March 12th - March 16th - I'm A Bad Bad Blogger

Monday March 12th

Fire Spinning- I did it. With fire. Didn't get burned (also didn't do too many tricks because I was scared but it was cool).

Wednesday March 13th

Beach - St Kilda

Cake Shop - Delicious.

Bought new expensive can't wait to wear it, going to knock you off your feet dress. Thank you Frankie for making sure it wasn't black.

I need a job, did my RSA (responsible Service of Alcohol Training) it cost me $60 and if I don't get a job with booze service then it will not be worth it.

Thursday March 15th

Fancy Dinner and Jungle Juice. Provided by Rigel and Frankie respectively. 

Friday March 16th

John Carter and Fish and Chips in a half built, broken into mansion.

Great Ocean Road pictures to come.

There's no place like...

Sunday March 11th - One Month Anniversary

       Today is my one month anniversary of coming to Australia. It doesn't feel like that long and at the same time it does not seem that short. It doesn't really feel at all, it's just time. The full moments are fulfilling in a way that nothing else has before and are often simpler than expected. The empty moments are rare yet more frequent then you think and they are the longest. I miss home but I'm through the roof about being here its just adjusting to being here on my own and I'm okay with that :)

In this month I have:

o eaten strange new foods (mostly junk)
o been proposed to by a German
o drank
o Swam in the ocean, twice
o swam with a penguin
o drank
o taken risks and had adventures
o inhaled vodka
o ran out the city center looking like a soccer team
o come together as part of a Pokémon themed morale booster
o been the black sheep at a toga party
o posted soul exposing drunken videos of myself
o seen koalas, kangaroos, echidnas, platypi (I don't care what anyone tells you that is what the plural should be called), various birds, wallabies flying foxes and lyre birds
o drank
o got a phone, lost a phone
o listened to the symphony by the river at sunset 
o blacked out drunk
o seen Amanda Palmer and had her sign my chest
o written over 10,000 words in 20 blog posts
o and oh yeah, moved to Australia

      It's not enough. This is not justification. I must make better use of my time. 

In the coming month I plan to:
While on a road trip to go camping along Great Ocean Road:
o See the 12 Apostles
o Go body boarding
o hike through the jungle
o swim under a waterfall
o go to the lighthouse where they filmed Round the Twist

While in the Outback in Broken Hill:
o Tours of the Outback Flying Doctors Base and Daydream Silver Mine
o Exploration of Mungo National Park, a World Heritage-listed site
o Watching a spectacular sunset at the Outback Sculpture Park
o Visit to the mining ghost town of Silverton (now an artists colony)
o Experiencing life at a remote outback cattle and sheep station (Ranch)
o Camel rides

While on The One Fish Two Fish Trip with Extreme Adventures:
o Australia Zoo - Croc Feeding Show
o Party Cruise (inc. beer and wine)
o Night Bungy Jump and Party.
o AJ Hackett Bungy Swing
o Maxi Yacht Sailing in the Whitsunday Islands.
o 4 x 4 bus trip on Fraser Island.
o Pristine Fraser Island Lakes
o Full Day White Water Rafting the Tully River.
o 2 nights on a Tropical Island Resort.
o Whitehaven Beach.
o High speed ocean rafting adventure
o Rainforest and Waterfalls trip
o Great Barrier Reef trip to outer barrier reef on a luxury vessel.
o Scuba dive and snorkelling Great Barrier Reef.

While actually staying on campus:
o     Start rehearsals for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Oh? Did I not tell you? I got  part in a play =D Just a small one but it'll be good to get back around theatre people and the show promises to be very cool)
o      Get a job and do well in school.


       No problem, right?

       This is going to be awesome.

       There's no place like...

Sunday March 4th - Sunday March 11th: Round Up

Sunday March 4th
       After Sunday supper, which is not supper at all but just junk food (of course I have it for my supper, or dinner as the two words are not synonymous here), we continued the building tradition of Sunday Nights with the Doctor, or Science Fiction Doctor Feature, or Double Doctor Date (the trend seems to be we are watching all the two parters). This week was Human Nature and Family of Blood, next week will be Forest of the Dead and Silence in the Library. I'm really enjoying it, it's a good way to get people together and gives something fun to look forward to on a Sunday.


Monday March 5th
       After class it was my fire twirling club. I keep saying MY Fire Twirling Club as if I possess it in somewhat, which is wholly unfair, so rather it was THE Fire Twirling Club. I've learned a few more tricks and am just attempting to get the flow of the movement a little more clean. It's still really basic and I don't claim to be any good but I know I'm making improvement so I'm proud of myself for that. :) I'm normally the type of person who will give up on something if I'm not any good at it in the first few minutes. I'm really trying to get past this in every aspect of my life but this particularly. I really wish there was another word for it, thought. "Twirling" sounds so uninteresting. "Spinning" would be so much better. We get to do our first burn next week. Real fire and all. I'm not really keen on this. I feel like it's really soon. I mean I know how to trust myself and to know that I'm not skilled enough yet to light something on fire and whirl it around my head but I'm not sure that everyone will have that kind of forethought. I'm convinced someone is going to get hurt but I'm going to focus on making sure it's not me.


Tuesday March 6th
       I got my first piece of personal mail Tuesday. :) My mom send me a card and a bracelet from their trip to Jamaica. It was so nice to see her handwriting and not a bill or bank statement. I still need to buy a clasp for fixing my bracelet that broke when going through customs.  But all the beads are in a baggie that I keep in my little purse thing so it goes with me wherever I go.


       I also went to See Amanda Palmer in concert. She is recording an album down where with a new band and put on a series of shows to test out the new material. I have been a fan, a very peripheral fan, through Billy, for a bit but I only knew a few songs. However much to my pleasure all of the songs that were new now one there knew and all the old stuff she played was stuff I did know. It made for an excellent show. Afterwards, wanting to make the evening memorable, I had the following conversation with her:


"Can I be so bold and inappropriate to ask you to sign my chest?"
"Of course! But on one condition."
"Anything."
"You have to get the rest of the band to do it too."
This is the result:

What did I tell you? Class act. Afterwards she asked me to send her pictures. No kidding. Aphex Twin was also playing in town that night. It was a sexy night for music in Melbourne.If you don't know Amanda Palmer's music, check out some here:

As well as: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcoreV10hI8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5i0o3JRaF2g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAk93YZgTts

Wednesday March 7th
       Lost my phone (Sam's phone), my bag broke, my RSA deposit didn't go through and Victoria Market was closed when I went all the way down there. Still managed to have a pretty good day. I think it's the weather down here.


Thursday March 8th
       I was supposed to go to the Melbourne Aquarium with Haseena, I was super excited. So very stoked. But after losing my phone the replacement costs soaked up by budgeted funds for pretty much everything I wanted and therefore could no go see the fishies. I am more upset about this then the phone getting lost (sorry Sam). I wanted to see the fishies. *huge sad face*


Friday, Saturday and Sunday
       A whole lot of NOTHING. The only thing worth mentioning is that I played 3 games of Magic (my first in Aus) and won all 3. And only one of them was due to a screw/flood. I was rather pleased. I love my deck. :D
       
Currently, on Sunday (the first time I have been up to date on this blog ever) I am doing homework (an essay) on: What was the significance of the 1967 referendum? Discuss the history and legacy of the referendum? Oh, wait no I'm not, I'm blogging. Maybe I should get back on that.

I feel a great injustice in the act of being bored in Australia.

There's no place like...

Friday March 2nd & Saturday March 3rd - The Weekend

Friday March 2nd
         While sitting in the courtyard it was decided we needed to have a night out. Frankie lead the charge, I followed and when it looked like it wasn't going to garner a crowd we decided whoever joined us Frankie and I were going to have a lovely dinner. This became a double date with Sam and Stacy where we decided to get a little fancy. By fancy, I mean I wore a dress. We drove out to a strip mall with several restaurants and shopping centers and found outsells a cute little fish and chips restaurant with what appeared like some good deals-until we discovers it was a dollar for ketchup or tartar sauce. this just will not do, so Frankie and I ran down the street to Quality-Q-Groceries a ShiLankan, Pakistani and the like grocery store. Here is where we purchased a bottle of ketchup for 3 dollars rather than the tub of it for 1. It was however some strange foreign ketchup that tasted not quite like ketchup and not quite like bbq sauce but it did the trick. After dinner we went to ColdRock similar to Marble Slap/Coldstone Creamery and had Birthday Cake and Ferrero Rocher blended ice cream with chunks of Tim Tams. ZOMG. Tim Tams. The best.

       Apparently you can bite each opposing corner off and suck a hot drink like tea or coffee through it and it melts from the inside out and its heaven. I haven't tried it yet because I like these so much I don't buy them. I will eat all of them in one sitting. Not good (SO GOOD). 


Saturday March 3rd

       In short, after a swanky dinner of KANGA BANGAS (kangaroo sausages) and the yet to be mentioned wine(pictured above), I got tipsy... no? Would you believe inebriated? How about that I put on some beer goggles? Intoxicated? Smashed? Hammered? Obliterated? Off my face? Those last few working a but better for you? Drunk, really rather drunk. There are, for the first time in my life, large sweeping sections of the evening I don't remember. Not my proudest moment. But I AM proud of the most important fact of the evening: I have left my mark on Australia by changing the skulling song ( the song that is sung when you have to finish your drink) . It previously ended with  "But (s)he's ALLLLRIGHT." which as you will see, was dumb because it said the same word twice in the same sentence(*tick-tick*) I nominated a change and it went over rather well. It now goes:

Here's to *insert name here* (s)he's true blue!

(S)he's a piss pot through and through!

(S)he's a bastard so they say!

(S)he tried to go to heaven but (s)he went the other way

(S)he went DOWN-DOWN-DOWN-DOWN-DOWN! (repeated until the drink is finished)

(If the drink is finished you respond:)

What do we think of *insert name here*?

(S)he's alright!

(S)he's got small tits/a small dick.

But (s)he GOES ALL NIGHT!

     See what I did there? Mad talent.
   
     If they don't finish the drink all in one go just you just yell: "(S)he's SHIT!" It's not the most kind or conservative of drinking songs, but no good drinking songs are.

     This evenings social lubrication was provided by this magical, magical fact about Australian wine.

       It's the only thing that's cheap. 2 for $5. Glorious. The next day Josh and I went back to the liquor store to buy more while still hung-over from the first batch. Class act.

      There's no place like...

Thursday May 1st - Clouds

      People tend to think that there is always something going on here and for the first couple weeks there was but it's still just school. I'm still just in rez (or halls, I keep getting made fun of for calling it rez) and I'm still looking for work and starving and trying to make friends and be personable. But I also still have crappy days, I still sometimes just want to stay in and sit on Facebook. I remember when Adge came over I used to think he must not be doing anything with his time in Aus because of how often he was online. I didn't realize until I got here that you still have that lull before bed when you're not ready to go to sleep but there's nothing to do. You still have fb open while you get ready for your day. If anything I feel like I'm hovering over it more often. The problem rests in the fact that everyone back home thinks your too buy to chat and everyone from Aus is still new to your life and you feel like your not at the casual chat stage yet. When really you want to connect with new people in various means and you just want to hear good news from home. What I miss most are goodnights. When I go to bed on a Tuesday night back home it's only first thin in the morning on Monday. The times very rarely line up to all for someone to tell you simply: sweet dreams, god bless. 


      Here is what I want to express though: I am not complaining. I am incredibly happy to be here and regardless of the enormous pull drawing me back to Canada I'm not leaving. This is the experience of a lifetime and I'm not giving it up for anything but there are still bad days. You can't run away from them. You still get the desire some days to stay indoors even if the outdoors are a strange new and magical place. And tomorrow you will go exploring and socializing and risk taking but today you will be a hermit. And that's okay.


      So know that if you see me online, I likely want to talk. Regardless if you are in the room next to me or the other side of the world I still want to hear to good news. And if I have a bad day, it's just a day and it will end and it doesn't mean I am not enjoying myself on the whole, I just may want a hug.

  

"I just want to touch people!"

There's no place like...

Addendum - Scott Arnott

     In my 3rd post: Saturday February 11th: Night #1 I wrote about a fine upstanding young gentleman who gave me my first Australian beer. Jetlagged and pathetic as my mind was at the time I forgot his name and crudely brushed off the occurrence with little consideration or thought into how this chance meeting would affect my life. I now call upon the gods for forgiveness and seek recognition.

This -

is Scott Arnott.

     This fierce beast of a man was born on 21 September 1993 and is from Launceston, Tasmania which is where he also states his current location to be, but I know that this is a lie because his true location is in my heart.  He is divorced and this is only because our passion for one another shattered his previous marriage in the instant he handed me that fated lukewarm bottle of Carlton. He enjoys Doctor Who and goon and being a princess. Soon I will make him my bride and spend the rest of my life making sure he is happy and that I never forget his name again.


     Addendum Complete. May our hearts go one and may I never have another.


There's no place like...

Saturday February 25th - Thursday March 1st - Beach, Bikes and Battles

      A lovely day on the beach (Brighton Beach) with Kirsten,  Josh (J-Mac/Fidget), James, Rachel, Milan, Frankie and Kim (Brit, Local, Brit, Brit, Dutch, American and Dutch) at which I attempted to find Silvio (German) and swam out to a what we thought was a rock but turned out to be a coral formation. 

     When Silvio found me I joined him and some other internationals of the ugly side of the beach before heading to their place for dinner and out to a free Symphony by the river, it was stunning and I wish I had known about it sooner (it was the last of the series).

I am only posting this picture (cropped as the rest of the pic is icky) so you can see just how pronounced my freckles are these days. Good ole Aussie sun.

Silvio, Mariana, Daniella, Chris, Daniel and.. (?) :S She was really nice though.

This picture is proof that Ramon is my long lost German brother.

      Afterwards went back to the German's place to drink and socialize. I feel asleep early (as usual) and woke up to Silvio arguing with his girlfriend about me. Seriously people, I pose no threat to your boyfriends or your relationships. I'm flattered that you think I am but take confidence in your relationship and maybe you should spend your time focusing on why you don't trust him/yourself and not worrying about some girl from Canada.

      After breakfast I went shopping downtown and found a great place to buy all my souvenirs for  my lovelies back home. Came back up to halls and signed up for a great bikes hare program Monash has where you get a key to hundred of bikes on campus and lock them up again at your destination for the next person to take, if you are lucky they are there when you get back. Totally free, they give you a helmet, lights and your own key to keep for the year. Only trouble is this.

     Its mandatory, the law and all but I'm just an ignorant Canadian who didn't know that if any police officers ask.


      The rest of the week was fairly uneventful. It was the first week of classes but you don't want to hear about that and I don't want to talk about it. :P I did however go to a Free BBQ on Caufield Campus and stocked up. This my friends, is why one should always carry that big ass backpack that I do:

     It is also why you shouldn't make me wait 45 min for a hamburger (even if it is free) I will spend that time slipping things into my bag. I am looking forward to finding out what all these strange flavours taste like. Lemonade, I already know, is Sprite. If you're looking for North American Lemonade (it was very difficult not to say 'real lemonade') you need to find Lemon Squash. Craziness.


There's no place like...