I'm Yours

Watching the Aussie show "In their footsteps" the Kokoda episode, just finished the Gallipoli one. It's so touching and sad. One day I'd like to walk the Kokoda track, or at any rate see Papua New Guinea, it's always been on my list, I think it would be amazing. Watching these shows, and writing my final exam today on Australian war history and Aboriginal relations has made me really curious to learn more about my own Canadian history.

Other places on my list of spots to visit in the next couple years:

Road trip across Canada, do some hiking, canoe-ing, camping, see music festivals and visit friends.

Thailand, hopefully volunteer at Elephant Nature Park for a period of time and go to a full moon party.

Laos to ride the tubing river bars and cure my hangover with the world famous street smoothies that my other backpacker friends have ranted and raved about.

Eat and drink my way through the Mediterranean, pizza, pasta, seafood and olives!

The world is just so amazing, I can't wait to explore more of it.

I Don't Know

Exam in an hour. Then I'll have 2 classes down and 2 to go.

M got to Samoa yesterday, should be getting a phone call this afternoon :) Very excited for it.

Also sick, halls fever is in full swing, everyone's sick and making everyone else sick and in a cycle of sickness. It's gross.

And Sunday Night Supper in halls, which is usually a big get together with junk-food like crisps, Tim-Tams, and party pies have turned into Twice a Week Toast and Coffee meetings, where we all gather, carb-load, chug down some coffee to further overcaffeinate ourselves, and bitch about how many exams we are/how much they suck.

But hopefully I get my last exam as a take-home and finish it early enough in time to be able to pack without freaking out, divvy up all the crap I'm not taking home, and explore Melbourne a little bit more before I leave.

I still have a list of things to see such as an AFL game, the Royal Botanical Gardens, go shopping on Chapel Street, and do some sort of vineyard tour in the Yarra Valley.

Can you see my new earrings in this pic? They are little green, gold and brown feathers. So cute :)

St. Kilda

Well I bleached the shit out of my hair :) Was feeling like a bit of a crazy change, it's pretty neon yellow but it's kind of growing on me, think I'll get a toner today and tone it down a little bit, maybe add a bit of ashiness so I don't stick out so much.

God last night was such a blast! K had been telling me about the Espy for weeks and we finally got a big crew together and went last night. We Maxi Taxi'd there which was $65! Insane, but there were 12 of us so it was relatively cheap. The Espy is just the coolest, there are a bunch of different rooms with different bands, we saw 2 reggae bands, 2 metal bands, and a really great hip hop group with an amazing sax player. Also the lead singer of said hip hop band was drinking tea on stage. How rock n roll is that!!

Then we went down to the basement and got $5 pizza's, which were sooo delicious. After a bit more partying at about 3am we decided to take a walk out on the pier to go see the penguins that come in and hang out on the rocks. They were so adorable but we only saw about 5 and could hear tons of them hiding in the rocks making these awful grumbly noises, still very adorable though.

All in all I am sooo impressed with the Espy and cannot wait to go back, it's totally happening next weekend. The bands were great, the venue was so cool and the people were lovely.

Then too top it off, when we got home at 4am my sailor skyped me!! It was so great since we haven't been able to get skype to work lately, what a surprise :) Made my night, to be able to hear his voice.

Then this morning I got scary news! Need to pick an advisor and a thesis soon! Ahh, so scary! I'm sooo clueless, haven't the faintest idea of what to do. We shall see.

Bad Habits

Just had such a good night out with the girls. F, A and I went to Taco Bill's for giant margaritas and Mexican munchies. I bussed there and the bus driver got lost and missed my stop, so he decided to drive me all the way back, and then this lovely guy who was on the bus with me ended up walking me right to the door of Taco Bill's. He just said that it was too dark to walk alone. So nice of him, I really love the Aussie way, everyone here is so friendly and kind.

So I got to TB's a bit late (sorry guys) and the ladies and I had a bit of a laugh before we got down to the dirty. I was going to be good and get a taco salad or something, since I didn't want to ruin all my hard work at the gym, but that sure went to hell and I ended up having a giant fishbowl mango margarita, an enormous plate of nachos (both of which we shared) and a vegetarian burrito! My god it was so filling, but we ended up getting 25% off our bill because A is amazing and cuts coupons :)

Then I caught a cab home because I missed the last bus, so it was a bit of a pricey excursion but so worth it because it was totally fun.

But I swear I will gym it tomorrow morning right away to make up for tonight :)

On The Turning Away

As a twenty-year old I find it astonishing that some of the most immature people I know are "adults", sometimes twice my age and you'd assume with twice the life experience. Yet they still take part in gossip, exclusion, cliques and generally just being mean and picking on others. It's really a shame, especially when these are the same people I once viewed as friendly and genuine. Not that I'm perfect or that anyone can be, but I just thought that with age comes maturity and responsibility taken for the feelings of others around you and for friends and valued relationships. Obviously not in everyone's case.
Oh well, this honestly just makes me so thankful that I am surrounded by the most amazing family and friends who have become sisters. I hope I make it clear how highly I think of you all and how much I try to learn from you. I'm pretty sure I bore all my other friends with stories of how funny and sweet and interesting and just totally awesome you all are. Cool motherfuckers :)
Also I miss everyone so much, especially Norton haha, my little puppy dog ookums shnookums mushy mooshoo smooshy poo...
I've had such an incredible time here in Australia and have been blessed to meet some of the most incredible people ever. It's amazing when you get to meet real life people who you look up to and who you want to be like. Certain people I have met during my travels have taught me so much about generosity, kindness, being genuine, and responsibility, all by example. I hope I get a chance to run into some of them again someday, maybe in some other crazy part of the world.
Speaking of other parts of the world, I'm really thinking about doing some sort of teach English overseas program next year. I'd really love to see Southeast Asia that way, or even Europe. I'll need to look into it but I think it would be a totally interesting way to see a new country, and maybe stack some bills in the meantime.
But right now all my thoughts are consumed with home. Oh how excited I am to be able to call or text any of my friends at any time, pop over to their houses whenever, call and meet at a Timmies in 15 minutes flat. I'll be SO excited to see a dishwashing machine again, I completely forget what they look like, and to use a laundry machine that doesn't turn everything grey. Also to drive, oh how I long to drive. I miss it so much, although we'll see how easy it is to go back to being on the "wrong" side of the road again.
I'm even excited to go back to work again, I am so lucky to have such a relaxed and friendly work environment, and everyone I work with is very young and we all get along which is great. I wonder if we have any new staff in the office this year, or if the set-up has changed.
But mostly I am just excited to come home and get school finished as soon as possible. I have always loved uni, and have had some really great classes, but I would really like to do some fieldwork or maybe co-op to get some hands on time in the fields that I'm interested in. Oh we shall see what the future holds!

Heart of Gold

Gymmed again this morning. Only managed a half hour of cardio and a bit of legs. Oh well, at least I did it. Then I came home, showered my sweaty piggy self and had some brekkie. Napped for a half hour, woke up and skyped then went to my exam. Pretty sure I passed it, I mean it's pretty friggin difficult to write an entire essay in one hour. But we shall see.
Bailing on bio-ethics, came home and had another nap then ate the most random lunch, leftovers will do that to a girl. Also watched Marley and Me. Shouldn't watch it anymore, made me cry so hard and all I want is to snuggle my puppy. God I can't wait to get home.
Also kind of bummed today, no emails or phone calls from M. Guess there's no internet in the great big blue today, but I miss him. Boo.
Making enchiladas tonight and jamming with my friend D, pretty excited for that, should be fun to cook a real meal! And at some point I swear I will write this essay I've got due in a week. Eugh, just cbf.
I want Tiffany's blue, fake nails, a Chi, new sunnies and some MILK for my tea. Necessary. Asap...

"I like to crack jokes now and again, but it's only because I struggle with math." - Tina Fey

Edina and Pats

For some reason the second I hear the intro to Ab Fab my lips start puckering for a cigarette, mouth starts watering for martini's and I can almost smell excessive amounts of hair spray and Chanel no. 5 mixed in with indecency and immorality. God I love this show, it quite literally is the best/funniest show in the world.
In other news, being a Navy girlfriend has it's downsides :( Had a skype date with the boy today and it didn't go through. He told me that the internet might no cooperate or something might come up but it still sucks. Especially since I put on my fancy lip gloss for him.
Oh well, emails it is for now I suppose.
In other news, exam tomorrow (boo), Taco Bills with W, F and A on Wednesday (fishbowl margarita's yay!), and the Espy with K and S on Friday night (yay). I am super excited, should be a great week :)

Through the Wire

Bridget Jones Diary.


Pink sheets.


Feather earrings.


Strawberry candle.


Avocado.


Coconut body mist.


Ugg boots.


Leather bomber jacket.


Postcard from Montreal.


Licorice tea.


Peach lipstain.

Officially Missing You

M sailed yesterday. 10 am. We called and skyped before he left. So hard to hang up and know that my next phone call from him could be weeks away. We are going to email and stuff but I miss his voice. Has been especially hard because this weekend has been lame, no one and nothing to do to distract my from missing him.
Although I had a fun adventure in the city with A, we went to the Immigration Museum then just walked around and chilled. And later this week I'm going to this Mexican place called Taco Bills, with these two girls, A and F who I met from one of my classes, they are such genuine sweethearts, and W is coming too obvi. Then Friday K and I are going to the Espy which is supposed to be a really cool old house that they converted into a bar and bands play all the time.
Should be great.

Lady Jane from Free School

Everyone should read Little Miss Strange. It's one of my favourite books. Have recently bought Joanna Winterson "Sexing the Cherry" and Kurt Vonngeut "Slaughter House Five," there's a used book stall on campus on Thursdays and it's great, you can find all these classics for like $5. I'm on the hunt for "The Fountainhead."
Here's an outfit post yay :) Pretty much all the things I bought yester-yesterday and a manky old tank top that I'd slept in 3 days in a row because I was too lazy to do laundry. Yee.

Ice Cream Paint Job

So in an attempt to a) procrastinate the numerous essays I need to be writing and exams I should have started studying for weeks ago, b) distract myself from missing my man, and c) get away from the depressing girl drama that has surrounded me, I have gone on some seriously intense shopping sprees, and also decided to dye my hair strawberry blonde.
So here's my haul:
Pink knit sweater ($35 Valleygirl), black hooded sweater ($15 Valleygirl), Pink chain and chiffon necklace ($5 Diva), feather earrings ($3 Diva), pink and gold drop earrings ($3 Dive), pink and black scarf ($25 Sportsgirl), Nordic blonde Toner ($8 Hair Warehouse), VD Hair straightener ($30 some electronic store), Plum Pout covergirl lipstain ($18), eye shadow highlighter (Rimmel $11).
Oh yes, new hair straightener because my beloved Chi died. Still so very upset about it.
Other haul: khaki baggy trousers ($20 Valleygirl), Grey striped tank ($20 Jetty Surf), cream tank top ($60 Bardot). And the beige and brown purse that keeps sneaking into my pictures is from F.
Ugh so yes, successful shopping. Also I had to return this coat, I bought it from Jetty Surf for $120, because it's so boho and cute and the sales girl said it was really warm, but I brought it home and it is not warm enough for this damn Melbourne weather. Ugh. So I returned it and bought those two sweaters instead, they both cover my ass so hopefully they will be enough to wear under my pleather bomber jacket to get me through the next month of freeeeeezing Melbourne winter.

I'm In Love

I'm in Love - Alex Gaudino is the song de jour. It's one of the first songs that plays in the CD that plays in M's car whenever we go driving. Missing him so much. Had a week off of school so I went to Sydney and spent the week at the apartment. M only had to work twice but one of the days was a 24 hour long shift, ugh. So I was home alone all day and was super boring, R had to work so I didn't even have my Sopranos buddy.
M and I went to a couple bars, did some shopping, R won a meat raffle (yeah it doesn't get much more Australian than that) so he made us an amazing steak dinner Friday night. Then M took me to Darling Harbour to go see the Sydney Aquarium. It was so awesome, we saw some really cool fish and jellyfish and coral thingies. And also huge sharks, a giant dugong (coolest animal ever .. google it) and a giant sea turtle! Was even bigger than the one I swam with in the GBR. It was such a lovely afternoon, then we went to this place called the Star Bar for lunch, it was pretty rad, giant, with pool tables, huge trippy chandeliers, statues of Ned Kelly, The Terminator and an ewok. The chairs were so great too, wooden, with cow hide material on the seat and back, and big silver studs covering the nails? I'm not doing it much justice, it was really cool.
Then the shit hit the proverbial fan ... Heaven claimed another angel. My chi hair straightener died :( So sad, tried a bunch of different plugs, M even took it apart, performed open heart surgery on it and replaced the plug but it still didn't work, think it was just it's time to go. So sad though.
Sunday morning we set the alarm and woke up at 4:30 am, bundled up in jackets, sweaters and hats and drove to Watson's Bay. We hung out on the edge of the cliff and watched the waves roll in and the sun come up and the fishing boats set out to sea. It was absolutely gorgeous. We stayed until about 6:30 then got back in the car and blasted the heat as high as it went! Then we drove past Bondi Beach again. I can't believe I won't see these places again for a whole other year.
Sunday we just hung out, went to buy a new straightener (it's no Chi though) and then we went to the bar that R works at. We played the pokies, a couple games of pool, and this shooting deer/gun violence game thingy. Then grabbed a cab and headed to the train station.
It was pretty hard to get on the train, knowing M will be going to sea for so long, and it will be seven months before I see him again, so it was pretty tearful and I sobbed for about an hour after getting on the train. Just wishing I could jump out and go back home with him.
Got home this morning and crashed, was exhausted from excessive drinking, crying and being on the train for so damn long. Will post pictures of my shopping adventures soon! Have NOT been sticking to my budget. Oops.

The Red Tent

It's my first mother's day in another country, without my mummy. I miss her like crazy and can't wait to see her again. It's also possibly the ugliest mother's day ever, rainy and overcast and cold. I miss easter colours and pastels and flowers blossoming and the sun warming the winter chill from the air.
Anyways, here's to my mom, the one who taught me about Carole King and James Taylor, who taught me how to grow up, who inspired my love of fashion and shopping, who taught me how to open a wine bottle and also how to drink the whole thing with no one being any the wiser.
Miss you KP, you're my best friend, my favourite person in the whole world, I'd be lucky if I turned into half the person you are. I love you <3

Joking Smokers

Sportsgirl sweater $80.
Chanel earrings - from F
Messy bun + laundry day = commando Thursday

All The Lonely People

I failed another essay, with 49% again ... this is so unfair. Give me that extra one percent, one fucking percent! I'm an exchange student, we all know I don't give a crap. I really assumed that if I wrote the correct word count, used the correct amount of references, cited properly and vaguely wrote on the right subject/topic/theme - that should at least score me a 50%...
Obviously not. That and Aussie profs mark stupidly hard! If I got an 85% on an essay at home, it would probably be about a 60% here, no kidding. It is absolutely ridiculous. They say they never give out higher than an 8%, because something that would be a grade of 85% would be on par for submission to an academic journal .. wtf? At Carleton you won't even get close to getting in a journal as an undergrad. And maybe if no one ever gets higher than an 85%, then maybe your stadards are too damn high! Shouldn't the best paper in the whole class get close to 100%? Maybe it's a bit of an unrealistic expectation if it's so completely unattainable!
Ugh, I'm stressing, Two failed essays, three BIG essays due next week, and getting another essay back in my tut today .. in an hour and a half. I'm very nervous.

Under my Thumb

So I'm back in Melbourne from my Fiji trip! It was really cool! I spent my first night getting very drunk with Fijian locals around a bonfire on the beach, and spent the next day hating the humidity and heat with my awful hangover. Then I had lunch with a friend A, and he ordered fish and chips and so began my demise! I've never had real "fish n chips" before, so I tried some of A's and it was amazing! Really fresh fish, local Mahimahi, beer battered and served with chips, ketchup, tartar sauce and limes! So delicious but soooo unhealthy. I ended up eating it 7 times .. I was only in Fiji for 8 days, you do the math. But to be fair it was the best thing on the lunch menu, and dinners were so awful I ended up asking if they could pretty please just make me a toastie instead of a $20 giant bowl of mish-mashed pasta with a chunk of melted cheese on top. Yucky.
Days were spent lounging by the beach, under coconut trees, in hammocks, on the bamboo swing, on the grass overlooking the beach. I went kayaking in the lagoon, comandeered an abandoned bamboo raft, swam in the pool and took a day trip to Suva, the capital of Fiji. Evenings were spent having dinner with the assorted come and go crew of couples visiting Beachouse, then we'd play "Killa Pool" or Kings Cup and make endless trips to the bar.
I also got a Fijian massage one day! It was $20 for an hour and the woman lubed me up with coconut oil, half naked except for bottoms, on this burre looking onto the beach and had her way with me! She was very thorough, it was nice though! And I smelled amazing for the next 24 hours.
On the couple days that it rained I began drinking at brekkie, ordering iced coffees and adding my personal stash of rum or whiskey to it. Then we made coconut bracelets (you take a smashed peice of glass and scrape the hair off the coconut, saw off either side, then spend hours sanding it until smooth.)
The last day I got peeping tom'd which was nasty and pervy and made me feel quite disgusted and ready to leave. But all in all it was a great trip, I'd love to go back to Fiji with a whole lot more money and a partner in order to take advantage of all the activities and things that I wouldn't want to do alone.
Flight home sucked, but K and F picked me up from the airport which was awesome, I missed them like crazy. We went to Maccas on the way home - typical us, idk how those girls are so thin with all the Maccas they eat .. I sniff it and gain 2 kilo's,
Last night I found out I failed another essay (this is the second one in two weeks) and don't have a great chance of passing finals. This was depressing, but I'm trying to buck up my act and go to all my classes (Except next week...) and bring my laptop to take notes, and I'm meeting with my bioethics tutor this morning to discuss if there's anything I can do to improve my final essay ... which I conveniently haven't started writing yet. Fuck.
Also have exciting news!!! News that I have only told 3 people and they were all very excited and their reactions made me so happy. But I can't tell because I'm keeping it a secret from certain people, for a couple more weeks at least :)
Last night W and I made bruschetta (well I watched), and tea and hung out and swapped travel stories. Damn I missed that girl while I was gone, she always knows just how to make me feel better.
Now I'm just doing school work, thinking about starting the million loads of laundry I have to do from Fiji, and thinking about things to bring to M's house next week, since I won't have room to bring it all on my last trip there before I fly home.
Speaking of M, I'm so excited to see him next week, but I also don't want to because it means it's the last time for a very long time. I've never been in a relationship that I've actually missed the guy, I'm usually quite happy for them to eff off and leave me with my biddies, but he makes my world spin. It's going to be so hard not seeing him. Boo.
Anyways, so yes, school, exams, boyfriend .. I'm stressing hard about this. But I'll try not to because there's no use. If I fail school I do an extra semester, and deal with it, ugh.