggle against himself" and is calling the piece "Bipolar." He had 5 guys from another class pose together and we set up the lights and took a bunch of pictures. He he going to get the old man to do the individual poses and put them all together so there will be 5 older men copies in the sketch. Hopefully he'll be done before I leave, since he said he'd show us if that was the case.

After class I went to the computer lab for a little bit, studied for my exam tomorrow, and then went home. I napped until dinner after doing some stuff on the computer. Dinner was beef stir fry. Mushrooms :(

I studied a bit more for my exam and now off to bed! Some girls went to the beach today, I would be jealous if the water wasn't freezing...and also on Friday all day I'm going to Canberra! Finally, stuff to do!

Studying!

2008-09-15T00:56:00.002+10:00

Today was mellow. Watched a tiny bit of Smallville, went to Hillsong (http://www2.hillsong.com/default.asp), came back and studied a bit with a girl in my class, we have an exam on Tuesday. Joy...

Tomorrow I get to do my 2nd project for Photography! Whee...

walk·a·bout (wôk'ə-bout')
n.

Australian A temporary return to traditional Aboriginal life, taken especially between periods of work or residence in white society and usually involving a period of travel through the bush.

I think many people come to Australia to do a walkabout. John Locke of LOST did. In the show he said he wanted to experience something spiritual (I think). This idea fascinates my free-spirit to no end. Hmm...

Snooze

2008-09-14T02:30:00.002+10:00

Watched a bunch of stuff, but I did get HOMEWORK done on photoshop while watching!

Other than that, I craved pizza last night so much that I dreamt about eating it. I could not believe it.

I had a pizza slab today and it just isn't the same.

I'm sad that all our excursions happen during the last half of being here, but that means it will be extra exciting times to come!

Can't believe I've been here for over 2 months already...wow...

Cheers, mates!

Sadness!

2008-09-13T02:49:00.003+10:00

Today I slept in, worked on my library images in Photoshop a bit, saw Obama's speech and caught up on politics I think.

Dinner was shepherds pie again, a lot like lasagna, but NOT. :( Oh well.

I want greasy and unhealthy pizza. Hmm...apparently Pizza Hut is not very big here, but it is here!

We watched the Australian TV show "Thank God You're Here" which had a run in America but probably was canceled. I guess the aussie version is sooo much better. I laughed sure, but it wasn't the best...

I watched An Americal Tale (with Fievel) and I can't believe I've never seen it before! I remember watching the sequel (Fievel goes West) so much as a kid and I loved it. But now I have to find that one so I can watch it! <3 memories.

Then we watched Memento. Makes me <3 memories even more! haha.

Tomorrow I thought I might go to the blue mountains but because someone messed up the checkmarks on the whiteboard (choosing the 13th or 20th for going) kept CHANGING, we aren't going tomorrow. I'm sad. It makes me a little mad even. There are 6 people that signed up to go. Too bad 4 out of 6 are in the musical and have rehearsal on the 20th. And maybe they forgot? I don't know what happened. Anyways, there were EIGHT checkmarks. And this was when I didn't even put one up because it doesn't matter to me, I'm free both. But I don't know who put up 2 more checkmarks than there are people. So I found out that the musical prevented 4 people from going the second date, so a few days ago I erased 2 checkmarks from the 20th, so there was 6, and 4 in favor for tomorrow. BUT now we just aren't going. So I don't think me and Ash will even go next weekend because that's just us 2. I'm sad. :( (I will get to go again in October, I am just bummed that I can't go now, and twice)

Now I have nothing to do tomorrow...Arg.

Class...zz...zzzzz...

2008-09-12T02:58:00.002+10:00

Today I slept in, took a bus, had class, came back, dinner was pork and rice, watched X-men and some TV.

Nothing at all exciting happened today.

This Saturday or next I'm going to the Blue Mountains though! Can't wait.

Friday, nothing to do. Maybe homework...planning for my paper due the 26th. Hm. Cheers!

I will probably pick up more snacks...

Wombats, Wallabies, and Skinks, Oh My!

2008-09-10T22:17:00.004+10:00

My day started this morning when I stayed up until 4am because the dryer was broken. First I forgot to put the stuff in the dryer, then my stuff was still wet. Then I put that in and did it again but they were still wet. I finally left my clothes there overnight and gave up. On the upside, I got to refresh the website that was giving a minute by minute update of the Apple announcements about the new iPod stuff...and it happened at 4am my time. (cool stuff! iTunes 8! $100 cheaper! glad I waited!)

Today I got up, had breakfast, and left with Angela for the zoo. We took a train and went a little too far and ended up crossing this huge bridge to walk back. It was over the water and right near the Opera House. Breathtaking for sure! I took pictures of course (almost forgot my camera!), 60 in all. I would upload them now but I'm battling the internet and trying to get iTunes 8.

I petted a walaby (smaller kangaroo pretty much), saw: skink (lizard), chameleon, dingo, gorilla, gliding rats, platypus, kangaroos, red panda, koalas, komodo dragon, seal, basilisk, tazmanian devil, and a bunch i can't remember.

It was crazy! I saw so much! Highlights were petting the wallaby, seeing the Tasmanian devil, seeing a family of gorillas play and the two younger ones were fighting, and the dad pulled one off! It was awesome. It was cool to see a platypus too, I had no idea they were so small. We also saw these jumping/gliding rats that were nuts! They'd crawl up and down the glass and jump from the glass to a branch and keep going up and down and round and round. No echidnas though. :(

On the way to the zoo we saw a motorcycle with 3 wheels. It went by quicker than I could take a pic. It had 2 wheels on the FRONT. I couldn't believe it. Crazy.

We walked to the wharf and took a ferry to the zoo. It was $23 for the zoo. :( I took great pics of the Opera House as we went by. After the zoo, we rode a bus to the dock, took a different and much fancier ferry back, and then rode a train back and walked the rest. Dinner was that shephards pie again...

I am exhausted from all the walking today and I'll go to bed before midnight hopefully...

Cheers!

Zooooooooooooooooooooooooo

2008-09-10T00:09:00.002+10:00

Today I went to class. Then I took a bus to Burwood and mailed my Absentee ballot form. Woohoo!

Then I timed it so I wouldn't have to wait as long for the bus.

After that I went back, took a nap before dinner which was chicken stir fry.

It was two girls' birthday today so one other girl got a lot of treats and party favors for one. Some people smashed cake into other people's faces. They had a pink can of the spray that colors your hair and one guy thought it was silly string and sprayed a girl in the face...let's just say she had pink eye. They went bowling afterward but I decided not to.

We watched David Letterman which was quite Democratic (i laughed) and I'm guessing they just play them one night later here.

Now I'm about to go to bed. I am going to the zoo tomorrow with Angela, another Bethel girl that needs to go for her assessment on Thursday. She's studying the komodo (sp?) dragon and acting like one. I figure I better go before the drama people's passes run out, or else I'll be alone. I'll just pay, whatever. Hope it's not too much. I'm excited! I will bring my camera!

Here is a link to my library scene shots, untouched: LINK (hope it works)

I will have to edit a little before I hand them in. Heaps cool.

Stream of Conscious

2008-09-09T01:20:00.004+10:00

...probably won't go to the gold coast/brisbane since the two people i know best most likely will be busy...it's a 10.5 hour roadtrip so yeah...maybe another time...

...missed out on buying shirts from a website on sale (saved $12) because they don't allow a credit card to be from a country not where it's shipped to. by the time i resolved to ship it home, sale over. better luck next time i guess, and i saved money which is good.

...photography...got my library scene done...will put pix up later when internet is better...it turned out good, still need to photoshop some...helped vivian take pics of an iron...interesting lighting effects...

...bus to burwood, bought an envelope for my absentee ballot...

...bus to home, train to UTS library with alvin, need a UTS card to get in (he doesn't have one, i do) so we turned back...tried some asian food on the way home. yum yum. got a grape juice can with mandarin characters...maybe i will save it. it's durable compared to our cans. from taiwan. saw a transparent pop can at the store...

...spaghetti again...

...million dollar baby...

...90210 the americans remade it...laughably bad...

...aussies spell tire "tyre"

bed time, cheers!

Happy Fathers Day!

2008-09-07T22:31:00.004+10:00

In Australia today was fathers day. Their mothers and fathers days are in their spring too. :P

Slept in, watched some more podcasts on politics, had brunch, went on the balcony a little bit with some people, and went to Hillsong, and now I'm watching Robin Hood: Men in Tights.

This weekend I heard some people I know are going to Brisbane. Ashley (aussie guy that taught me some guitar), Brianna (bethel girl), Doug (another aussie), and I don't know about others. I asked if I could go along and see the coast. We'll see! Either this next weekend or the weekend after, I should be going to the Blue Mountains, also! Exciting times coming up.

I want to get 2 t-shirts from a website since I have $3 credit and they have a sale ($12 apiece) now, but I can't use a credit card from a country (USA) that is not the country I ship to (Australia). I hope I can borrow someone's card before the sale is up.

Hillsong was so American tonight! They did the satellite connection between the two campusses (much like I'm used to back home) and we went to the Hills one but not the one in the City. I hope to see that one before I leave here though. The Hills is the original Hillsong and bigger, but father from where I live. They had Christian Hosoi at the City campus, an American ex-pro-skateboarder that was famous with Tony Hawk. He invented the move "Christ Air" and I'm pretty sure I remember it from the video games. Crazy. He gave his testimony and how he became a Christian. At the Hills campus there was an American also, named Preston, but I don't know if he was famous or not. He was funny for sure! Also, before it started, they had Guitar Hero 2 projected on the big screen! They had a "champion" from before face off against a challenger. The first challenger lost but the 2nd challenger became the new champion and got to wear a wig of dreadlocks. Both times they played Sweet Child 'O Mine and both times they didn't complete the song (time constraints, I bet). It was awesome and it really made me miss home so bad! More than ever!

September 9th is exciting too! It's my good friend Becky's birthday back home. It's a girl from Bethel that is here named Jenny's birthday too! And it is the day Apple should do the iPod thing. Can't wait. Jenny wants to go out to eat for her birthday so I might go if it's not too expensive.

Tomorrow after class I *hope* to go to Burwood and mail an absentee ballot form. I might go to UTS's library.

On the way home from Hillsong we stopped at Maccas. I got a $2 cheeseburger again :( and a soft serve cone. Their cones are weird. Ours are yellowish...that's are...orange. But they taste the same.

Pronunciation! They say the letter 'h' as 'haytch' and 'z' as 'zed.' They say herbs with an 'h.' It's not ketchup, it's tomato sauce. Those stringed Christmas lights are called "fairy lights."

Well, I think I'm off to bed now! Cheers!

Polyticks on a Saturday

2008-09-06T22:47:00.002+10:00

Today I slept in and realized it kills my day. I have to wake up early if I want to do anything. No one goes out at night mostly. Of if they do, they drive. I have no car. No one goes out at night because it's largely unsafe. Sad, now that's what I miss at home...GOING PLACES ON WEEKENDS. I felt cooped up all day. Drove me nuts.

I got nothing done, but what I have to get done is not pressing, since I did my paper just fine.

I saw a hilarious TV show that's Aussie called Lane & Woodley. New age Three Stooges, but only 2 guys.

I found out the new iPods will most likely be announced on Sept 9th. Tick Tock. But I can't buy one here since they are already $100 more than in the States. Even the conversion rates don't help me.

I've been keeping up with US Politics when I'm bored. It's kinda fun to read how they smear each other. Oh Palin... :P

Cheers!

Fry-Tog

2008-09-06T01:36:00.003+10:00

Not really Friday in German. But sounds good.

I went to the library and worked on my paper all day. I handed it in just in time. They don't hand it in to teachers. They don't call them papers either, it's an essay always. They have an assignment form you fill out for every handed in assignment. You drop all your work in one box no matter who the teacher. Crazy.

They don't indent paragraphs. They just put another page break in (enter). Their citing is much simpler I think, and I prefer it actually.

Dinner was chicken stir fry. Oh! I forgot to tell you about awkward praying! On rare occasions (although for the past 2 nights), MaryAnge (host mom sorta, runs the hostel with her husband Bernard, also: thickest French accent ever) decides to sing instead of praying. The song is her choice. It's a surprise. So she will sing a son and we all sing after her. It's really awkward because most of us don't understand her accent so it comes out in mumbles. You can't sing well with mumbles. I cannot express how awkward it is. And I'm not alone.

After that we heard a car crash while watching an Aussie TV show. We went on the balcony to check. It was pretty cool.

I am not getting a balanced guitar lesson anymore and it shows! I tried practicing the chords but I can't remember them really well...and it sounded messed up. I'll work on it this weekend hopefully. But on the bright side, I practiced the beginning of Thunderstruck and I can do it faster and have it sound clearer than ever.

Everyone was bored later and I was dead tired. They finally put in Schindler's List and I ended up falling asleep for 80% of it. Now I think I'll go to bed.

Boooooooooring

2008-09-04T22:51:00.002+10:00

Woke up a bit after my snooze was hit (40 minutes) and went to school early to work on my paper.

The bus came a bit late but oh well. Got to the library and there weren't any spots for me. I plopped down next to a school computer and put my laptop next to it. Their computers are super old and have plenty of errors and run ugly Windows and it's green but I don't know why. It's Australian maybe?

Went to class later and I don't like that class at all. I should've dropped THAT and took Theater History instead. But then I wouldn't have taken Photography, but if I could relive it, I would take Photography and Theater History. Sadface. Oh well. I'll make it to November. I hope.

After that I took the shuttle home and dinner was pork, a carrot salad, and lettuce. It wasn't bad.

Now I have to get a bunch of my paper done so I can finish it in the library tomorrow and hand it in at 4. Blah.

Aero! Maltesers!

2008-09-03T22:57:00.003+10:00

Nothing exciting until I got to the 2nd bus stop. The bus took a long time to get there, weird. But another ASC girl was there, one from my photography class.

I got to school at about 1:15. I've never been there on a Wednesday, but I know they have a thing called The Gathering which is a lot like chapel back home. It's not mandatory but recommended. Because I was late (also didn't know what time it was at), I didn't join. I tried going to the library but didn't know if it would be closed or not. I walked in and the two librarians were talking and said it was closed...embarrassing but oh well. I hung out with some people until it was open again.

I wrote some more of my paper and read about citing in Aussie format. It's simple and I like it better than ours! But they don't indent paragraphs. Crazy.

After that I hung out again until the shuttle came and brought a bunch of us home. Great times on that ride back...wow. Hilarious. Dinner was an amazing pasta. It was green and had salmon chunks in it. So good.

I put requests to the guitar players here so I can learn "A Whole New World" and the Mario theme song. But I haven't had much time (don't wanna be too obtrusive, it's not my guitar) to practice lately.

Still fighting the internet...but I feel like I'm the only one.

Also I saw at a bus stop today a sign that intrigued me. It was for a play called The Narcissist. Hopefully I can get a group to go with at the Opera House. It'll be $50, but I think it's worth it! I don't wanna see any other shows here really. It's a comedy, too. We'll see...

P.S. The title of this entry is because I had a mint bubble Aero bar for the first time. I heard they were in Canada but not in the U.S. So I had one here, why not? Maltesers are what I've been munching on for awhile, basically chocolate malt balls.

New Candy For Me!

2008-09-02T22:18:00.002+10:00

Today I had class in the morning, luckily I was driven by a classmate I live with. After class I took a bus to Burwood and went to the mall to pick up a copy of Horton Hears a Who for class. I have to read it, see the movie, and write a paper on the differences. Looks like it'll be interesting.

I gota Mars bar and a cookies and cream Kitkat along with the book. I don't remember if we have Mars bars at home or not. I know I've seen the logo but that's because the Mars company owns so much. It's basically a Milky Way anyways. The Kitkat was good too.

Nothing really exciting happened. Dinner was curry again.

Internet is acting up again. :(

Tomorrow I'm gonna go to Wesley since my UTS class isn't in session for 5 weeks, and I'll work on my paper due Friday. Fun...

Library...Project!

2008-09-02T00:12:00.002+10:00

Last night I stayed up way late putting together my miniature library scene for class today. It turned out pretty well I think. Class had 2 other girls taking pictures of their scenes since they will be gone next week. Next week is a 2 person class. Crazy. I'll do mine then. We also saw Vivian have a model come in, and she happened to be Hannah, another girl I live with in Student Housing. She's a dancer and had to pose for the shots. ON HER TOES. Ouch. I felt bad for her, having to hold it for awhile.

Before class I had to print out my images to use. I was bummed out when they came up smaller than they should have, so everything was off. I took awhile resizing until maybe the 4th try got a suitable size. I think it was either the printer being weird or the metric system conversion. Hmm...

After class I ate my lunch and tried Twisters or Twistees or something like that. Basically flavored Cheetos. I had chicken. I also tried their "chips" which are French Fries. But these were flavored. I forgot which kind, but I still don't know if I like them or not. They were sweet, but also super tangy that made me wince. It wasn't bad.

Then I witnessed attempts to retrieve car keys locked in a car via many coat hangers. I left for home before seeing the culmination of the effort.

I caught a bus to Burwood and Langsoon went with. We walked around the mall so he could get more minutes for his phone and an ATM for him to get money. Then he had to get back quick, because he forgot about something and right when he put minutes in, someone called him. So he bolted and I decided I couldn't keep up and waited around for a bus back.

I put shorts on! In September! Then I went online a little, watched some of Prince of Egypt, fell asleep, woke up for dinner which was noodles and stir fry, something Bethel had similar to. Then I took another nap, showered, talked to my mom and stepdad, and now I'm off to bed at a decent hour, before 1!

Cheers!

What I've Been Up To

2008-08-31T23:03:00.004+10:00

Today I did a sleep schedule course correction program engineered and monitored entirely by me. Probably unhealthy, but now I should be on track tonight. I stayed up all night...and took a couple short naps.

Last night walking to the play...wow. I didn't mention it really, but we sped walked to Burwood to catch a bus the rest of the way. There was 4 of us, 2 girl dancers, Ish, and I. Those dancers are in top physical condition because they have to be. Ish must be used to walking tons down under. I nearly collapsed. Because running uses different muscles than speed walking, and because I don't speed walk EVER, I literally ran in place moving very slowly while they sped walked, just so it wouldn't hurt. Oh I could feel the burn and lactic acid was not kind to me last night. It's good for me though, yes. I'm not too sore even. Whew. It was truly killer.

I had Nutra-Grain for breakfast like always. Don't think we have that at home. It's not like Nutra Grain bars at all. I did laundry all day and it was tough because other people usually beat me to it. :( But I'm done. Maybe one last load tomorrow, but it's not urgent. Just towels and sheets. For dinner I had a pizza slab.

I was busy putting together my miniature library scene. Building a mini laptop is hard work! I hope it turns out tomorrow. It's still not done, I need to color it black tonight and tomorrow paste the keyboard and monitor on. I'm excited. I also need to put pages in my mini book. I still need to color that and tape it so it looks 3D (the binding). I need to take a few more pictures of carpet and get those to print tomorrow for my floor. Should be interesting tomorrow to see how it turns out.

I was also busy doing things to my webpage including this very awesome new button that goes to my blog:

(for obvious reasons the button does not work here)

Also, I found a sweet extension for Firefox. Say hello to my new homepage:

CLICK (if you want)

I learned how to do that effect in Photoshop these past few days. The whole "blurr, flipped upside down, and faded away to make it look like it's on glass" effect. I did the effect on the blue home icon, I didn't make the icon itself. I didn't do any of the Apple or Blog icon. I did the whole red vs. blue image. I didn't do the facebook one. I did the whole zatch.org image (my website--a bulletin board). I didn't do the twitter one. I didn't do any on the 2nd row at all. I did FreeRice.com and all of the ones to the right of it. Clicking on the icons take me to the site, of course. How cool is that?

Our next trip was going to be next weekend but apparently it's moved back because Cameron wanted to go to the symphony. Now it will be in October. Now what should I do this weekend? :P

A Play

2008-08-30T23:22:00.003+10:00

A drama student put on his own production at Wesley and I slept in and went online after until then. It was really good and I can't believe he set all of it up with just a vision.

Today was a low key day pretty much.

I figured out why the yogurt here is not pleasing to me. I thought it was vanilla when I had it the first day in Sydney. It was actually passionfruit. Bleh. But today I saw there was one last Strawberry one! I snatched it up and found out it was still...eh. An actual strawberry would have been sweeter than this yogurt. To top it off, it was watery at the top. So I guess I miss yogurt now!

A few days ago I had a Twix. Milk chocolate, caramel, and a BISCUIT. They don't call them cookies. :(

Library Day

2008-08-30T00:13:00.002+10:00

Today I went on the morning shuttle to school, went to the library and did about a third of my paper and got a few books. I went down to ride the shuttle home...but it left earlier than 5pm.

:(

It was a bit chilly out and I had my laptop and bookbag with. I road 2 buses home and made it just in time for dinner, which was sausages, some weird stuff, and potato wedges.

After that I had a 50 minute counseling session with Alvin. He has to counsel someone for his degree and I said, why not?

After that, I stayed in the common room on my computer fixing up my website for fun. They're watching the first Jurassic Park now.

I have to get a lot of my paper done this weekend, finish my miniature library, and read a bit. I think I might go to "Pancakes on the Rocks" which is a good restaurant I heard. We'll see. I also need to get fabric for my project and Horton Hears a Who! Fun times.

Cheers!

Today was Pretty Awesome

2008-08-29T00:38:00.002+10:00

Started out swell, slept in, went to class. At the bus stop where I transfer, I stood up against the wall of the mall because the bus stop benches were full. I smelled something funny. I turned and noticed the wall was pretty dang spotless. I looked down and saw a nice paper sign.

Wet Paint

I checked to make sure my black shirt had no white on it. Luckily it didn't. I bet the paint just dried and the rest of the wall might've been wet still. After that I went on, luckily the bus came right away and normally I wait 10 minutes. And the bus that I caught to get there came literally right as I sat down at the bus stop! It was crazy, I almost missed it. I would have still made it to class on time probably though.

Class was good, I have a paper due next Friday in that one and I'm going tomorrow to spend the whole day in the library, since I have no classes.

After class, I went online a tiny bit before dinner which was stir fry over rice again.

Then upstairs Australian Idol was on. Ah their judges aren't as mean as Simon. I miss it. Then Nilli put on Waiting for Albrandi which is an Aussie film. I have seen bits and pieces before, but tihs time I saw most of it. It was good and emotional. After that we put on The Departed. I loooooove that movie. We were originally going to watch the first episode of LOST, but Vivian forgot them at home. Sad. Oh well.

I did not waste my time during this time though! I had a BLAST learning how to play GUITAR! Ashley (guy) taught me the three basic chords--G, C, and D. I am quite sure I have them memorized now. I just can't remember which is which yet. They used to be awkward but I have gotten it down. Now I need to work on switching my fingers up faster. Strumming isn't that hard, but I can get better. I learned the beginning of the AC-DC song "Thunderstruck" which is on just one string actually. I played an acoustic. I bet I could try an electric while I'm here too. I could totally do this (and hope to) beyond Australia. Who's gonna join my band?

All this exposure to Photoshop and guitar is getting me super excited! Too bad I'm not that way for my Theology classes. :P

Last day at UTS for awhile...

2008-08-28T01:04:00.002+10:00

Today I went a new way to UTS, a faster way. Underground up until the very end. It was cold so I benefited greatly. On the shuttle to Lindfield, we stopped for gas. I've never done that on the shuttle before. I was on the side next to the pump and watched the cost go up a dollar per second, literally, up to $65. Ouch. We drove by a place that reminded me of a video game (Crackdown) area. I saw a basketball hoop...without the hoop. Just a backboard. Weird.

I think I forgot to mention that I walk by an orange tree every Wednesday.

I need to stock up on Vanilla Coke while I'm here. They still sell it. I loved it back home and was sad when they stopped selling it. And I should get cases of Milo for home too. :-D

Class was about Pride & Prejudice and it was pretty good. I noticed that My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a retelling also, like Bridget Jones' Diary. The next 5 weeks I don't have that class. Time to work on Senior Sem and read Catch-22. It was interesting to note I only saved 5 minutes going the fast way back. I wonder if that's how much I saved in the morning...

The internet is slow again, boo. The dryer doesn't work really well now either, boo. Dinner was huge fishsticks, salad with tomatoes, and some pumpkin mush stuff. Not bad.

I'm having a blast learning new things in Photoshop. I am not doing it for class, but my own endeavours. I asked Ish for some help and Vivian too. They sorta helped me but I went online for tutorials. If you google "web 2.0 logos" you'd see what I am dabbling in.

I had a nice talk with some people about relationships during my photoshopping. I heard about a night and church where some girls went and saw some healings happen. Crazy stuff!

Now I'm off to bed!

Study Day

2008-08-26T20:37:00.004+10:00

Sorta.

Today I had class in the morning and then I stayed all day at school catching up on reading. I was going to try to finish a paper but that was a really lofty goal apparently. I am caught up on the reading though, and have a few good ideas about where to start my paper on Friday, when I have no classes. I was loving the super-fast internet at school since it was wired for the first time ever in Australia for me. Soooooooo good. At the moment in my room the internet is treading a fine line between "unbearable" and "at least I can read while I wait." At least I have internet, that's for sure.

Dinner was meatless spaghetti with cooked chicken on the side, and lettuce. It was interesting. I'd rather have her spaghetti even though we've had it thrice already (it's that good!). We also had amazing chocolate cake (store bought) for a girl's 18th birthday. She's the youngest here.

I am dead tired. I think I'll go to bed at 10. Tomorrow is my favorite day again!

I'm learning a few things from Ish in Photoshop. That's cool. I forgot to mention I might try to learn the basics of guitar, since about 399 million people I live with know how to play.

If you're reading this blog, good on ya for doin' it!

Check out my awesome photography pictures so far! (link!)

Today I made something awesome.

2008-08-25T23:07:00.003+10:00

That's it, click to enlarge. I snapped that shot last week. Today we edited it in Photoshop. It's actually really sloppy and I think I wanna go back and really fine tune it, which means starting over but it was actually pretty easy.

Photography in the morning, I sorta half my mini-model put together. I watched and help others do theirs and whatnot. More girls joined my class so I'm the only guy besides the teacher. Woo. I got inspired and I think I know what story I will weave. Well, most of it. I will most likely put up the pictures here as soon as I can. Tomorrow I'll try to put up my pictures that I've taken so far (and have a digital copy still), if I can. Then I had lunch and then I had my other photography class where we learned stuff in Photoshop. I had Photoshop CS1 on the computer I was using. Sad. He taught us stuff from CS2. I have CS2 on my laptop and had CS3 but got rid of it on my desktop at home (the updates weren't noticeable). I think I'm catching on quick and it's good fun, image editing.

After that, read a bit, Ashley (GUY that lives next to me) saw me catch an extra long blink in the library and then we road the shuttle home. Dinner was a sort of curry, but resembled chili moreso. I went to my room for a bit before the internet went kaput. Then I went to the common room to compute more and read more, and now I'm here, about to sleep hopefully.

McDonald's - Mack-us

Don't ask me why. Ashley said he never really thought about it. Nilli said it was because of the Mc part. Well of course, but still she didn't go beyond that. People with that last name are called Mack-us also. That's all the more info I could glean. I still remain unsatisfied. Oh well.

Sunday and I'm Giddy

2008-08-24T23:01:00.002+10:00

Not much today. Food, part of Dead Poet's Society, Hillsong, meeting with everyone I live with, food, talk with mom, blog, and now bed. The internet randomly drops now. Sad.

I'm giddy about finding out about new iPods coming soon! I need a new one and this is good timing. Slight cosmetic changes, a price drop for the phoneless iPods, and iTunes 8.0 is awesome!

They don't say McDonald's. They say something else. Mac...something. I have to figure out!

I don't know what to do when someone says something that they think is funny, yet the humour is completely lost on me. It's tough.

Ish: Ladies and gentlemen we are the entertainment for tonight. hahahahaha. (that is a line from The Dark Knight followed by his own laugh, not in the line, but because he thinks it's funny)

Andrew: (mumbling to me something that I don't understand)...you know? ahahaha.
Me: uh...oh, ha (half laugh)
Andrew: Yeah. (oblivious to my lack of understanding)

When talking with Ish before Spiro awhile ago:
Ish: Did you get some snakes?
Me: Huh? Snakes?
Ish: Yeah, snakes.
Me: I don't understand what you mean.
Ish: For the trip.
Me: OH! SNACKS! Yeah...

Overheard walking home yesterday:
Ish: Did you see the Metrics?
Angela: ...actually no, I haven't.
Ish: It's funny because there are a lot of American actors but it's in Sydney.

OH! MATRIX! Yeah...(not verbalized)

Downtown!

2008-08-24T00:35:00.002+10:00

Today I slept in and went downtown with Angela (Bethel student) and Ish (Zimbabwe). We went to the 3 story Apple store. It was awesome. They had a ton of iStuff and we didn't really mess around with it that much. The elevators, buttons for the elevators, and stairs were all so...sleek. The button blended right into the wall and was smooth silver. The elevator was sleek and small too. The stairs were clear and translucent. You couldn't see straight through them, because it was blurry. You could at an angle through the cracks though, so it was interesting seeing the people above you walking up while you walked down, underneath them. Quite the experience. I'm sad that the iPod I have my eyes on next is $400. Very sad indeed.

Before we went there, we stopped at the Queen Victoria Building which is not what you think it is. It's basically a mall. But...it's in a way that makes me have to go back with my camera. It's all...old fashiony and stuff. Lamps instead of flourescents, carpet on some floors, it was marvelous. We went to a store called Hobbyco. because my photography recommended it for miniature stuff for our projects. I saw something I could use, but it was in a huge set for $33 so I didn't get anything. Oh well, it was a cool store still! The teacher has stuff I can borrow anyways. I'm not worried.

After that we were going to go to the beach, but it was waaaaaay too cold so I convinced them to go another day. We stopped at a grocery store and I stocked up on sweets...and chips. (btw, "chips" in Australia are french fries) I'm still American and I got DORITOS CHIPS, not FRENCH FRIES. So yeah.

Then we went home and had dinner (leftovers) and we watched Bridget Jones's Diary which is a retelling of Pride & Prejudice (which I watched last night for class) and it was pretty good. Then after that we watched Monty Python's Life of Brian. Then after that we watched The Truman Show. Then after that everyone went to bed. A little later, Emily got back and put in a movie and watched the last third or so of it. An Aussie film, I watched on and off. Now I'm here, about to go to bed too.