Cuppa

"Cuppa": slang for "cup of tea." I believe it's also used in England, I think.

"Tea's in the kitchen, if you want to make yourself a cuppa."

Today Saturday, which means I have two more days in Australia before I leave. Two! AHHHH! Originally I thought that I would have Tuesday to mill around a bit, but then I discovered that my bus for the airport leaves at 4 a.m. on Tuesday (for my 6 a.m. flight). Which reminds me, I need to find a way to actually get to the bus station at 4 a.m. Hmm...

I know I've been saying this continuously, but time sure flies! Before I know it, it'll be Monday night and I'll be furiously packing to go home. Even though I don't want to leave Melbourne, a part of me is ready for the sunny So Cal weather, cheaper food and frustrating roommates (well, mainly the two girls; Bobby's alright). Speaking of girl roommates, I really don't know how to act towards them. The day Christine and I returned from our travels, we discovered that:
a) someone had left my door open, even though I had left a note right ON my door asking to keep it closed. The reason was to keep Yuri out. Well, Yuri obviously got in and wreaked havoc in my room and I ended up with a chewed-beyond-repair umbrella.
b) someone had slept in my bed and tossed one of the blankets on my desk.
c) someone had left their shirt at the foot of my bed. I refuse to consider the implications.
d) someone had eaten one of Christine's packets of timtams. No, not just one timtam, or even two or five, but the ENTIRE PACKET. What's even more aggravating was that the packets were enclosed in a plastic bag and set on top of my chest of drawers, which is off in the far corner of my room. It's not like the cookies were sitting on my bed or desk in plain view, not that the action would have been more excusable if it were.
To add insult to injury, the girls denied ownership of the shirt (and feigned ignorance as to why it was in my room). Zoe then had the gall to ask me to pay for repairs to the internet. The cost was $87.50, which was unbelievable. What? I was gone for three weeks and will be in the house for only five more days, why should I help repair for the internet? In response to my query, Zoe simply stared at me and then implied that it was a house problem and I was still part of the house. -_- I paid.

Given this list of grievances against my lesbian roommates, I was all set to hate them forever and write them off as horrible people. However, last night Zoe came up to me and asked if I was free Monday night. I said I was.
"Good, because I would like to do a house dinner type of thing to see you off. I'll see if everyone else is free. Would that be okay?"
I was so astonished that all I could do was smile and then hurry off to my room. What on Earth? I was a bit confused. Why the nice gesture when you've barged into my room and shamelessly used my things? Is this supposed to be a I'm-sorry-for-being-a-bitch-now-that-you're-leaving gesture, or are you actually doing this out of the goodness of your heart? 0_0

Wow, this entire post was me griping about my roommates, which is terrible because I intended to write about what my adventures in the Whitsundays, Darwin and the train ride to Adelaide was like. -_- Damnit, this is a travel diary, not a bitching blog! ARGGH! I apologize, dear readers. I'll write a much better entry later on tonight then. For now, I'm going to hit up some museums.

Sunnies

"Sunnies": Australian slang for "sunglasses."

"Don't forget to bring your sunnies when you hit the beach!"

Highlight of today: finding out that I did well in all my classes. Yeeeea-yuh!!

Indigenous Culture and Learning - 78% H2A
Education in Natural Landscapes - 95% H1
Sport & Education in Australian Society -80% H1
Australian Wildlife Biology - 79% H2A

I know these percentages look really crappy (I bet you're thinking "why is she celebrating even though she has Cs?!") but Melbourne Uni does grades differently. Basically, H1 is the highest grade you can get in a class, and H2A is the next level down (basically a B+ or an A-). Ureshii! XD I'm especially surprised with my Wildlife Biology class, because I thought I totally flunked that final. What a relief.

I'm currently listening to Bob Marley and getting free internet from Peterpan, which is an international internet cafe. I might get kicked off any minute though, so I'll type fast. Weather is warm in the Whitsundays, but not boiling hot (it's really cool at night though). I accomplished one of the things on my Bucket List today - snorkel in the Great Barrier Reef and see Heart Reef. It was an absolutely amazing experience and I can't believe it's over already. I had been dreaming about seeing the Great Barrier Reef ever since I was old enough to watch the Discovery Channel, so looking down from the plane and seeing the famous azure and emerald-colored waters was a very surreal feeling. I wish all of you guys were there with me, it really is a gorgeous place. I took many pictures and some video clips on the video camera, so I'll post those up when I return to Melbourne. The snorkeling itself was a bit of a downer but still very cool. I took around 27 underwater photos of brightly-colored corals, fish, and clams (strangely enough, the lips of the giant clam are probably one of the prettiest objects in the ocean!) I didn't see as many tropical fish as I would have liked though, and you could tell that some of the reef was suffering from pollution and global warming. There were many areas in which coral-bleaching was really prominent and it was pretty depressing. =( The water, though warmer than Melbourne's beaches, was still chilly enough to make me uncomfortably cold after a hour. Fortunately (or unfortunately?) the tour group only allowed one hour of snorkeling in the Reef, so I made the most of my experience.

I have decided that I will now visit tropical places during spring/summer, which are the seasons in which they should be visited in. It is unsatisfying to be walking around in a jacket and long jeans on a tropical island, even if it is only during nighttime. That should never happen. I have also decided that my honeymoon HAS to be in a warm, sunny, tropical place, where I can roll around in white sand and snorkel all day long. There is no other option.

Tomorrow Christine and I will be embarking on a 3 day, 2 night sailing tour around Whitehaven beach and some other Whitsunday Islands. Woo hoo for more turquoise seas and snorkeling! I have decided (I know, I decided many things on this trip) that I will smuggle some of the famous silica sand back home. I brought some ziploc bags just for the occassion and have been planning different strategies for the collecting and smuggling process. It's going to be a very tricky operation, since I will be surrounded by fellow sailors/backpackers/enforcerers-of-the-morally-right. Everyone will be treated as a potential spy and obstacle to the fulfillment of my happiness [eyes dart around suspiciously].

Christine has been suffering from a very bad case of coughs/congestion lately, which is horrible because it prevents her from fully enjoying herself. I feel bad, because I think I gave my cold to her (I myself have been recovering relatively well). Hopefully she gets well soon!

Youse

"Youse": a slang term mainly used in Western Australia. Equivalent to the American term, "y'all," it means just that - "you all."

Brad, Rob's 6 year old brother: "Can I watch a movie with youse?"

Wow, my lack of updating is just getting worse and worse. It just hit me today that it's July. It's freaking July, you guys! It's my last month in Australia! I still remember my post in March, when I was saying how time is short and I knew my stay in Melbourne would be over before it knew it. Well, here I am. Even though I predicted that time would whizz by, its speed still caught me by surprise. Some things you just can't slow down, no matter how hard you try. I dread returning home and to my studies. Sure, the weather is nicer in So Cal and most of my friends are there, but I can't help but feel suffocated whenever I'm in Arcadia. It's kind of strange, really, because I never got homesick while I was in Australia. Of course I would feel a bit sad whenever I saw photos of my friends together hanging out and having fun, but it wasn't a crushing, debilitating oh-my-god-i-miss-everyone-and-must-return-home feeling. I blame it on all the fantasy and sci-fi books I read when I was little (I still do, in fact). It has confused my sense of reality and instilled a fervent hope that one day, I'll become a heroine who hacks down monsters and saves damsels (dudes?) in distress, or stumble into a hidden world and experience many adventures. Of course, this kind of thing doesn't happen in Arcadia, so the next best thing is to travel to a foreign country half-way across the world. See Camille run from reality. (I guess I can see why some of my friends said I resemble the main girl character from "The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi.")

Anyway, enough of that sad stuff, I must type about Perth before my fingers fall off from the cold (it feels like it's 55 F in here!) Christine and I spent the past week crashing at her friend's house. Even though it rained most of the time and the weather wasn't as warm as I would have liked, the company made it the trip totally worth it. Rob is one of the wittiest guys I have ever met and kept Christine and I laughing everyday. I don't know how many stupid arguments I've had with this guy over mushrooms, orange Eclipses (the best mints ever), and the correct way to pronounce the letter "H" (it's ay-ch! not hey-ch!) but it definitely kept me in high spirits when the cold weather brought it down. Thanks, Robbie. XD

What I did in Perth:
-Freemantle: explored the Little Creatures Brewery, wandered around town, bought Jaffle's pie.
-watched anime in Rob's room, played video games with Brad (he would wander around looking for my company XD), scare Rob when he was absorbed in his WoW, play with his mom's doggies
-walked to the cemetery near Rob's house with Melissa and Christine to look for kangaroos and got attacked by a wild duck
-drove around Swan Valley with Christine and pigged out on the free chocolate in the Chocolate Factory
-ran in pouring rain to retrieve our dinner (Domino's take-out pizza)
-went to the Aquarium of Western Australia
-clubbed with Rob's older sister, Jess, in ugly clothing and borrowed shoes (my Asics were deemed bar-inappropriate, so I borrowed Jess's pink Converses)
-biked around in Rottnest Island, which was unbelievably fun and would have been even better if the water was actually warm and not numbingly cold

Brrr! Alright, my tolerance for the cold is fraying. Before I go, I must say one more thing. I was supposed to leave for Hamilton Island this morning with Christine, but we missed our flight. Yea, that's right, we missed it. All I can say is that tram inspectors are stupid, I hate Jetstar, and timing really is everything. Anyway, Christine and I paid $70 each for the stupid missing-our-flight fee and another $40 for the shuttle to take us back to the city from the airport. -_- Today was a sad day. Anyway, I'm going to hole up in my room, curl up in bed and just spend my whole day watching anime (Christine's conked out from the cold medicine anyway). Toodles!

Chewy

"Chewy": Australian slang for a chewed up piece of gum.

Stathi: "Once I found a chewy in my fried chicken breast. That's why I never went back to KFC."

Woo hoo, happy 22nd birthday to me. Even though there's really not much for me to say, I felt compelled to make a post just to commemorate today. First birthday spent in a foreign country, yay! Anyway, Christine has been hanging out with me for the past few days. I must say, having a friend from home to explore a foreign country is much more fun. ^^ We'll be going to Stathi's farewell party/dinner tonight, and then flying off for a week in Perth tomorrow. I'm a bit sad that the Perth weather won't be as warm as I envisioned it to be though (according to Rob). Oh well, at least it'll be warmer than Melbourne. The weather only has three phases here: windy, cloudy or rainy. Yeah, definitely feeling like I could head home for sunny So Cal weather now. I guess it's a good idea that I timed it so I was leaving Australia just as the weather is getting crappy. Well, until next time kiddies!

Heaps

"Heaps": what Aussies say instead of the word, "loads," "tons," or "a lot."

Ex: "Yeah, there's always heaps of drunks on Swanston St. on a Friday night."

Highlights of the week:
Nancy arriving at Melbourne and staying with me for a couple of nights. I love her cooking and she made me enough food to last me for several nights. My Canadian roommate, Bobby, came back from his travels across Aussie and will be staying in the house for another few months. I'm glad to have his company because his extroverted, comedic humor always brightens my day. Visited some cool Melbourne landmarks, which I will definitely show Xtine once she gets here. Also finally got ahold of the boss and he paid me what he owed me in full, plus $100. That was because he failed to remember that he had paid me already for one of the days. Since he was such a bastard to me, I didn't feel compelled to correct his mistake. Yay for rent money!

Downers:
Nancy left for Tazzy today, which makes me sad because I really enjoyed her company. That lucky girl is going to be studying in Brissy for another 6 months, so I have no idea when I'll see her next. Thank God that she lives in Cerritos, which is relatively close to L.A. My friend Christine also left for the States this morning, which makes it worse because she's one of my really good friends in Melbourne. =( Luckily, she also lives relatively close by (maybe a 30 min drive on the freeway?).

Speaking of roommates, Bob and Zoe cleaned up the house today. I really appreciated their hard work, especially since the kitchen was filled with dirty dishes and the bathroom was just plain gross. It's really nice to finally have clean dishes and a clean bathroom. Now I don't want to appear ungrateful, but in a way I kind of felt that Zoe was obligated to clean up the mess. I mean, the reason why the kitchen and the bathroom was so gross was because her friends were always over, cooking/eating/spending the night at our house. This one girl, Amy, lived on our couch for at least a month. Therefore, I felt slightly miffed when I came home and Zoe went up to me and said, "Bob and I just cleaned the house. It looks nice, doesn't it? Let's keep it that way." I felt like saying, "I HAVE been trying to keep the house clean, tell that to your friends!" but of course, I just smiled, nodded and said, "Sure!" It didn't help when I went to the fridge to look for my leftover fried rice and Nancy's delicious soup and was confronted with empty shelves. Yes, that's right, the same soup I was ranting about in my Highlights section had completely disappeared from the fridge, pot and all. Zoe saw my alarmed expression and said, "Oh, I also cleaned the fridge and threw out a lot of food. I'm sorry if I threw out any of your stuff, but all the trashed things either smelled bad or was pretty old." Now that pissed me off, because Nancy made that soup only two days ago (it was a full pot!!) and my fried rice was brought home last night. What was this girl's definition of "smelling bad"?! Geez! I wanted to yell at her for throwing away the food that I had so carefully rationed to last, but couldn't really figure out what to say. "Um Zoe, that 'bad-smelling' food you threw out was actually fresh, and you just cost me a whole week's worth of meals"? All she could have responded with was "Oh, sorry," but the food will still be in the trash. Damnit, I just want Nancy's pot of veggie stew back. What a complete and utter waste. =(

Sorry you guys, I'm really trying hard not to complain in here because no one likes to read boo-hoo-life-sucks entries. It's just that a bunch of stuff has been stressing me out and I guess it's finally getting to me. I guess the biggest problem is just money. There's just so little of it right now and so much is needed. That's why whenever I plan out money-saving strategies and someone comes along and messes it up, it's really frustrating and infuriating. Whoever said money doesn't buy happiness has obviously never been poor. Anyway, I'll end this entry now before I get too bitter and angry. Hopefully, a good night's rest will clear my head. I may have to head to the market tomorrow and see if I can recreate Nancy's soup.

Whinging

"Whinging": slang for "whining."

Ex: "Stop your whinging!"

So I was quite surprised to see that I haven't updated since June 11th, which is quite bad since it's been almost a week. I actually have written two posts since that time, but had so much to write about that I didn't finish it and ended up saving them in Word documents. I'll finish those posts later and put them on Blog when I have a little more time.

I've realized that I've come across many more Epic Failures than I let on in my posts. Sad thing is, they're all mostly my fault.

I finally got ahold of my boss yesterday. I guess my coworkers got tired of telling me "oh, he's not in today, you want to leave a message?" because I pretty much leave a message every other day. Anyway, I'm supposed to meet up with him tomorrow at 6 p.m. to work out payment. Damn right I'm getting paid, you can't escape me!

Saw my doctor again today and he said that my eye lab test results came back negative for Herpes Simplex virus. Hooray! Of course, there's always the chance that the virus was dormant and so the test wasn't able to pick up the virus, but it's unlikely. Bad news is, I still don't know what's causing this infection. -_-

Nancy, my friend from Queensland Uni, just arrived from Brisbane. She'll be staying with me for a couple of days until Saturday, so I'll be playing tourguide and hostess for her. It's good practice for when Christine comes to visit me XD. Today was rainy and cold though, so I couldn't really show her around. She wandered around Queen Victoria Market for a couple of hours while I was at my doctor's appointment, and then we went to tour the Melbourne City museum. The museum is really quite amazing actually, and even though I've been there two times, I still haven't seen it in its entirety. Anyway, the museum closed at 5 pm, so Nancy, her Tazzy friend Tam and I went back to my place to cook some dinner. Nancy made this amazing vegetable stew (which I have learned and will take that knowledge with me back home) which was absolutely deeelicious! It definitely made my throat feel better and warmed up my tummy. Oh yeah, did I mention I'm terribly sick with a sore throat, runny nose and coughing fits? I feel bad for Nancy, who has to share my bed and listen to me gagging and snorting in my sleep. =( Alright, better get ready for bed.

EPIC FAIL 3

So this is my second Epic Fail entry in a week, which is pretty bad but expected (unfortunately) since my last two assessments are tomorrow. Procrastination has been something I've been working to change ever since elementary school. I remember that I stayed up until 4 a.m. to write a stupid paper on a Mission (hey for a fourth grader, that's pretty damn late!) More than a decade later, things haven't changed one bit. I think I just hate anything that I HAVE to do. I have a sort of resentfulness towards things that you have to accomplish within a given time period. Though it's highly unrealistic to do everything at your own pace, it's what I like best. Give me a slow work day over a busy, jam-packed-with-customers shift any day.

This reminds me - originally, I couldn't wait to be done with school and start working. I thought that one of the biggest lures to career work is that I wouldn't have to worry about working at home. At the end of the day, once I leave the office, I'm done - all that work will be left behind and I'll be able to watch t.v. or do whatever I pleased. No more worrying about completing math problem sets, cramming for exams, completing papers... I'll be free! Of course, now I know better. Nurses have to take exams to renew their licenses. Doctors have to complete extensive research on a patient's medical problem in order to treat them. I-bankers and businessmen have to compile countless presentations, projects, reports, etc. Every professional job has homework, whether I like it or not. I don't know why I didn't realize it before.

Sometimes I flirt with the idea of running away to an island near Australia and just never coming back home. I'll make a living doing menial labor and live in a little hut on the beach without a care in the world. Man, that would be the life.

EDIT: may I also add that I managed to lose part of my References list for my philosophy paper? I thought I saved it, but when I opened the document, it was my old file. Thank God that it's only the references. What is up with me losing pieces of my work?? Talk about killing incentive to be productive, YOU TOOK MY WORK YOU STUPID COMPUTER! AGAIN!

While I'm on this procrastinating tangent, I've been watching Wong Fu Production's blog videos (yes, I'm a closet fan). Watching them stress, joke around and hang out with each other made me realize how wonderful life would be if you could live with your best friends. I think that would be amazing. Whenever I want someone to eat dinner with me or hang out, all I'll have to do is open the door and shout down the hall. Of course, I'm well aware that there would be short-comings as well, but I'm sure if we all communicated and set down some ground rules, everything will be A-okay (optimistic and idealist side coming out). I will end the post on this happy note. Hopefully the next time I see you guys, I'll be done with my finals and be in a much happier state. Wish me luck! :)

EPIC FAIL 2

Once more studying rant before my final on Friday. I've been working on this philosophy paper for the past week, and I just realized I've completely neglected my zoology final, which from 2 pm - 4:30 pm on Friday. My philosophy paper is due 5 pm on Friday. I should have studied for my zoology final first, and now I have a whole semester's worth of work to catch up in 1.5 days. I took shit notes. I should have taken better notes. Why is Australia's assessment system so lame? They shouldn't have everything based on one test or paper. I would feel much better if I knew that my zoology exam was worth less than 70% of my grade, but unfortunately it isn't. I better damn well get a H1 on my philosophy paper. Fuck.

I hate how when I'm not paying attention to a phone call, I go "Uh huh... yes... uh huh." That kind of absent-minded agreeableness bit me in the ass today. This guy called me (I usually screen his calls, but since he hadn't called for awhile, I failed to check the caller ID first and just automatically picked up) and started rambling about how finals was going. Let me first say that this guy is some bank official who helped me open up my account and then shamelessly flirted with me. Anyway, I was tricked into giving him my number (long story, message me if you want to know) and the next thing I know, I've been getting random calls/emails from him. Anyway, so he's talking about how we should meet up and I'm not really listening at all, so I go into auto-pilot mode: "Uh huh... uh huh.... yeah... uh huh," while I'm chatting with a friend online. The next thing I know, I hear him say, "Great, so I'll see you this Saturday then!"
What?
It turns out I had just uh-huhed my way into a date this weekend, which is..... incredibly bad. I stammered and tried to think up some last minute excuse, but he hung up before I could utter the words, "Wait a minute." Shit.

Bastard

"Bastard": I'm pretty sure it means the same thing in Oz, however the term is used much more casually and with affection. If a friend calls you a "stupid bastard," he/she means it with as much love as possible (if that makes sense).

Stathi: "So I heard that 'bastard' is an offensive term in the States. Is that true?"
Me: "Yeah it's actually an insult."
Stathi [with a traumatized expression]: "OH MY GOD, NO WONDER SHE LOOKED SO INSULTED!"
Me: "Um...should I even ask?"
Hahah poor Stathi.

Okay today is officially Day 3 of writing my sports paper. I spent the whole day writing it, only to find out during office hours that I went off in the wrong direction. -_- I can't believe my friends took only five hours to do this. It also doesn't help that my roommate and her girlfriend have a tendency to have extremely loud sex. Yes, you read it correctly, loud sex. It's so loud, in fact, that it pierces through their closed door, travels down the hallway and sneaks under my closed door. It's finally gotten to the point where my other roommate yelled, "Oh my GOD, keep it down!" Unfortunately, they either didn't hear her or chose to ignore it. In retaliation, my roommate turned up her very loud American music (they seem to really like clubbing songs here). Needless to say, this is not a very papering-friendly environment. It seems tonight I have to forgo another bar experience in favor of finally finishing my paper. :( At least I'm saving beer money.

I called my boss yesterday, and to my surprise, he actually answered. After I stammered out a question regarding my recent lack of work (damn you, insecurity!) he replied, "I thought you said you couldn't work this week."
WHAT!
I politely said no, I stated in my note that I was unavailable next week, but am free this week. "I'm sorry, was my note unclear?" I asked tentatively. My boss ignored my question/apology and gruffly said that he would call me next Saturday to let me know of my new schedule. I was a bit upset that he was so stupid (I'm pretty certain that my note was very clear) but at least I still have a job. Kind of.

I've always considered myself to be "realistically optimistic," or in other words, "zen." What's meant to be will happen. If it doesn't, there's always a silver lining or another open door (or window). However, sometimes I can't help but wonder if this mentality is just a way to trick ourselves into feeling better and believing that whatever we lost wasn't worth it anyway. Maybe in actuality, the cloud doesn't have a silver lining but a fuzzy grey one. I know it's incredibly pessimistic, but I just wanted to voice it and see what you guys think. Undoubtedly, if we all thought that way, the suicide rate would go through the roof. It's much better to believe that all our losses were for a reason and hopefully, a bigger pay-off.

Stuff Up

"Stuff up": depending on how it's used, it can either mean "mistake" or "mess up." I've only heard it used to mean "mess up."

"Does the internet always stuff up like this?" (My roommate's friend asking my roommate about our dodgy internet signal.)


School's drawing to a close. I finally turned in my biology labs, so all I have left is my sports paper (due on Friday), my philosophy paper and my zoology exam, which are two weeks from now. I think I'll take my biology notes with me to New Zealand so I can study during the downtime. Hah, let's see how that goes. I'm actually a little scared to go to New Zealand, because it's just my friend and me in the dead of winter, in an already very cold country. To make matters worse, we're planning to drive ourselves around because we can't really afford a tour bus. I've already half-forgotten how to drive, and now I have to do it on the wrong side of the car, on the wrong side of the road, in a foreign country. Dear God.

Did I mention that my boss is avoiding me? That bastard, after he said, "Okay, I'll call you to let you know when's your next shift," he never did. Whenever I called him over the past 2 weeks, I've always gotten one of my coworkers, who would tell me, "Oh yeah, I'll let him know you rang and he'll get back to you." -_- Well, you're not getting away from me. YOU ARE GOING TO PAY ME MY ONE HUNDRED AND TWO DOLLARS (and fifty cents)!

Ugh, I just realized that I spent my entire entry complaining. Ever since an acquaintance had told me, "Man, you complain a lot," I've been trying to cut down on all the negative things I say. It's kind of difficult actually, since my casual remarks tend to be complaints as well. No worries, I will work on it. Oh, and one more thing. I've decided to get a tattoo here in Melbourne. I've always wanted a tattoo of a pair of angel wings on my back, and I've finally decided that now's a good a time as any. I'll post up pictures of the wings I want once I find it.

Alright, I'm off to do my paper.

Sweet-as

"Sweet-as": a slang term Aussies use instead of "cool" or "awesome." I've also heard the phrase "cool-as," which I assume means the same. The first time I heard it, I thought the person said "sweet ass," which would have been completely inappropriate.

Professor: "The school is going to pay for our trip to Brambuk, so you guys don't need to worry about transportation costs or anything."
Classmate: "That is sweet-as!"

Yesterday was the first night I've gone to the bar in a month. May has mostly been a month filled with procrastination and last-minute cramming (and still is, I'm sad to say). This upcoming week will be my last week at school, and then I have a week off to study. Luckily, I only have my zoology final to cram for, because I just have papers to write for my sports, philosophy and aboriginal history class (perhaps I'm not as lucky as I thought...) Anyway, last night was a third of a series of bar-hopping events Evan and I dubbed, "Birthday night." I'm not sure if I've discussed the significance of 21sts in Australia in my previous posts, but I'll do a quick run-through in case I haven't. See, in Australia, turning 21 is a huge deal. In the past, it would be the American equivalent of a debutante. Nowadays, it's just a super-fancy party in which everyone dresses extremely nice and rent out a hotel ballroom or something. Being the mischievous girls we are, Evan and I thought we'd try this thing where we'd don party hats, bar-hop and yell that it's one of our 21st birthdays. The ultimate aim is to score free drinks. Unfortunately, I missed the previous 2 birthday nights, but was finally able to make it to the third one (I almost ended up staying home to do my paper instead). We went to this bar in Fitzroy called Bimbo's, in which the main decorative component was naked baby dolls. It was kind of creepy, to say the least, but still interesting. We decided that it would be Evan's birthday and managed to score a couple of beers for her. It was fun, but my mind was still stressing out over my papers. >_<

Tonight I had my first home-cooked meal in a long time. My roommate's mom (mum?) came to stay with us for a couple of days and made dinner for a bunch of my roommates' friends and me. It was absolutely delicious and made me wish my mom had culinary skills as well. That's it, when I come back home, I'm going to practice my cooking so I can make delicious home-cooked meals for myself/future family.

I've stopped working at Il Carretto, mainly because my boss got irritated when I told him that I was going to be gone for a week in June. The loss of income has hit me hard. Thailand is unrealistic now, sadly enough. It's okay, that just means I'll have more time to tour Australia (if I can scrape up the money in time). There so much I still want to see and experience. I never did understand the people who didn't like traveling or exploring. Sure, I understand how one would become attached to their home. I enjoy my creature comforts as well; my clean house, my couch in front of the tv, my soft blankets and bed. However, even that's nothing compared to the horizon and all its possibilities. I want to see new sights, blaze trails through unexplored territory, taste exotic foods, talk to different people and absorb their cultures. I want to live a life of adventure and thrills, just like the heroines in my fantasy novels. Perhaps that is what my wanderlust really amounts to - the desire to escape to somewhere better. I'm perpetually looking for that white rabbit to lead me down a tunnel to a new world of possibilities. It's not a surprise, since my future doesn't seem top desirable right now: 2 years of preparatory JC classes and 3 years in an accelerated nursing program, and that's if I'm lucky.

Damnit all, I don't want to leave Australia. If only I could stay. Well, back to papering.

Zed

"Zed": what they call the letter "Z" here. It's not pronounced as "zee," but "zed."

In Australian Wildlife Bio lab:

Professor: "So if you want to make your possum relax, you should use an anesthetic. The popular once of choice would be Zoletil, which is zolazepam-tiletamine."
Me: "Um.... what?"
Professor: "Here, I'll spell it out for you so you can write it down. Zed."
Me: "....what?"


Again, apologies for the tardy updating. I've been trying to get my papers done on time, so I really haven't been able to blog as often as I would have liked. Alright, I lied, I could have blogged when I was procrastinating, but then I figured checking Facebook would probably take less time than if I were to write an entry. I was so very wrong. I didn't really have anything that interesting to write about anyway. I'm reaching the end of the semester. Next week would be the last week of classes, and already two of my classes are having their last sessions tomorrow. It's quite sad actually, because I enjoyed thinking of myself as a Melbourne Uni student. I must save up some money to buy a hoodie before I leave (over here, they call them jumpers/sweaters).

I realized that I have a serious issue with time management. It's always been an issue before, but now I'm getting to the age where I really can't afford to act this stupidly. I really admire those who can just sit down and pour out a paper, or set a schedule and actually STICK to it. Kudos you guys, I'm very jealous! As for me, I end up begging professors for extensions or regurgitating a really shitty piece of work. Sad, I know. Not only is this detrimental to my academics, but I really miss out on a lot of social activities. For example, today all of my friends are going to a famous ice bar in Melbourne. Me? I'm stuck at home doing a paper that was due three days ago. To rub salt into the wound, one of my friends called me to to offer me a ride there.

S: "Heeeey love, I'm just driving by and I'd thought I'd offer you a ride to the ice bar."
Me: "Aw, I can't go, I have to stay home and write a paper."
S: "What?? But this is the ice bar!"
Me: "I know, but it's due on Friday."
S: "Maybe you didn't hear me correctly. It's the famous bar made completely out of ice!"
Me: "Yeah, but -"
S: "Ice. Bar."
Me: "Well - "
S: "ICE BAR!"
Me: "I'M GOING TO GO DO MY PAPER NOW."

Sadface. I'm a hermit and I have no time management skills.

EPIC FAIL

I am in a shit hole right now. I literally have two 2,000 word papers on Australian sports and society, a biology lab report and a 2,000 Aboriginal history paper due all in the span of a week. How the fuck did I get myself into this. Oh, I know, I HAVE NO SELF CONTROL. Fuck.

Sorry about all the cussing. I just need to be slapped and then locked into a room with a computer. Wait, I've been doing that to myself for the past two weeks. Freaking a. I should have taken my classes pass/no pass like all the other exchange students.

I hate myself for having no time management skills, but I hate how energy drinks have no effect on me here. Stupid guarana, YOU LIE! Someone give me a pill that will keep me up all night. Or some ADD medication.

Avos

"Avos": short for "avocados." Aussies like to shorten everything when they say it.

At the farmer's market~
:"Love, just for you, these avos are only 75 cents each!"
Me: "Um..."
Grocery manager: "No good? Alright, I'll drop it to 25 cents apiece."
Me: "Okay, I want five!"

That was about a week ago. Unfortunately, I forgot about my lovely cheap avocados, and now they're all semi-brown and slightly moldy. It actually makes me really sad, because they're absolutely delicious on toast (and a much healthier alternative to butter). I didn't have the heart to throw them all away though, so I thought I'd turn the worst-looking three into guacamole. Unfortunately, that escapade didn't turn out well. Crappy avos make even crappier guacamole, as I soon discovered. After taking a few bites and almost harking it back up, I decided to add some blended spinach dip to sweeten it. Unsurprisingly, it didn't work. I think it's the fact that the meat is just bitter all-around. No amount of chopped onions, salt, lemon juice or black pepper can change that. I was still unwilling to toss the whole thing though, so it ended up being Yuri's dog food. Maybe I can still find a way to salvage the last two avos...

Work at Il Carretto hasn't been going all that great lately. The boss hired some more new people, and these guys are actually real-deal experienced waiters/waitresses (not like my "oh yeah, I kinda/sorta/not really did some waitressing work at my Uni's cafeteria-style restaurant"). As a result, I've been restricted to busing tables and bringing out the food instead of taking orders. Now, not only am I missing out on the practice that I need in order to be a real waitress, but my tips are gone! While my actual salary went towards rent and utility bills, my tips paid for my food. Taking orders is like a privilege now. I have to work fast and efficiently if I want to prove to my boss that I can handle the tables. >:(

This weekend I went to Rumbalara on a field trip for a class. On the first day, we a middle schools that had a large number of Indigenous children. I gotta say, the school system here is much more efficient. The tests and projects were a lot more creative in assessing your comprehension. For example, instead of making everyone do the same project, the kids had an option of presenting their projects visually and/or orally through media, crafts/models, papers, etc. Sports are also a very important component of Australian education. In the States, our compulsory education takes the form of P.E. In Oz, the kids join some type of sport (netball, footy, cricket, etc.) They can also go on bushwalks or surfing lessons, which I am extremely jealous of. Seriously, these kids are spoiled. Surfing for P.E.?? It doesn't get any better than that.

We then headed to this secondary education center, ASHE (Academy of Sport Health and Education). Since Ozzie kids don't have to attend school once they hit 16, a significant number of kids stop their education at that age. Some kids drop out of school at age 12 and then return several years later, perhaps 18 years old but with the reading level of a middle-schooler. ASHE provides a cushion for these struggling kids (most of whom are Aborigine). They're kind of a preparatory school because they guide kids to where they want to go in life, whether it's to be a star footy player or to get accepted into Uni. Classes start at 10 a.m., so a free breakfast is provided to give more incentive to get to the Academy on time. They have Fridays off and the program is free, so the school is actually pretty popular. In fact, they made one of the entry requirements as being at least 16 yrs old. This is to discourage people from dropping out of high school so they can attend the Academy.

Alright, I'm pretty tired now, so I'll finish the rest of this entry tomorrow. XP

Lemonade

"Lemonade": what Australians call the American soda Sprite. Yeah I know, weird huh?

A mother: "And can I get two bottles of Lemonade for my children."
Me: "Sorry, we don't carry lemonade."
Boss: "No, we do."
Me: "Um, I guess we do carry... Lemonade..."
Alright, so I'm running a little bit low on the Ozzie terms. I promise I'll find you guys better ones for the next entry.

Speaking of soda, there's another really popular soda drink referred to as "Lemon Lime Bitters." I don't think it's an actual brand, but more like a type of flavor. For one thing, the bottle of lemon lime bitters that Il Carretto carries doesn't say "lemon lime bitters" anywhere. Secondly, I believe the soda color itself varies. For example, the one the restaurant has is a pinkish red color, which totally confused me and a couple other customers as well. I'll take a picture of it for you guys the next time I can get my hands on a bottle. The first time I saw it, I thought it was some sort of alcoholic beverage and was really surprised when the young children were allowed to order it. The adults love it as well, and almost every table I've served (especially if there are young people present) orders a couple bottles of it. I've dried it and it's not too bad actually. It's fizzy and sweet, but has a kind of sour, tarty taste to it as well.

I've been dreading the month of July as it draws closer and closer. It's already May. May, you guys! I have basically two months of school left, one month to tie up all my loose ends, and then I'm stuck at home again. I'm torn between the desire to make every day count and the urge to be responsible and study for my classes. What I end up doing is forcing myself to stay home, but I end up going online and wasting my time anyway. -_- If only I could find a way to stay outside of America longer, or at least California.

At work today, a young teen girl (she looked to be about 19 years old) called me aside. "Are you from Canada?" she asked.
I shook my head patiently. "Nope, Los Angeles." (Believe it or not, a good portion of the customers will place bets with each other on my origin and then call me over to see who's right. A lot of the people guess Canada or the East Coast. I have no idea why.)
The girl gave this little squeal of delight. "Do you live near Hollywood??" she asked excitedly. Her father gave me this please-humor-my-daughter look.
"Um, kind of? I've been there a couple of times," I said hesitantly.
The girl got even more excited. "Oh my GOD! Have you seen like, any famous celebrities before?"
"No I haven't," I said truthfully, and immediately I saw her lose interest. "You'll have more luck seeing them at the high-end clubs than on the street."
Her eyes widened again, but before she could ask any more questions (presumably which high-end club) I was called away to pick up an order. The girl's questions got me thinking though. As a L.A. girl, I should have seen at least ONE famous person, but I haven't. Hell, I haven't even set foot in a popular Hollywood night club yet, and I know of at least five under-aged girls who have. I sense a girls' night out in the making. Who's with me??

Goon

"Goon": slang for cheap wine that usually comes in a box (the wine itself is held in a plastic sack). There's a spigot from the box that you just turn and it drains the wine out.\

Ex: "There's free goon at the party tonight."

My first zoology midterm was epic fail. There was only about 10-15 questions and I know I got three wrong for sure, so the odds aren't in my favor. Now I gotta do well on my lab reports and final for sure. -_-

I got super angry at work for the first time today. Remember how I said I don't mind customer service because I could tolerate the shit from clients? Well, today one of them hit a nerve. It was probably due to a build-up of things. One of the waitresses got too greedy and took too many sections, so her customers were being neglected. Meanwhile, I was assigned to clearing tables (boo, no tips!) so I was a bit resentful of missing out. One of customers waved me over and I decided to comply, even though I didn't have to.
"Could you give me the wine list?" asked the middle-aged man. He had his wife and a sullen-looking son with him.
I politely told him that we didn't have a wine list, but I had the names written down on a piece of paper. "If you give me a minute, I'll fish it out right now," I said.
The man was not happy. "What? No wine list? I'm sure the last time I came here, the waitress gave me a list," he grumbled.
"No, I'm afraid we've never had a wine list," I said, taking out my own tattered piece of paper. "Now, we have the Merlot, the Cab Sav, and our House Red."
"What are they?" said the man shortly.
"What ....are they?" I repeated, confused.
"That's what I said." He was getting very rude.
"They're Gossips, and they're red wine," I said, not sure if that was the answer he was looking for.
"Well, where are they from?" he said impatiently.
"Where are they from....?" I asked. I wasn't sure if this guy was trying to be difficult on purpose or if I was just ignorant of wines. Either way, I could sense the negativity beginning to emanate from him.
"Yes, where are they from. Are they from Northern Australia, Southern Australia, Eastern Australia, Western Australia?"
"Um...."
"The U.S.? Asia, Europe, Africa?"
At that point, I know the man was just being despicable. While he was going on about countries, I tried to keep my face in an emotionless, bland expression. It wasn't hard because I would never openly snap at someone (I'm anti-confrontation, remember?) but that didn't mean I wasn't feeling offended and P.O'ed. While I kept my eyes on the floor, I noticed that the wife had placed a warning hand on her husband's arm. I waited for his angry listing to finish, and then calmly said, "I'm not sure, but I'll check for you?"
"You do that," said the man.
As I walked away, I heard the wife exclaim, "Does it even matter?!"
"Yes it does!" retorted her husband. He started going on about the taste.
Stupid, stupid man. I checked all the bottles and discovered that the Merlot and Cab Sav was from Eastern Oz. Our cheap House Red was essentially goon. After I went back and told him all our wines came from Eastern Oz, and he ordered a glass of Merlot. I resisted the urge to swap it with goon and decided losing my job wasn't worth the satisfaction of justice. I think I will sabotage his dinner on my last week though (like snort into his fish or something) if he's there. His balding head is imprinted into my memory. Watch out, Mr. Wine-Connoisseur-Wannabe, I'm going to get you back.

This experience has made me realize that it takes me awhile to recover from stressful events. In those personality quizzes, there's always a question that asks, "Is it difficult for you to get over negative experiences?" I had always ticked "no" or "not very." Now I realize that I've been misjudging my own tolerance. It takes me a long time to forget emotionally stressful situations. Sometimes I will relive them and wonder if the person who had hurt me even remembers doing it (I seriously doubt it, actually). It's a depressing, self-destructive habit that I should cease immediately, but for some reason, can't.

On the upside, I went to the Farmer's Market today and bought a whole bunch of fruit. Now I have enough apples, bananas, grapes and avocados to last me for the rest of the week. Things are always so much cheaper on Saturdays, I really should wait to do my grocery shopping then. Unfortunately, I discovered that my bananas are a little riper than I previously thought. Maybe I will attempt to make banana bread tomorrow, despite the lack of measuring utensils. Hopefully it'll turn out well. It'll have to wait until after work though, since I'm on the lunch shift tomorrow for the first time. At least I won't have to stay until 11 p.m. The rush shouldn't be as bad as dinner time, but then there is a table of 19 coming in for a Sweet Sixteen. Yikes.

Serviette

"Serviette": what they call paper napkins over here. This term has caused me many, many issues in the workplace and amongst my Ozzie friends. No one here will know what you're talking about if you ask for "napkins."
(I've edited out the name of my friend under his request.)

Unnamed Friend: "...And if you want a serviette, they're by the lemonade."
Me: "The what?"
UF: "Serviette."
Me: "What on Earth is that?"
UF: "You don't have serviettes in America??"
Me: "No....?"
UF: "Good God, I didn't know the U.S. was such a backwards country."
When I finally figured out that he was talking about napkins, I told him we don't call them serviettes. He laughed at me.
UF: "Napkins? What the hell? We call them serviettes here! Napkins, what an odd-sounding name."
The cultural differences here still take me by surprise.

So I have my first big test tomorrow, and I just came across a very disturbing discovery. Usually after every class, the professor(s) would post their lectures up on the website. I have just discovered that they neglected to post the last three lectures. It also just so happened that I got lazy on the last three lectures and took down a grand total of ONE page of notes. One page. For. Three. Hours. Of. Lecture.
Fuck.
I hate Murphy's Law. I will now write down every freaking line during class, instead of assuming that whatever I missed will be posted online. Effing hell. Maybe I'll cry into a stupid serviette after I fail my exam.

Embarrassing moment of the week (well actually, there's two):

1: I ate dirt in front of my whole zoology class during our field trip. I was walking behind my two professors and we were heading towards the rest of the class. We were terribly late and everyone else was standing there, waiting for us to catch up. I noticed that my professors were hopping over a metal chain strung between two posts. It was low enough that I could have easily side-stepped over without any mishap. Instead, I thought hey, no problem, I'll just maintain my walking speed and just do a little hop at the end. WRONG. The chain was higher than I thought and I tripped over it, completely face-planting into the grass with my book bag spilling all its contents onto the ground. My two professors turned around with real concern, but I quickly brushed myself off as casually as I could and assured them I was fine. I was so embarrassed that I couldn't even look at them (or my class, for that matter). I still wince when I think back on it. Oh, and for those who were curious, our field trip was to the local lake where a population of black swans resided. We spent two hours observing their behavior and recording their ID bands in the pouring rain (which was actually kind of fun).

2. I was forced to do a number 2 in the boy's bathroom. Some genius decided to build only one girls' bathroom stall for the computer lab. Consequently, whenever I decide to stay late at the computer lab, I have to go into a long queue for the bathroom. This time, it was just one person in the stall and she was taking FOREVER. From the sounds of it, it seems like she was hurling. Meanwhile, the boy's bathroom was just sitting there a few feet away, with no one nearby. There was also the issue of the security camera trained right at my face. After waiting 10 minutes and nearly shitting myself (literally) I thought, "Ah, screw it," and headed in. Of course, I had to wave and mouth "Sorry!"at the security camera before I did it. The experience itself wasn't that great either. The place smelled like old urine.

Alright, it's almost midnight and I better catch the last tram. Wish me luck guys. It won't do to fail a class in Australia. >_<

Sook

"Sook": a person who is timid, soft, and/or generally weak.

Me: "Ugh, my fingers are frozen."
Classmate: "Yeah, I'm such a sook when it comes to cold weather."

It's currently 40 degrees F and I absolutely hate it. Unfortunately, it's still autumn and is just going to just get colder. The Ozzies tell me that if I think it's cold now, I should wait until it hits June. UGGGHH. If anything, the weather is making me itch for sunny California. I suppose I did time my EAP experience somewhat correctly. Theoretically, the weather will get crappy enough to make me want to return home, as opposed to me leaving when everything's just starting to get sunny and dandy.

Instead of studying for my midterm, I watched Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix while I ate dinner. My intention was to watch the kissing scene between Harry and Cho, as I had previously thought I didn't see it. As I was watching the movie though, I had the strange sensation of deja vu. Some parts of the movie were starting to look really familiar, but how could that be when I don't recall seeing Cho and Harry lock lips? When the highly anticipated scene actually arrived however, I soon realized that I did see it before. I had just forgotten I'd seen it because it was so spectacularly DISAPPOINTING. Considering that scene had at least 30 takes, I would expect to see a little more passion. C'mon, Daniel Radcliffe, you're supposed to be a randy teenager!

Speaking of randiness, I got that terminology from one of my many zoology professors. Kath Hanasyde is away on a research excursion to the Galapagos (lucky devil) and Raoul Mulder is off doing who knows what, so the subject is being taught by researchers. The current one goes by the name of Michael and I gotta say, he's not too bad on the eyes (unfortunately, he's also married. Figures.) Micheal has this wonderful way of describing the animals he's lecturing on, especially the reptiles. For example, in one lecture he went on for 15 minutes about the dangers of "randy male snakes" and the "sexy legs" of the green tree frogs.

I almost forgot to mention that I caught a baby mouse last week. I'm not sure what type of mouse it actually was, but it was young enough that it couldn't run very fast, but old enough to have a full coat of baby fine fur. I couldn't leave it in the middle of the road (it was next to the Zoology greenhouse) so I picked it up and carried it to Lab with me. It promptly bit me, which hurt a little but not enough to be bothersome. I should have just left it to fend for itself, because once I got to lab, the professor immediately saw that I was carrying something nonacademic-related and I had to take it to the Zoology office. There, the mouse was stuffed into a jar and I was ordered back to my classroom. I later found out that my professor ordered it to be killed. :(

Alright, it's almost midnight now and I'm determined to finish at least one lecture tonight. Bye!

Knock Off

"Knock off": a phrase that means to "get off the clock" or "end your shift" for work. I'm not sure if this is specifically an Ozzie phrase, but my coworkers use it on me so often that I figure it can't just be them.

Me: "I'm getting tired."
Coworker: "You wanna knock off at 9 p.m. then?"

The first time my coworker said that, I thought he meant if I wanted to get knocked up, which obviously makes zero sense. Luckily, I decided to ask him to repeat himself instead of responding inappropriately.

Work at Il Carretto is going relatively well now that I'm getting the hang of things. Sure, I still look like a n00b when I ask customers to repeat their orders, but at least I'm not messing them up anymore. I think I'm going to apply to be a waitress once I get back home. I love the fact that I get to go home with a pocketful of cash and a free meal, even if I do get crap from customers. I know some people can't stand apologizing for things they didn't do, and God knows you have to do that all the time as a waitress. Strangely enough though, it doesn't really bother me as much. Perhaps it's the fact that I don't really mean it when I apologize for the slow arrival of the meals or some other retarded setback. I just plaster on my fake smile, slap some honey on my so-sorries and please-excuses and then walk away feeling I just got away with the biggest lie of my life. Hm, that actually doesn't sound too pleasant. I swear I'm not selling my soul, you guys. It's just customer service. :) Besides, Il Carretto's pasta is dee-lish, and my free meal costs at least ten bucks.

My cousin Laney put up this music video of Sara Bareilles' "Love Song" on her Facebook, and ever since I watched it, I've been hearing that song everywhere. I didn't particularly like it at first, but now I've developed a faint attraction towards it. It's very catchy and certain phrases really jump out at me. For some reason, it reminded me a part of this poem I once wrote a long time ago:
and my coursing blood
drummed Love's tattoo
upon my chest.
Of course, it looks completely unrelated now that I think about it. Oh well.

School is picking up now that the term is drawing to a close. I have two sports papers, one book analysis, one philosophy paper, and a zoology paper due in the next two weeks. Oh, I almost forgot to mention a zoology midterm on Friday. Can I say screwed? Yet, here I am blogging away at midnight, having accomplished nothing productive the whole day except going to class. W00t.

Bushwalker

"Bushwalker": basically a hiker, therefore bushwalking would be hiking.

"So where's the echidna?" I asked.
"He's gone on a bushwalk," said my professor.

Wow, I'm getting worse on this updating thing. It's supposed to be everyday, but now it's turning into a weekly thing. Anyway, last weekend I had my three day hiking trip to Wilson's Promontory for my philosophy class. I'll go into more detail about it later, but basically I learned that maybe I wasn't as outdoorsy as I thought I was. Though I don't mind the strenuous bushwalking and the sweat, I really hate climbing into my sleeping bag grimy. I also hate sand and crap in my sleeping bag. It's just the feeling of having to go to bed with the dirt from a seven hour hike on me really bothers me. I like the feeling of washing off a hard day's work and climbing into a relatively clean bed. This may prove problematic if I ever decide to hardcore backpack around the country.

Today I went to Philip's Island and saw pelicans that were literally half my size. They reminded me of the giant pterodactyls from Jurassic Park. We then headed to the Koala Conservation Centre, where the koalas were being their usual exciting selves. Cape Woolamai was next, where we were supposed to see these special seabirds that migrate all the way from Japan to Australia on a yearly basis. Unfortunately, their brooding sites were bare as they were still at sea, but they were supposed to be the seabird version of a crow and nest everywhere on the cliff's vegetation.
The highlight of the trip came next, which was the Philip Island Wildlife Park. It was the best animal feeding experience ever! These kangaroos/wallabies/birds actually want to be fed, unlike the ones in the Brisbane conservation centre. I felt like I was practically force-feeding the animals there. At the Philip Island one, these kangaroos practically mob you. In fact, they'll try to eat the paper bag right out of your hand (which many did). It was also the first time I actually got to pet a kangaroo/wallaby. They weren't as plush as they looked and actually quite slobbery, but still cute nonetheless. The wallabies are defintely much softer to pet and possibly even cuter up close. :) Oh, and I also had the chance to get up close and personal with the cassowaries. Undoubtedly the scariest-looking and equally dangerous birds in Oz, they're actually very polite eaters. Unlike the kangaroos who scratch and tear at you, the cassowaries just neatly pluck a few pellets from your palm and toss it into their gullets.

The last stop of the evening was at the Little Penguin Parade, aka the march of the Fairy Penguins. Around 6/7 p.m, these cuddly little creatures stagger out of the surf to return to their burrows after a long day of foraging at sea. It's so adorable to see them drifting around in "rafts" (groups of 4+ penguins) and nervously scurrying about the waves before making a mad dash for the sand dunes. They sound a little like ducks when they call out to each other. I couldn't really take any good pictures during this time because no photography was allowed. The rangers are worried that the flash would scare them, so to eliminate any accidental flash photography, they just banned recording equipment of any kind. I still saw a few people taking pictures though, so I am resentful of that. >(

Tomorrow I'm to meet at Uni for my surfing trip at 7 a.m. Hopefully I'll be back at 4:30 p.m. like it said on the site, because I have to shower and get ready for work at 6:30. I seriously regret signing up for so many trips and then cramming them all together in one month. Way to go, Camille.

It's been freezing cold and rainy the last few days, but my roommates say it's a sign that Melbourne winter is settling in. "Just wait until it hits June!" said Zoe. Ugh, I am definitely not looking forward to it. At least I'll be able to wear my spiffy new rain jacket.

Good on ya

"Good on ya": Australian slang for "good job" or "well done."

Me: "Professor Raol, I've finished identifying the fairy wrens."
Professor: "Good on ya."
Me: "What? Where is it?"
Professor: "Camille, there's nothing on you. I meant to say, 'Good job.' "
Me: "...Oh."

If you can't tell by now, I've encountered many, many embarrassing situations. It's okay, the frequency has rapidly diminished to about two per week. Yay!

So I've taken a break from writing my paper to blog for a bit. Okay, who am I kidding, I wrote about half a page and then promptly fell asleep on my laptop. I then had a fitful dream about having an affair with my professor and then somehow getting caught by a jealous classmate. My professor and I were then thrown in court, where I bumped into his wife who kept crying and screaming at me. The judge then ruled that I would have to share custody of the kids, which was really random, not to mention completely illogical. I woke up with my heart going a hundred miles a hour.

I have another Education field trip coming up (which, coincidentally enough, means I will be spending even more time with aforementioned professor). This one is going to be a three day hike in Wilson's Promontory. I'm really excited about this one, since the scenery looks gorgeous in the photos. I hope the weather is warm!

My farmer trip has gotten me thinking how nice it would be to live in a farm. I would love to have a little white cottage, a vegetable garden with an orchard, some chickens, a dairy cow, a couple of sheep, a horse or two and a Kelpie. I would be able to sustain myself quite comfortably and life would be blissfully simple. My dad had always told us how his dream was to retire on a little farm. Realistically, it's impossible on his wages, but it is a nice goal.

Today I discovered that one of Zoe's friends "fancies" me, as my other British roommate puts it.
"Camille, do you remember Aaron?" she asked me as I was washing dishes.
"Who?" I said, having no clue who Aaron was.
"The American guy who came over a few nights ago?"
I still had no idea.
"He was about -this- high?"
Still no clue.
"Well, he wants to ask you out on a date."
".....Excuse me?"
Zoe grinned at me with obvious delight, while in the background, I hear a voice shout, "He faaaancies youu!!" "Aw, come on, Camille! He's quite nice," she said.
"Um, does he even know me?" I asked. I still had no idea who this guy is, and it was starting to bother me.
"No, but he wants to! That's why he's asking you out on a date."
I had a brief moment in which I thought, "Eh, why not?" but quickly shook it off and told her to politely decline for me. Though blind dates are romantic in movies, I doubt they work in real life. Besides, dating my roommate's friend would be so awkward.

Alrighty, time to call it a night. Tomorrow I'm supposed to head to Stanley Park to do my wildlife practical on the local birds, rush off to another class and then to work, respectively.

She'll be right

"She'll be right": a phrase that basically means "it'll be okay," or "don't worry, it'll work itself out." It's tied to the general laid-back attitude of Australian mentality. The gender word "she" doesn't really mean anything. I guess it's along the same line as referring to a boat as "she."

Me: "So I'm basically screwed for nursing, because I suck at chemistry, there's a super long list of prereqs and the ones I did fulfill I did extremely poorly in."
Australian friend: "Aw, she'll be right, Camille."
Me: "Who will be right?"

This past weekend was wonderful! I had my two day field excursion for my philosophy class, Education in Natural Landscapes. We visited two sheep farms, a winery, a piggery, an ostrich farm and stayed in an old-fashioned shearer's lodge. I also helped herd sheep and cuddled a piglet, which was definitely fun. Piglets are sooo cute! They're very shy at first, but after they have time to get used to you, they grunt for you to pet them. However, I definitely think that the best part was bonding with my classmates. Has anyone played a card game called Bortak (sp?) before? This Norwegian guy introduced the game to us, and it's really fun. I'll teach it to you guys sometime.

I also got to really know my philosophy professor. Teachers at Australia are so informal that it's a little disconcerting. He insisted that we call him John, and during dinner, he plunked down right next to me.
"So Camille," he said. "I noticed that you jumped right in there when the farmer asked for volunteers to help herd the sheep."
I was a little taken aback by his sudden appearance, so I stammered a bit. "Uh-um yeah, I really like animals."
"I also noticed that you were talking to the farmer a lot about shearing."
"Yeah, I had a few questions about their tools."
"Do you know that shearers use special adhesive gloves to hold onto the sheep?"
"Yes."
"Do you know the running joke about those gloves?"
I started to sense something was up, but answered anyway. "No...?"
"Well," said my professor, "the joke was that shearers liked to wear those gloves because when they grab sheep..." he trailed off and instead held out his hands like he was holding a very large ball. Before I could nervously ask what he was doing, he then suddenly launched into a series of pelvic thrusts.

I stared at him in astonishment, at a loss of words. I was unused to bestiality jokes coming from quiet, balding, philosophy professors, especially professors who are very soft-spoken and have two young children. Luckily, I managed to collect my wits in time, laughed gaily and then quickly dug into my salad. Nonetheless, I think he has just become one of my favorite professors.

So I just had my third day of work at my new job. I'm getting a little better at it, even though I did have a huge mess-up yesterday. Last night was the AFL game between the Melbourne Blues and Collingwood. Everyone hates Collingwood and especially their fans, who are "gap-toothed, drunken wife-beaters," according to my Australian classmate. Luckily, the Blues won, so the restaurant was filled with footy fans. That, plus the fact that it was Sunday night (always a busy night) meant the place was filled to bursting. The kitchen was backed up and there was literally a hour long wait for the customers to get their food. Camille was not a happy camper. I ended up taking orders for a table of ten for the very first time. First off, they spewed orders at me from all directions. I couldn't tell who ordered what. Secondly, I was still very unfamiliar with the menu (my fault) so I didn't know half the stuff I was taking down. Thirdly, almost everyone wanted adjustments to their orders.
"Can I have the pineapple pizza, except instead of pineapple, can I have garlic?"
"My husband will have the fish of the day, except I want it well done with extra potatoes. Can you ask the chef if he'll give me extra potatoes?"
"Wait, cross out that order for pineapple pizza, I want the one with goat cheese instead. And garlic. I still want garlic too."
SCREAM. Of course, I discovered much later that I missed taking down two orders. It was a wonder that I didn't mess up on anything else. Unfortunately, the family put up a racket about how I missed "half" their order (2/10 is not half, you idiots) and the boss had to go and apologize. Jerks. The only highlight of the day (besides the free pizza dinner) was that I was introduced to a very gorgeous coworker. When I say gorgeous, I really mean it. This girl looks just like Scarlett Johannsen - blonde hair, wide blue eyes and that signature pouty mouth. The only difference is that she has a very slender frame. Even though this girl's only in year 11, which means she's 16/17 years old, she looks like a freshman in Uni.

Luckily, tonight went well. Monday nights are slow, so I ended up working only 2 hours. This meant I got off early enough to eat some really good pasta. Usually the kitchen is closed by the time I get off of work, so I have to eat pizza (not that I'm complaining). I also discovered that I have my very own tip jar, which already had some money inside. Thus, the night ended for me with a bellyful of Gnocchi Romana and a handful of change.

Arvo

"Arvo": slang for "afternoon." Aussies have a tendency to shorten words and drop syllables whenever possible.

Example: "See you this arvo!"

I woke up a hour early Wed morning to go to another waitressing interview. This time it's for a family-owned Italian restaurant. Whenever something gets labeled as "family-owned," I always imagine a small little shop tucked away in a corner somewhere. It's a dangerously misconceived notion, especially in this case. I was not expecting to see a fairly large-sized restaurant that had tables spilling into the street. The interview went fairly well and I'm to go in for a test trial on Friday evening (tomorrow). However, I can't help but feel a little guilty, because I lied and said that I had extensive waitressing experience. I can't help it though, because every waitressing job I came across required their applicant to have prior experience. Like Kimberly said, how can I have experience if the places I'm applying to won't even accept me? I'm sure the divine forces will forgive me for this one.

Later that day, I went on an excursion to the Melbourne Botanical Gardens for my Biology class. The diversity of bird species is amazing. Seriously, why can't California have these kinds of birds? All we have are a few pest species and maybe a bird of prey or two, but very very few with bright colors. Anyway, we completed field notes on as many species as we could find before we disbanded. I had to rush back to school for my next class and fight my way through "the Suits" for a space on the tram. The Suits are basically men and women who do work in business/commerce and wear nice full suits to work. Most of them are comprised of young men and women fresh out of Uni. Here in Australia, the majority of the students who graduate from the undergrad program go straight into their careers. I sat down next to a smartly dressed young woman and chatted her up. She turned out to be only 22 years old and already in the management position of human resources. 0_0 It makes me feel even less inclined to enter the real world.

Toilet and Dunny

"Toilet": what they call restrooms. If you ask for a bathroom/restroom, they'll get confused and think you're asking for a room with a shower/tub with a sink. If you specifically want to use the toilet, you have to ask for it by name. Sounds kinda crude, I know, but it's socially acceptable here.

Me: "Where's the bathroom?"
Gas station clerk: "We don't have one."
Me: "You... don't have one...?"
Gas station clerk: "No, but if you want to use the sink, the toilet's to your left."

"Dunny": basically a port-a-potty or outside toilet. A "dunny roll" would be a roll of toilet paper that you just carry with you to the outhouse.

Me : "Where's the toilet?"
Tour guide: "There's a dunny a little ways up the road. I don't have a dunny roll, so I hope you have some tissues."
Me : "Is a dunny... a toilet?"

Alright, sea kayaking. I got up at 6 a.m. to make sure that I wasn't late for the tram and got to the designated area 20 min early. Seeing how the sky was still dark, I was extremely resentful and would have probably skipped the whole thing had I not paid $130 for it. We ended up leaving a full half hour later anyway, which meant I lost a hour of precious sleep (yes, I 'm still very bitter). The day dawned bright and clear, only to be covered by heavy rain clouds a few minutes later. -_- Of course, it was freezing, so no one was up for snorkeling, even though I did really want to see leafy sea dragons. Damn you, winter weather!! Luckily, we did come across a pod of wild dolphins, which was an incredible experience. I never realized how huge they were until a few swam right up beneath my kayak and I saw the length of their bodies. It's strangely intimidating, even though I knew they were peaceful creatures.

Yesterday was supposed to be a productive day of buying timtams and bra-strap hunting (Yuri ate one of mine, so I've been using the remainder halter-style). However, I got so far as to reach Big W (Australian equivalent of Walmart) when Stathi called me. I met Stathi at the International Student banquet eons ago, when he accidentally ate my ice cream dessert. After apologizing and promising to treat me to gelato, we've been mates ever since then.
"Camille! What are you doing right now?" he yelled into the phone. I could hear traffic sounds in the background.
"Um, buying timtams?" I said. I tactfully neglected to tell him about my bra strap situation.
"Great, well I'm going to take you to St. Kilda, the home of the best gelato shop ever. I'm a man of my word and I'm going to fulfill my promise today!"
After picking up two other of my girlfriends, Stathi came by to pick me up in his open-top Jeep. There's something incredibly exhilarating about sitting in the back of an open Jeep, something I hope to experience again soon. We ended up in 7 Apples and I gotta say, the gelati there is delicious! We also went to this Spanish doughnut cafe, where I got churros in powdered sugar and a little cup of melted chocolate. You're supposed to dip the churros into the chocolate and eat it that way, but the chocolate was so sweet that I ran out of churro. My Asian side wouldn't let me throw the rest of the chocolate away, but my healthy side was screaming, "If you finish the rest of that chocolate, you'll regret it!" I ended up compromising by taking a tiny sip from the cup, but ended up gagging on it when Stathi shouted, "What! You gotta lick the inside of that cup like it's Brad Pitt's mouth!" Thanks Stathi.

I am officially searching for another job, because the Chinese restaurant one didn't give me any shifts this week. I need a steady flow of income, especially since I'm planning to visit Thailand in July. My purse is getting too skinny.

Barracking and Mateship

"Barrack": means to "cheer on" or as we say, "root for." Under no circumstances, however, should you ever use the phrase "root(ing) for," in Australia. "Root" means something very different here. Alright, alright, it crudely translate to "fucking" (or "fuck," depending if you used it as a noun or verb).

Random guy standing next to me: "Which team are you barracking for?"
Me: "Barracking? Is that the same thing as rooting for?"
.....I won't go into the details of what happened after this.

"Mateship": roughly translates to "friendship," however it's the deepest, most intimate kind of platonic friendship possible. If someone calls you a mate or refers to you as "my best mate," that means you're considered to be a very, very good friend. The concept of "mateship" is especially important between teammates in sports teams/clubs.

So it turns out that the game I was going to was a rugby game, not footy. For those who are wondering, Australian footy is actually very similar to American football. They even have an AFL - Australian Football League. Rugby is also very similar to football (I know, confusing) except the playing field is rectangular (not oval, like for footy) and you can only pass the ball backwards, either through your legs or by kicking it.

The two teams that were playing were the Brisbane Broncos and the Melbourne Storm. It was a pretty exciting game, because awhile ago, Storm's youngest player, a 19 year old, left the team for a higher-paying position in the Queensland team. Luckily, the Storms had an avalanche win of 28-8. Yay Melbourne!

The highlight of the entire experience, however, took place two rows ahead of where my girlfriends and I sat. At the beginning of the game, a huge group of guys dressed in Brisbane colors trooped over and sat down in front of us. These were impressively well-built youths, the kind that would be star jocks in high school. I could practically smell the testosterone rolling off of them (it was probably the heady cologne they were wearing). Anyway, my girlfriends and I looked at each other self-consciously and then giggled over who was the cutest (obviously!) A couple of minutes into the game, however, I noticed something very queer (no pun intended!) One of the guys had rested his arm over his neighbor. A few seconds later, he stretches out his other hand, tousles the hair of another buddy and then rests it on his shoulder, but not after pulling his pal close. After gaping at this scene for a few moments, I quickly pulled out my camera and took a couple of shots, then poked a girlfriend and pointed out the scene. We pretty much spent the rest of the game chuckling over how comfortable and close the guys were. It's actually pretty endearing, considering that America is such a homophobic culture that guys can't even sleep in the same bed together in private. Here, it is normal for a guy to drape a friendly arm over a mate, or even affectionately poke him for a bit (which one of them actually did). Unfortunately, I missed capturing that scene, but I did manage to get a pretty good shot of the roughest-looking one of the bunch being affectionate.
Say it with me now, "Awwwwwwww." If only we can show that much acceptance within our culture as well.

Alright, it's late and I still haven't posted about my sea kayaking experience yet. Tomorrow, then!

Barbie

"Barbie": Australian slang for "barbecue," as in the grill, not the flavor.

"Throw the bacon on the barbie, yeah mate?"

Whoa, I almost typed "flavor" as "flavour." When you start spelling things differently, that's when you know you're starting to integrate into the culture. 0_0 As for the barbie thing, I actually have a funny story about that. During Easter break, the tour guide had actually asked me to help him out with the cooking. First of all, I had no idea what a barbie was. I had a faint idea that he probably meant the fire, but when I looked around for the grill, I didn't see any, just the cooking fire. Secondly, Australian bacon is basically a slice of ham. In no way does it resemble American bacon, which is long, skinny and rectangular. Unfortunately, I had no idea, so I basically wandered around the kitchen table, passing the barbie and the bacon multiple times until the tour guide finally noticed the helpless looks I was throwing in his direction. It turns out that an Australian barbecue is basically a large flat pan held over the fire. -_-

I was supposed to go to the Melbourne Zoo on Wednesday for my Zoology class, however the city was caught in the tail end of a hurricane. 70 mph winds were pummeling the CBD area and branches were being thrown everywhere, so the Zoo closed down for the day as a security precaution. Though I was disappointed, I was also intensely relieved since I arrived at the designated meeting area 15 minutes late. The reason? I was cramming in homework for my philosophy class, which was to take place right after the zoo. I sense the beginning of an ancient and vicious cycle.

Later on tonight, I'm heading off to my first footy game ever! It's for my Australian Sports and Society class and I'm quite excited. I'll defintely post up the photos (along with the rest of the photos for Easter Break... and my surfing class... and my first Zoo trip....)

Brekkie

"Brekkie": Australian slang for "breakfast."

During the surfing lesson for my Aussie sports class, an instructor was watching me struggling to push myself up on the board. After I failed miserably and nosedived into the wave for the sixth time, he swam over to me.
"You need to eat more brekkie," he said.
"Whugh?" I gurgled, spewing seawater at him.
"If you eat more brekkie, you would have more upper-body strength to stabilize yourself," he said, pointing at my flimsy arms.
"Um, I think I'm just weak."

Wow, where can I begin? A couple of weeks ago, I had my very first surfing experience and realized that I was deplorably lacking in the arm muscles department. Despite the fact that I kept getting pummeled wave after wave, I'm eager to go surfing again and come back to the States considerably more experienced. One of my goals is to be able to successfully ride a whole wave through. >D I also had my first waitressing job last night. It was easier than I expected, but maybe because I working a chinese fast-food joint and not a high-end French restaurant or something. Unfortunately, I realized that I was hired as a casual temporary worker, which means they'll only call me in if someone else calls sick. Damnit... the money reserves are running low.

Letsee, Easter Break stuff... well, due to procrastinative planning, the first night in Brisbane was spent in the airport. Evan, Christine and I found this little alcove-type are underneath an abandoned escalator and camped out there. Though I was able to get a couple of hours in, the others didn't fare so well. I am officially able to sleep anywhere. :D

The next two days were spent at Moreton Bay, which is an island just off the coast of Brisbane. It's smaller than Fraser Island, but still really pretty. The girls and I camped in on the island, snorkeled around some shipwrecks, surfed down some sand dunes (kind of scary at first, but very very fun!) and just bummed around on the beaches. I would say the highlight is definitely the sand dunes and everyone should try it.

We arrived back at Brisbane to meet up with a friend of mine, Nancy, who is going to be studying at Queensland Uni for a year (lucky girl!) Since the original plan of camping at Fraser turned out to be a bust, we decided to rent out a car and road trip up and down the coast. We headed north first, because apparently there was more foresty stuff. Unfortunately, our first night "camping" turned out to be a disaster. The tent Nancy's roommate lent us turned out to be missing poles and picks. It was about as useful as a very large piece of cloth and just as unwieldy (I recorded a video of the girls attempting to tie it to a tree on someone's camera). Luckily, a pair of Aussie boys and this random old man took pity on our misfortune and lent us the proper equipment and help. The rest of our northern excursions were fairly uneventful except at Bundaberg. There, I was able to see baby loggerhead sea turtles hatch out of the sand and crawl into the ocean. Okay, maybe not exactly that. The nest had already been evacuated two days ago, but the park ranger said that sometimes there are late hatchings that got stuck in the sand. Turns out there were - six of them! Watching the ranger dig them out made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, because in the wild, these guys would have died in.

Afterwards, we drove Nancy back to Brisbane so she could study for her exams, and then continued south to see the Gold Coast. We didn't quite get there because we ran out of time, but we did see Surfer's Paradise. Even though it was cloudy and very cold, I could tell that area would have been gorgeous on a sunny day. I definitely need to go back to Brisbane, despite of the face-sized spiders and precocious bushy-tailed possums. Oh, I almost forgot. On my first night in Brisbane, I had left my Swiss pastry roll on the dining room table. It was inside its plastic container, so I thought it would be okay.
I was wrong.
A couple of hours into the night, I was woken by the sound of metal clinking against the dining room table. I sat up from the couch and saw a dark figure hunched over my pastry. I thought it was Nancy's cat, so I yelled at it and waved an arm to scare it off. The creature turned around, and in the murky darkness, I could already tell that it was not Kitty. While I squinted at it and tried to figure out what exactly was on the table, it turned around and continue to eat my pastry. Of course I immediately shot out of my sleeping bag and began to holler at it and make a general hullabaloo. The scary thing was, it wasn't even really intimidated. It would jump off the table, then jump back on and continue to eat my food. I finally ended up throwing a magazine at it (I missed so it was undeterred) and turned on the lights, which did the trick. I turned around just in time to see the end of its bushy tail disappearing through the open window.

Oh, and another thing. It rains INCREDIBLY hard in Australia. I've never seen anything like it in the States. It's even scarier when you're driving through pastureland at night, because you can't see where you're going and the fields are so flat that the roads get flooded. There was a point when I was sitting shotgun and watching the rain fall straight at the windshield. It was like going through hyperspace in Star Wars, except you're in danger of hydroplaning or running over the local wildlife. I'm grateful for friends who are willing to drive on the wrong side of the road, on the wrong side of the car.

One last thing before I end this lengthy entry - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Wow. I finally read the book during the road trip, and all I can say is... wow. In all honesty, I will force my future children to read the Harry Potter books so they can be exposed to the fantasticness that is JK Rowling. I'm still unhappy about the Ginny-Harry pairing though (c'mon, Cho is so much better!) and still in shock about Snape. For me, that was the mini-story that I focused on the most. Poor guy. Nothing is more touching than sacrifices made in the name of unrequited love. That was also one of the reasons why I like the last book best; it's darker and has more realistic themes, not the usual sunshine-and-butterflies that I find annoying in most fantasy novels.

(Oh, and sorry if I ruined the book for anyone...)

How you going? This job sure is hard yakka! I hope the tucker's good.

Again, sorry, sorry, sorry for the late updates. I swear, on the days I don't have anything going on, I don't think it's worth updating. Then the next thing I know, I'm so busy that I don't have time to even sit down and type out a sentence. When I do have time to write an entry, I don't have time to finish it and blogger just deletes my draft if I don't post it. It sucks because I've technically written three entries, and they've all been deleted by the stupid site refreshing itself. Blogger totally doesn't save my drafts automatically. What lies.

Anyway, I've included three Aussie terms to make up for the three entries. Just a warning, this is going to be a stream-of-consciousness entry because I'm running short on time.

"How you going?" Aussie slang for "What's up?" or "How are you?" I was first exposed to this phrase by a grocery clerk. My response was, "Um, by... tram...?" Needless to say, it was the wrong response.

"Hard yakka" means "hard work." Yakka is an Aboriginal term. Ex: "It's hard yakka digging an echidna out once it has burrowed into the ground," (taken from my Wildlife bio professor).

"Tucker" means food. "How's the tucker?" "Delicious!!"

Oh man, so much has happened and I absolutely ran out of time to post entries (sorry, Carol!) Even now, I'm on Easter Break (Aussie equivalent of Spring Break) in Brissy (Brisbane) and furiously typing out an entry in the internet cafe. Easter Break has been going well so far, with the minor detail that Fraser Island is now scrapped. :( To get to Rainbow Beach, a location near Fraser, it's $68 by train. I'm willing to drop that much money, but my travelling partners can't afford it. I may have to go there on my own some other time. I AM DETERMINED TO SEE WILD DINGOES!

Despite the minor mishap, I love Queensland and am currently staying at a friend's house. Brissy is seriously like Hawaii but more wild. There's giant spiders, wild turkeys and tropical birds everywhere. Apparently, geckos get into my friend's house. I'll try to take pictures of them. I love the weather, it's so warm! If I could move here, I totally would. Oh, and I also spent two days on Moreton Island and got eaten alive by mosquitoes. Crap got to go, will update again relatively soon.

Blokes and Sheilas

"Bloke": a common term used to refer to a man, usually in his teens or twenties.

Ex: "There's a bloke upstairs waiting for you."

"Sheila"(not really used as often amongst today's young generation): a term used to refer to a woman, usually in her teens or twenties.

Ex: "What do you think about that sheila in the red dress?"

While I was wandering around Melbourne CBD last night, it just suddenly hit me that it's already March. It's March, you guys. That means I've already been in Australia for a month and I have five months left. Time is flying, and even though I know my stay is short here, I'm positive that it'll be July the next time I look. I'm propelled by the urge to make every minute count, which strongly clashes with my more academic commitments. If I can just get a job here that would be able to support me...

Anyway, onwards to the recollection of yesterday's activities. I woke up bright and early Sunday morning to catch a tram to the Uni, where I met up with my MUOSS club. I was then briefed with the day's itinerary and informed of a photography/scavenger style competition. Basically, I was to get into a group of 5 and take photos with as many zoo animals as possible. The catch is that every group member has to be in the photo and we all have to reenact the animal as creatively as possible. The group with the most creative photos wins a free trip to the Eureka Tower, tallest building in Melbourne. That's not all - the group will also be able to go into this glass room that extends out from the building, so you basically have a 360 degree view of the sky, the skyline and the street/buildings below.

Of course, once Evan and I heard of this competition, we immediately knew that we HAD to win. Losing wasn't even an option. Since I was so set on winning, I was a little worried that the group of girls we were with would be a freaked out about our intensity, but they turned out to be real troopers. Even though it was scorchingly hot at the zoo (in the lower 90s), incredibly difficult to squish all of us into a self-taken photo, and my battery died (and Evans... and the camera of another teammate's...) we somehow still managed to tour all over the zoo and take pictures of the fauna. I thank the friendly Australians who were willing to humor our pleas for a photographer. No fear, these pictures will soon be available on facebook for your viewing pleasure.

In the end, our group won the tickets to Eureka tower and our efforts were infinitely repaid with a breath-taking view of the city. Literally, breath-taking. Since the floor of the room is also glass, the staff made us wear little booties to prevent our shoes from scratching it. After we filed into the room, it began to extend out from the building. The entire room is enclosed with frosted windows, so my team and I had no idea how far we were from the building. After a few seconds, we stopped and the frostiness disappeared. Just like that, we were suddenly surrounded by clear glass, 92 stories away from the handful of Melbourians milling around below us. It's a very queer feeling to be so high up and to be able to see everything below you. My instincts were screaming, "YOU'RE GOING TO DIE! RUN!!" but I managed to squash it before it made me do anything stupid. All previous sacrifices were definitely paid off.

Unfortunately, the gay bar plans fell through, but perhaps it was for the best. After all that hiking about, I was in no shape for a night of hard drinking and dancing. I'll save it for another day.

Fair Enough

[Before I explain the above-mentioned term, I wish to share a bit more of the Aussie lingo with you. In Australia, they don't say "university," they say, "uni." Ex: "I attend Melbourne Uni."]

"Fair Enough": a general response of agreement. It basically means, "that's true," or "you're right, I agree," and is used quite often.

Random Australian girl: "So what's your major?"
Me: "Psychology, but I'm not taking any psych. subjects here."
Girl: "Why's that?"
Me: "Well, I'm taking Australian cultural classes instead because I figured that I won't be able to take them anywhere else in the States."
Girl: "Fair enough."
Me: "...yeah."

Today (meaning Saturday, despite what the date on my blog says) was spent with my Melbourne University Overseas Student Services club. We played Laser War (basically Laser Tag) for about half a hour, and then toured around the city and bought some really expensive cake to eat ($9.50 a slice!) Afterwards, I went home to buy some salmon and then headed back out to the city to meet up with some friends. This week is a series of festivals called the Moomba Water Festival. I believe there's demonstrations of a couple of water sports on Yarra River during the day, but I wasn't intrigued enough to attend. I did go to the night carnival and watch the fireworks though. While I was wandering around, I suddenly realized that one of the things I miss about the U.S. are funnel cakes. It's kind of weird, actually, because I never even really bought my own funnel cake before. I always just mooched off my friends.

Tomorrow morning I'm off to the Melbourne Zoo, which is very exciting because I love zoos (yes, dorky side coming out). Afterwards, I'm supposed to head to an Aussie friend's house to preparty and then leave for this gay bar, where his friend is supposed to be singing. I've never been to a gay bar before, so this definitely will be a new experience.

Agro

"Agro": Australian slang for "aggressive."

"Sometimes the boys at this bar get a little agro, so watch out," (what an Australian friend said to me during one of my nights out).

I had my first Australian Wildlife Biology lab practical on Wednesday, and let me tell you, that was an experience. First of all, I arrived to lab five minutes late because I just came in from the city from trying to open up a HSBC bank account (transferring money from the States is amazingly hard. Come on, bank people, "it's my money and I want it now!") Upon entering the room, I was suddenly surrounded by creatures floating in jars and mummified animals. It was kind of unpleasant, actually, because some of these animals had been taken out of their containers and were soaking in open tubs of formaldehyde (I now despise that smell). What ensued was a three hour-long process of examining the animals, drawing and labeling parts of them in our sketchbooks, and then inferring what genus and type of species they were. Ordinarily, I wouldn't really mind doing all of this, but I did mind the fact that we really had no direction as to what parts of the animal should we sketch. It was essentially just the professor saying, "Okay class, sketch whatever animals you think are important." -_- Camille is definitely not used to independent learning.

Another one of my intriguing classes is Indigenous Culture and Learning, taught by an Aborigine himself. His name is Gary Foley, and apparently he was quite the rabble-rouser. Don't believe me? Google his name and see what comes up. My professor is amazing.

I realized that I'm burning money like no other because I'm over-booking myself. It stems from the fear that I'll never be able to repeat this experience again, so I'm going to do everything that is financially possible (never mind safety... mere trifles). Starting from this weekend, every one of my weekends is filled with field-trips and excursions until the end of May, which is when first Semester ends. I may be committing academic suicide. Hmm.... Also, in an attempt to garner more moolah to feed my traveling habits, I've been tram-hopping instead of paying for the tickets. I figured that I've saved at least $20 AUD, but I finally caved yesterday and bought a weekly pass. The reason: one of my friends got caught and fined $100 + by an undercover tram policeman. Yikes.

I'm going to run out to buy groceries now, but I'll try to update my facebook albums soon with some pictures. Oh, and I almost forgot! A few nights ago, a fruit bat fell off the fig tree next to my window! I was just sitting in front of my computer, minding my business, when suddenly I heard a thump and the sound of frantic flapping. I ran outside with a flashlight and Yuri in tow, just in time to see an enormous flying fox struggling amongst the ivy. It saw me and started to desperately scrabble up one of the poles of the house, but since it's made out of metal, the bat kept slipping back down. I dashed back into the house to grab my camera and document its pathetic floundering. I did feel sorry for it though, but I hesitated in helping it because bats are notorious for carrying all sorts of diseases. Luckily, it managed to climb up the rosemary bush and take off right before Hero arrived at the scene. I'll post the photos up soon, along with pictures of my newly-decorated room. Look forward to seeing them!