Well, Pooey.

I am an ACE at mastering how to write papers for Australian professors rather than American professors in a manner of a couple weeks and asking no one for help! Ha Ha!


...Not.

-__-


SO I got a paper back today, my first one ever!! Whoooo! So I ran to my professor ready to pick a new A or B level paper, within my usual grade range, of course, I wouldn't want to stain my almost (totally not) perfect, but generally pretty good record and I flipped to the back sheet where she left comments.

At the bottom it said "H2B". Uhhhh whatever that means. Let's go to comments to see what she said!

Well, there is a chart thingy for grading at the top. Most of my check marks were in the "good" range. Which is the middle column! The column right after "Bare Pass". I was just above a bare pass!! Aggghhhhhhekpskfkgpkefjo!!! She even put one check mark one the line that seperates "bare Pass" from "Good". WHAT?!?! huff puff huff puff.
It's alright, I thought. I have two check marks in " Excellent"! Yay! Let's see what they are for.

...Oh. They are only for "appropriate word length" and "image list". ... :/ Well, at least I know I am excellent at counting words and naming pictures.
I did also get two "Very good"s, one on my visual material used and the other on my well-organized, well-prepared presentation.

Uhhhmmm. Time to look up what "H2B" means! To Wikipedia!!!!

Ohhheeerrrmmuhhhh. ... Wikipedia has this handy chart that shows a "H2B" given at the University of Melbourne means a ... low B. In the number ranges of 70 - 74. (Seems like they grade out of 100, but it's not ten per letter grade, it's something weird. 70 - 79 is B range.)

Well, that's not so bad. It's my first paper here, I've never written for an Australian audience, and it's not even that far from my what I'd usually get. I should look at the comments.

UUUUUUGGGGHHHHHHHHH. :(

No one told me Australian professors were so MEAN. *__*

I thought this lady was nice!! She says a lot of things like "over-reliance on non-scholarly and non-referenced government website" and "more specificity and focus" and "more scholarly focus required". Mraaaaaggghhhhhrrrrr!!!! D:

Oh, and at the very bottom, where it looks like she actually ran out of room but really wanted to write this in, she wrote "Please seek assistance in improving your academic skills." Really, professor? Did you really need to cramp up your handwriting just so you could fit in that little nugget of wisdom? I don't think you did, I think you are just a meanie. I'm gonna go pick up a bucket of ice cream and watch Lion King in bed and BAWL MY EYES OUT AT THE PART WHERE MUFASA DIES AND IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT.

Not really, don't worry.

I don't really care that this lady seems to hate my paper and I got the equivalent of a B- on it. Australian grades transfer very well into American grades. It's just... really, lady, I don't like you any more. You seem to make me want to never study in Australia ever again because professors are so mean and now I am afraid of how I will do on my other papers. Uggghhhh.

I thought I was using good sources! I used all government and education websites, no .coms. Just one .org! Pschh. Those are good websites. What would rather me use, wikipedia? And think she got all snooty and specific about my formatting, like citing within the paper. All her comments are like "reference" and "page number" and I was like THIS IS HOW WE DO IT IN THE STATES GIVE ME A BREAK TRUNCHBULL.

OH YEAH and she commented that I needed to put a "u" in "color". I was like, ARE YOU FOR REAL. I AM AMERICAN. MY COMPUTER AUTOMATICALLY DOES THIS CRAP BECAUSE IT IS AMERICAN. You British-English spelling Nazi. Sheesh.


Alright, I'm done ranting. I'm actually not that mad, I'm just offended that she graded me down for crap like that. Crazy lady. If I were a teacher, I would grade on content and effort. Oh course, if I were a teacher, I would probably teach 3rd grade art class. ...

On a much better note, MY MOM COMES TOMORROWWWWWW!!!!!!! Less than a day! She comes tomorrow morning at about 10, and it 's 3 pm here, so .... 19ish hours!!!!! WHOOOOOOOO!!!!! I won't get to see her til later in the day because I have dump stupid tutorials on Thursday. :( But still. I am so excited. I can't stop smiling! I thinking someone is going to ask me why I'm smiling so much, and I will shout to the mountaintops "MY MOTHER IS COMING TOMORROW AND I AM SOOOOO HAPPYYYYYY!" Sigghhhh. Can't wait. Ok, I have to go to another class! Ciao for now! I love and miss everyone! Xoxoxoxoxo!

Duh-WHAT?!?!

Okay, I'm sorry I just had to share this.

There's this new tab on blogger called "Stats" and it let's you see how many pageviews you have had and from which countries and on what days and stuff! It's CRAZY. Like, mine says I have had 1,176 pageviews total on my blog. WOW!!!! For real? That seems like celebrity status, HEL-lo! And it tells me how many views each specific post gets, not just the blog. And so far, my blog has gotten like, 90% of it's pageviews in the U.S., but there has been 64 pageviews in Australia, 28 in Canada and 4 in Denmark! WHAAAAAT?

Mwahahaha! I am globalizing as we speak!

Well, not really. I have also had two views in the U.K., two in the Phillipines, and one in France and one in South Africa. WHAT. No way. Who are these people?!?! (I'm guessing those people just sort of found my blog and were like "meh, it's ok I guess but I'm not interested" and ran off to some fancier blog with more followers.)

But really, I am so tots magots popular in Canada! Canada looooves me! And I love Canada! Well, I guess. I've never been there. I hear it's nice. I know a Canadian now! She's pretty cool too.

But really, isn't that the grooviest thing ever? I am totally going to be checking up on that all the time to see if my blog gets famous and I become an international sensation and I end up getting paid for the rights to my blog and they make it into a movie and I become a million. Yeah, I'm guessing it'll happen within the month, maybe. ;)

I'll update soon, homies! Don't go changin'! Oh, and my silly little blog would be no where without you guys, so thanks for reading!

Emotions and Dinners and Boys and Stuff

I really need to work on my titling skills.

I don’t like using anything obvious, like “Mary’s Ball” or “Olivia Did This Thing That Really Bugged Me” or “What Happened in the Days since I Last Posted”. Those are boring and straightforward. But then I also think using the word “stuff” in a title is quite amateur and juvenile.

Ahem, anyway, back to the point.

Lots more things happening in my life here in cloudy ol’ Melbourne!

I went to Mary’s Ball last night, which is a dinner and dance thing thrown by St. Mary’s College. Every college has one, but it’s only yearly and Queens had theirs last semester. So I thought, well, this is the only time I’ll get to go to an Australian ball, so I went ahead and went!

It was very fun. Super fun, I’d say. Not like a ball like with ball gowns and princesses and a large staircase where people are announced at the top and they walk down with an escort on their arm, but more like… a wedding. Minus the speeches and toasts, plus a huge crowd of college age kids plus an open bar. Which means a wedding minus the old people and toddler cousins running around and boring stuff! Hooray!

Everyone got dresses up, which was fun. It’s black tie, so all the guys had to wear suits. Not necessarily tuxedos, but suits. They looked pretty snazzy. Men look so good in suits. Siggghhhh. And the ladies all looked fine, of course. Kind of homecoming dance style dresses. Not prom, with long dresses, but short ones. And lots of makeup and high heels. Even I wore heels, and I don’t wear heels! Well, to be honest, they were boots with heels, so not the full nine yards, but the closest you’re gonna get for me! Haha.

So I went with Third North, my favorite corridor, of course. I just love those guys. Before we left, I was texting Olivia, and she said “you should come up! All the girls want you to come up so we can all get ready together!” and I felt like I was back in high school meeting up at a friend’s house before a big dance, putting on way too much makeup and hairspray again! Ah, the good old days.

We went together, we took cabs and split the price because it wasn’t far and the cabs here are cheap, and we all sat together at the same table. It was Olivia, Riyana, Kat, Aly, Sarah J, Hong, Dan, Matt, Akhila, Ray, and I. The table was really funny actually, because at first it was segregated boys and girls, then Olivia and I were like “let’s break it up while the guys are gone!” because they were all getting drinks and so we sat in their seats, forcing them to switch seats, but then later in the night everyone was getting up and moving around, so no one was in their original seat. Haha it was funny. The “three course meal” turned out to be soup, dinner a half hour later, and then a dessert tray full of like 8 little bite-size desserts an hour later. It took forever, and the desserts were tiny! Such a let down. but I guess it was alright because it turned out to be so informal and everyone was walking around and mingling and talking the whole time, so the dinner part wasn’t really a focus.

I danced a lot, got my foot got my foot stamped on by some extremely pointy high heel at one point. I swear they broke my toenail, but then I didn’t get to inspect it until I got back to Queens and nothing was wrong. But it hurt like CRAZY. Yee-owch. I guess one of the good things about Australian dancing is you always have room, because people have their own little bubble of space where they dance. In the US, there’s always this thing about wanting to be in the middle of the dance floor for some reason, which means everyone squishes together to get to the middle and it is impossible to dance. Australians don’t have that inclination.

So there was an afterparty, supposedly, but then it turned out St. Mary’s didn’t book a venue, they just told everyone to go to the same bar, which meant it was packed and the line was extremely long. Which meant I walked down to a bar just to wait in line for a couple minutes and then give up because I am really impatient. I also lost half the Third North group, I was just with Ray and Riyana and Aly, so we searched around for the other guys, couldn’t find them, and decided to go back. We actually found some along the way then. Aly and I ended up taking a cab back, because it was only six bucks (soooo cheap!) and our feet were killing us.

We got back, and everyone else trickled in. I just hung out in the hallway in Third North because I knew that’s where everyone would be.

This thing happened that really bothered me, though.

I had told Olivia either earlier in the day or maybe the day before that I felt like I was really getting a crush on Matt. And that night, in her drunken state (everyone was drunk, even Ray, which is saying something) she walked out into the hallway where Ray and Matt and I were sitting eating Tim Tams. And she said, “two out of the three people sitting out here should be hooking up! Hahaha!” and ran off. Ray, having a girlfriend, got up and said awkwardly, “well, I’m outta here!” leaving me and Matt sitting there.

…

I was like, no way, Olivia did not just say that. Now I feel soooooooo completely awkward after having felt actually pretty not awkward around Matt the whole night.

At least she didn’t really imply that I liked Matt or anything, just that she thought we should hook up, but I mean come on. When I am always super aware of someone’s presence and self-conscious about anything I say to them, you don’t just throw that golden nugget of an opinion out there. Especially about me, who doesn’t hook up with guys and does not approach them in the same way you do at all.

I felt so awkward. I ran off to Sarah J’s room and leapt onto her bed, my subconscious telling me to get as far away as physically possible without actually running away.
Everyone was in there, and Matt came in soon after, it wasn’t, like, weird that I ran into Sarah’s room. (Sarah J, as it turns out, is becoming a really great friend, by the way. We had this moment last night while we were taking silly pictures together of WHY ARE WE NOT BEST FRIENDS YET type of a thing. She’s awesome. I feel like I could talk to her about this stuff.)

Everything’s gone back to normal since then, I am quite sure Matt doesn’t feel awkward around me at all. It just totally threw me off, and hinted at me liking Matt, which I told Olivia in confidence and expected her to not bring up any sense of it one drunken night. I was only mad at Olivia for a little while and was very upfront about how upset it made me. I think I might just want to be careful in what I tell her, just in case she decides to spill the beans to someone while she’s drunk.

It’s just that now I feel awkward. Because I am aware of it. Errrrggghhh. I wish I could just ignore these things.

Olivia actually told me later that people were asking that night if there was something going on with Matt and I, which is kind of cool. Maybe people see a connection…? I think they are also interested because Matt doesn’t usually get attention from the ladies. He’s kind of an oddball. I JUST THINK HE’S SO CUTE. GAH. Has no one else seen it??? Sheesh. And he’s really interesting and unique. Maybe I just like weirdos, I don’t know.

Anywhoo, I will post some pictures now! I took a lot last night, and I let Kat take over my camera for a while and she took a lot. Don’t worry, I’ll point out Matt!

Oh, and if you click them, the pictures get big, just a reminder! I know they look small on here. Enjoy!

Here's all the ladies! Lookin' snazzy! Left to right, it's Kat, Sarah J, Aly, Olivia, Riyana, and little ol' me!


Here are more third-north-ers! Left to right, it's Matt, Dan, Hong, and Sarah J. Matt's in the funny suit and blue shirt. GAH HE'S SUCH A DORK AND IT'S SOOOO CUTE!!!


Here's the whole table! We actually got everyone in! Clockwise, starting with me, it's me, Olivia, Ray, Akhila, Matt, Dan, Hong, Sarah J, Aly, Kat, and Riyana. :)


I went and sat with Matt for a while, since we were switchin' up the seats. Hee hee...


Sarah J and I!!! Love this girl. :)


Here is a series of photos taken by Sarah J of me and Sarah J. You know I would only make these faces if I really liked the person I was taking the picture with. It's true!




Oh, and Ray, because he rocks. :)








And Kat's pretty skilled at hammin' it up for the camera.




And, for your viewing pleasure, and to end this post, these faces. :D Hahahaha Goodnight!

The Themesong for This Post is "Knock 'Em Out" by Lily Allen

Ughhhhhhhh

Well, now that I have the ability to look back on it, my first Aussie kiss really wasn’t up to par.

There were many things that really bothered me about this guy in the first place. His name is Cody, by the way. Would it be awful if I made a list? There were SO many things that really should have made me laugh in his face and walk away, and yet I didn’t. I think it was that I pitied him. Oof. Alright screw it, I’m makin’ the list. I don’t want to leave anything out.

It shall be entitled “What Cody Did Wrong”:
1. Forgot my name. !!!
2. Told me “things about me that I never knew about myself”
3. Thought he could read my palm.
4. COULDN’T. DANCE.
5. Told me my hug was a “B+”
6. Did the sensitive guy act, saying things other guys do are so demeaning and terrible.
7. Said he was “19 and three quarters”
8. Continued to kiss me even though I told him I don’t kiss guys in such public settings.
9. Wasn’t a good kisser.

OUCH, Cody, you didn’t score so well. Looking at this now, I kind of hate this guy. He was trying sooooooooo hard! I think it might be that he’s bad at picking up girls, so he tried using every move he knows, and very consciously at that, not so smooth. At one point, he was SOOOOO condescending. I mean it might have come off that way because he was drunk or something, but really. He asked me tell him what I always wanted to do, like what I wanted to do when I grow up, and I didn’t really have an answer so I answered honestly that I just want to be happy. And then he goes into this whooole shpeal about how it really doesn’t matter what you do in your life, as long as you are happy, you don’t need a big house or expensive things, just as long as you're happy, because that’s all that matters. I was like. …

Are you serious? Yeah, I know that, thank you third grade teacher, I’ll just get back to my coloring book now.

I think I didn’t totally walk away from him right at that moment because I am bad at not liking people. I just generally like everyone! And I never hate people. It’s, like, impossible for me. So I’ll just lay it down how it went now.

I went to Turf with Olivia at around 8:30 to get $1 champagne, because it only lasts until 10, and then we met up with Cassie, from UniLodge, and Monika, yay! That was good because I wanted to talk to Monika about travel plans so we got to kind of figure that out.

And the night went on, nothing really exceptional happened, and I was kind of getting bored. I met this one guy from Queens that I had never met before, but was a COMPLETE PRICK. I think he legitimately enjoyed making me angry at him, because he kept making all these insulting jokes about me being blonde, or American, or my IQ (I have never taken an IQ test!!! You can’t insult someone’s IQ unless you know it, genius!!!) Then he used this lame line to explain his awful behavior that he was the perfect wingman and he made his friend look like a saint compared to how he was behaving. FALSE. His friend also looked like a prick because he was just standing there, not saying anything, laughing along to the jokes. Oscar was Mr. Big Prick and Josh was his little prick minion, I found out. I am actually friends with Josh on facebook, he randomly friended me a while ago. I actually remember insulting Oscar pretty wittily, very Veronica Mars, but I can’t remember what I said! Damn, should have written it down.

So yeah, that was the most exciting point of the night up until Cody came along. And oh, how Cody came along.

I remember Olivia, Monika, and I were standing in the outside area out back, sort of just hanging out, deciding if we wanted to leave, and then one guy starts talking to Olivia and then Cody swoops in and starts talking to me and Monika. I still can’t tell if it was originally a wingman move so his friend could talk to Olivia or something, but he was suddenly in our faces.

And I am always nice when I first meet people, I don’t automatically think guys who talk to me at bars are the scourge of the earth or anything, so I was fine talking to Cody. But that’s when he started reading our palms.

…

Really. I’m serious. He picks up Monika’s hand and says some completely generic stuff that could be true about anyone and then does the same to me. He did this like, twice more in the night. I could not believe it. And I think he thought we bought it! Maybe Monika did but I was totally like, you, sir, are full of shit.
Then he did this thing where he said “I’m going to ask you four questions, and then I will be able to tell you four things you never knew about yourself.” I was like, no you won’t. But I was kind of bored, and this was getting entertaining, so Monika and I went along. He said some random things, made us close our eyes a couple times to imagine we were in a white room or some crap like that, and then told us some more generic stuff that means nothing.
I had never heard of the “I am psychic” pick-up line, but alright, this was new and … creative? Emphasis on the question mark.

And the whole time he was doing this, he had his arms around me and Monika, one of us on either of him, because he was “cold”. Psch, yeah, sure. And then he said he wanted hugs, and he would give us a grade on them. Another really smooth excuse. Then he gave me a B+. A B+ HUG. ARE YOU JOKING. My hugs are not B+ material. RAAWWWRRRR how dare you insult my hugs in such a way?!?

Then, blah blah blah, talking, blah, blah, then WHOA KISS. It was quite sudden. Gave me a jolt. I think I looked at him after that like, why… wha- … who are you again? And I politely told him I didn’t kiss guys in bars, and so he said, oh that’s good, and goes on to kiss me again. They were just pecks, nothing creepy, but it was like, seriously dude, do you listen to anything I say? And you know, the whole time he was doing his fake psychic crap, I was rolling my eyes, and not saying anything. Monika was actually paying attention and laughing, I was only laughing at him. I don’t think he understood, poor thing.

But then once Cody started bein’ all up on me, unleashing surprise kisses on me, Monika walked away! I was like nooooooooo! And Olivia had walked off a while earlier. At that point I was like, well, I guess I gotta hang with this guy for a while then. … Yippeeeee.

Then Cody asked me to dance, oh, no wait, he asked me to dance and then said, “do you know how to dance?” I was like YOU KNOW NOTHING OF MEEEEE but instead I said “YES I know how to dance.” But I explained I danced like an American, but he was like, “oh yeah I know the style, let’s go!” and off we went.

...No, Cody, you don’t know the style. I don’t think you even dance well for an Australian. I don’t like how Australians dance in general, but he was trying to impress me by pretending to know how to grind or spin me. The thing was, he didn’t know how to grind or spin me. He couldn’t dance to the rhythm! It was awful!!! No sense of rhythm whatsoever. I was soooo embarrassed too, because we were on the edge of the dance floor near the bar, so the people at the bar could watch us. Not cute. I’m sure everyone there could tell I wasn’t into him.
And then he started kissing me again! And I was like, okay dude, I know you are super into me right now because you keep trying too hard to impress me, but really all I want you to do is stop kissing me when I blatantly tell you I don’t kiss guys in bars. LISTEN. Sheesh.
And then I was just sick of dancing, mostly because I was dancing with him, so we went and sat at a table and I texted Olivia, hoping she could come save me or I could go look for her. Thankfully, Olivia soon walked in and said she and Cassie were leaving (actually the bar was closing, it was 1:30!!! That is so early!) and they had a ride, so I was like “I’M COMING!!” and I told Cody I had to get my jacket and leave, so he followed me to get my jacket and walked me out, gave me a goodnight kiss and said he’d call me (I gave him my phone number… oh noooo) and I ran off into the car and said “PUNCH IT, DRIVER!!!” I didn’t really say that, but the less frantic equivalent.

Oh, this was funny. He texted me later in the night saying “got home ok? I loved your style and hugs. Have a good sleep.” … alright, rando. I texted back saying just like goodnight, and then he texted me again (some people just don’t get it when I text conversation is over) “I have to go to bed now. I will call you Thursday.” Oh noooo! Don’t call, don’t call! I didn’t respond to that one. I might just not pick up on Thursday. Oops!

And that is the Cody Saga. Like the Twilight Saga, a complete trainwreck.

Big News, You Guys!!!

Bum! Ba-da-bum bum bum bum bum! Ba-da-bum-bum-BUUUUUM!!!

I kissed my first Aussie!

But honestly, the story is not a good one. I am just going to put it all out there and be honest, and say

… it was a pity kiss.

I know, I know!!! An awful first Australian kiss story. But really, the guy was trying SO hard. In an awful, awful way. I know all you people who know me know that I don’t need you to impress me for me to like you. At all, whatsoever. I love people, just in general. I have a very optimistic view of the human race, even if I prefer dogs over people sometimes…

And really, if you were me, it would have been a pity kiss for you too!

I will explain more tomorrow, don’t worry. The song that came to my head was “Her First Mistake” by Lyle Lovett. For those of you who don’t know it, I actually like it, and I DON’T like country. In the song, Lyle is just trying so, so hard, and I actually felt like being the girl in the song and telling him when he made his mistakes (of which he made many). And he wasn’t that cute. Man, I am being such a bummer right now! You guys can hear the whole long story tomorrow. Now, I need to go leave a present in my mortal’s mailbox so she has something to find tomorrow. I feel bad, I didn’t leave her something for today! Sighhh. I need to be more on time.

Ok, time to go, really! I love and miss everyone!!!!! Sooooo much! Xoxoxo

I Loooooove Queens!

Well, You Asked For It!!!

A Real, True Update!

I know guys, exciting, huh?

WARNING: an extremely long post. I got pretty detailed, at my fans’ request, and this post covers multiple days of shenanigans, so I hope you have some time on your hands and a comfy chair. Or I would recommend breaking it into pieces. But it is enthralling! You might not be able to tear yourself away! Haha. Enjoy. And good luck!

So where shall I start? Wednesday. Wednesday I had that presentation for Australian Art. My first assignment in Australia! All the rest of the time here, I have just been reading or talking about what I’ve read.

I was the third person to do a presentation this semester. The first guy was supposed to be like the guinea pig/example for the rest of us to follow, but that didn’t work out at all. He was this extremely old man that volunteered to do the first presentation because none of us “kids” wanted to go first so he decided out of the kindness of his heart to show us all how it’s done!!!! Not.

His was SO. BORING. Ughhh, I think I almost fell asleep! It was 25 minutes long, first of all, and he wasn’t really explaining anything. We are supposed to address the topic that we are covering in our paper, you know, like with an argument or at least explanation of a question or something.

* Cute Boy Side Note: I just walked into the hallway to get a cup of water, and my adorable gay neighbor Andy Cam was out there talking to Mr. Stud Muffin Tom whose room I went to the first night I was here before the big Formal Dinner. Eeeeeeeeh Tom is so cute!!!!! But I have gotten to know his girlfriend, and I really like her. Wouldn’t want to get between them, they are too cute together. Still, he’s very nice to look at. ;) *

Back to my post: so Mr. Old Man, who actually looks like what I would picture for the history of magic teacher at Hogwarts who is actually a ghost (what’s his name again? Margot, I turn to you! Haha), ranted on and on about one painting after another. He didn’t give any explanation of the question he was supposed to address, it just seemed like he wanted to blow us away by how many unnecessary dates he remembered. It was just like, “this big old landscape painting was made in 1856 by this one old painter. Look at the big mountains!” And then he would go onto his opinion of the artist, or this one time he saw the painting in some random gallery up in Queensland or something.

So yeah, a good example for me to follow for my presentation. Not.

I had no idea what to say! But then I talked to the professor, who is extremely nice and actually said, “oh yes, wasn’t [Mr. Old Man… I don’t know his name]’s memory so good? Golly, how does he remember all those dates?” talking about him in the nicest way possible. But she explained that she does want us to present an argument, and we don’t need to go through 20 slides like he did, we can leave it at 3 or 4, if we want.

So to prepare for my presentation, I actually made a bit of an outline, like I would for a paper, with an introduction, a little historical context, and main body about the actual works. It worked out pretty well. It ended up being about 14 minutes long, which is perfect, not too short or long, and I think I covered everything I wanted to. I talked about 3 paintings made around 1890 that are really famous here in Australia and why they have become national icons. It was actually really interesting to me. It’s interesting that Australia, and America for that matter, can choose what they want to represent them, because they each claimed the land for themselves and are both relatively new nations, so they can choose just one aspect to represent their people, even if it’s not that true. Like the Australians chose to use “bushmen” meaning rugged country men who shear sheep or work in mining shafts, even though 90% of the population had no contact with “the bush” and lived in cities. Funny ol’ world. I guess that’s why our idea of the outback and Crocodile Dundee come in when we think of Australia.

Alright next topic.

Earlier that morning, I was supposed to go to the National Gallery of Victoria (the NGV) instead of my contemporary art lecture because that’s where we were going to have class, or something. So, I had only ever been to the “NGV” at Federation Square, which is down Swanston Street. I had never heard of an NGV anywhere else, and I thought the lecturer said it was at “Fed Square”. Now, looking back on it, maybe he had said, “past Fed Square” or “down from Fed Square”? I will never know. Because I went to the wrong NGV.

Ooooops.

It actually ended up making my morning pretty terrible. I showed up to the place at Fed Square right on time, at 9:55 because we were supposed to meet at 10, and no one was there. Actually, the gallery wasn’t open until 10, which I thought was sort of funny. So I hung around, looking for people who looked like students, or the lecturer, or any tutors. I could find none. There were school groups there, but they all looked like elementary school kids. I put my jacket at the coat check, because I didn’t want to carry it around, and I figured I would walk up to the fifth floor, because that’s where we were supposed to be.

Guess what? No fifth floor. This place was only 3 floors.

So that’s when I actually knew I was in the wrong place. And I could have sworn I heard the lecturer say “NGV at Fed Square.” I was so upset. I didn’t actually know anyone in the class, I had no one to call because I only have like, 3 people’s numbers total, none of which are of people I know from a class.

So I walked back down, angry and upset, with my whole morning out of whack now that my plan for the day completely came to a halt, so I got a mocha in my bad mood and hopped back on the tram to go back to school. I didn’t know where the really NGV was, so I couldn’t just find my way there. And I would have been super late.
And I had my presentation to do in an hour and a half. I was totally not in the zone.
But I remember thinking on the tram, I’m not going to let this get me down, yes, I can have a bad day, but it’s not that bad, and I just have to read down my paper for my presentation, and then the rest of my day is cake. I’ll just have to email my tutor that I got lost.

I got back to Queens, flopped down on my bed and emailed my tutor. And then I quickly had lunch and went to my presentation. And it went pretty well, though the rest of the day I was kind of in a bad mood.

I got an email back from my tutor that day, and he said, and quote:

There is a tutorial at the NGV (the International one on St. Kilda rd, about 400 metres south of Fed Square) tomorrow at 10am. We will meet outside of the 'mousehole' entrance - which is on the North Wall of the building, facing the Victorian Arts Centre. If you're late, we'll be up on the 5th floor. Can you perhaps make this tutorial?

… he didn’t say anything about the lecture. ??? and I thought tutorials were cancelled because if the field trip lecture! That’s what the lecturer said. So I also looked in my reader for the class, and it said “seminars” were cancelled, and “seminar” is another word for “tutorial.” Now, I did not want to go to this tutorial. Yes, 10 am is better than 9 am, which would be the usual time, but there was a Queens function Wednesday night for a fundraiser for the play they’re putting on, and I wanted to go to that, not go to bed early so I can wake up to go to the museum that I’ve never been to and don’t know where it is.

So at first I emailed back that I could come if he needed me to, not mentioning the lecture anymore because he didn’t seem to care about that at all. But then I thought, I expected there to be no tutorial tomorrow, and I want to go to this thing tonight, so no, I am not going to go to this nonexistent tutorial that isn’t supposed to happen. So I emailed back that I had forgotten that I made an appointment in the morning, thinking there was no tutorial because that’s what the reader said, so I can’t make it to the thing at the gallery. My bad!

Really, I was having such a crappy day, I just wanted to chill out that night and not worry about trying to find my way to a gallery the next morning, alone, never having been there before, so I didn’t even care that I had already emailed him that I could go. I just changed my plans/mind.

That night I went to the Queens function. It was at a bar, Dan O’Connell’s, which is where Queeners go a lot. It was for the play Inheritance, which is a play done by just Queens people, which is kind of cool. But even there, I didn’t have that great of a time. I didn’t want to pay for drinks, because they are really expensive at bars, and just had no energy to take to people and make friends because of the wreck that was my morning. But I’m glad I did that instead of going to bed early to wake up and find the NGV. I was not in the mood.

Onto Thursday! (I hope this is detailed enough for you, Mom!!! Hee hee!)

Thursday was AWESOME. Mostly because of Thursday night.

Thursday during the day was alright, I went to my Australia and America tutorial, there’s a new cute guy in it, so that makes it a little more interesting, and then I went to my Aboriginal Writing tutorial, which was also okay because half of it we just watched this video about an author. Then that night was 3rd North corri-crawl.

3rd North corri-crawl, you ask? What is that, you ask? I will tell you.

3rd North is the 3rd floor of the North section of Queens. It’s the corridor that Olivia lives on. So I know I a lot of people on 3rd North, because I am there all the time hanging out with Olivia. Corri-crawl is short for corridor crawl. Kind of like pub-crawl, I guess, but only within your corridor. This is a party that happens only once a year, not a semester, so, for my corridor, I missed out on the corri-crawl because it was last semester. But, luckily, at the last minute, I got invited to the 3rd North corri-crawl!

HOOOOOOORAY IT WAS THE BEST PARTY EVERRRRR!!!!!

But really, it was crazy fun.

So that afternoon, Olivia asked me to come up and help her make her costume. See these things are themed, of course, because Australians don’t have Halloween and they make up for it by having all their parties as costume parties. 3rd North’s theme was Haunted House, so Olivia decided to be a zombie (my suggestion. Good one, eh Anna??? :D) so I went up to help her cut up her clothes and get dirt all over them so it looked like she crawled out of the earth or something like that.

While we were doing that, other 3rd North people were “decorating” the hallway. (I wouldn’t call it decorating. When I decorate, I go ALL. OUT. If the theme’s gonna be haunted house, my house would be actually haunted. Really, I am not one to let my decorations look half-assed. I’m a studio art major, for crimeny’s sake!) By decorating, I mean the boys were covering the lights with black paper so it was pretty dark, and construction paper was lying on the floor waiting to be made into stuff to put on walls. Oh, how sad it was.
So they asked me to help! And I was like YESSSSSSSSSSS because I love decorating, especially for Halloween-style shindigs, so I started drawing bats on black paper so the other girls could cut them out and put them on the walls or hang them from the ceiling. Looked pretty good. I mean, if I had been running this thing, it would have been AWESOME and TERRIFYING but generally it looked alright. You know the decorations would have been torn apart by the end of the night anyway, so I guess it was good we didn’t put too much effort in.

So then the decorating was coming to an end, and I was walking down the hallway, and Sam May, one of the girls on the floor who is extremely nice and also super pretty (Tom’s girlfriend, I know, I know. Perfect couple status. Siggghhh. Good thing they’re really nice) said, “well, why don’t you come by tonight for a drink? At least a drink.” And I didn’t want to intrude or anything, because it seems like corri-crawl is sort of a corridor bonding thing, I didn’t want to insert myself into it just because I’m good friends with Olivia. But she said I totally have her permission to come up for the night and that I was totally welcome. And so that morphed into Olivia asking to see if I was coming, and then Trina, another girl, and then a couple more people when I was helping someone with her skeleton makeup. Haha.

(that was hilarious by the way, putting on her skeleton makeup. I don’t think people in general who paint their face to look like a skeleton actually look like a skeleton at all, but I was the resident artist so she asked me to do it. Heh heh heh. I’ll post a picture. I tried my best hee hee.)

So, I decided to go! And you know what, I think it was totally okay that I went. I am pretty good friends now with a lot of people of 3rd North, not just Olivia, so I was very welcome. You know, I just didn’t want it to seem like I was hanging around while they were getting ready so that they would invite me. I guess I was kind of hoping, but I had already totally prepared myself for a night in, watching movies, and then hearing about the night the next day from Olivia. But everyone was inviting, so I went along with it.

Which means THINK OF A COSTUME NOW GO!!! Pant pant pant.
I ran up to my room, with Olivia to help me out, and all I could think of from things that were in my closet was a costume for the dumb blonde girl at the beginning of the horror movie that gets killed either first, or after the black guy. So we went with it, pushing it to cheerleader. I wore a little blue skirt and blue tee shirt with sneakers (everything matched, of course), put my hair in pigtails, and taped a sign for “South High Pep Squad” to my shirt, with “Captain” on my back. And then we ran back up to 3rd North to paint on a bloody slash mark on my throat where I was killed, I guess.

Then PAAARRTTYYYY!!!!

It was awesome and hilarious.

We played games, like 21 and Never Have I Ever. Actually, Olivia and I had to explain the rules for 21, that was a new one for the Aussies. Actually, it was new to Americans too, when I was with some, I had to explain the rules to all of them. Hmm. Look at me, bringing some knowledge. ;)

Now, my mom wanted a detailed account of the evening, sooooo there are some adult themes in this explanation (as in drinking and lots of people running around in their underwear). Just a warning. :/

I figure I should explain the game rules to the older folks reading these posts, I’m not sure if drinking games were invented back in your day. Just kidding! But actually really, I don’t know… ;)
So 21 is a game where you sit in a circle and you count in a clockwise direction up to 21. Whoever gets 21 gets to make a rule for a number, so instead of saying the number, you have to do whatever the rule is. So if the rule is for 7, you have to run down the hallway and clap and run back, it would go “…5, 6, * number seven runs down the hallway and claps *, 8, 9…” like that. And if you forget to do the rule, you drink.
People last night were bending the rules a bit, picking on one guy named Akhila and saying, “whenever we get to 8, Akhila drinks” so Akhila ended up having to drink more than everyone else. Not in the traditional rules, but hey, who cares about tradition?? It was fun anyway.
Never Have I Ever is more straightforward. You just go around the circle with everyone saying something they have never done. Or that they have done, but in that case, they would also have to drink. Everyone who has done it has to drink. But you start the sentence with “never have I ever…” etc. It can be anything, like gone skiing or been to New York, but last night it was mostly about … more taboo things, if you get my drift. I didn’t have to drink much (Ha! That’s how experienced I am…) but it was a really comfortable situation anyway. Whenever someone drank on something really crazy, we would always have to hear the story, and everyone felt comfortable telling the story with just the people around them. And nothing left the hallway, if you know what I mean. Which means if I told any of the stories on here, it would be a breach of contract and God would smite me! Not really, but you wouldn’t want anyone spreading stuff around Queens. It’s a gossipy bunch here.

So once games were over, there was just a lot of dancing and drinking and playing around. Let’s see if I can remember all the costumes. There were 2 mummies (whose wrappings were EVERYWHERE by the end of the night), a zombie (Olivia), a werewolf, little dead riding hood, a skeleton, the puppet thing from Saw (never seen the movie, but I recognized the puppet thing), Frankenstein, the grim reaper, the chainsaw massacre guy, hannibal lector, a devil, chucky, and one guy, the cute one named Matt, just wore a long black cloak and put this light in his mouth that made his mouth look like a flashlight. I didn’t really get it… but it was funny when he was standing in the back of pictures with just his mouth open so there was this weird light, haha. I can’t remember any more costumes… oh, there was a guy who made it look like he was stabbed by a foam seahorse! Yeah, I didn’t get that either.

So the night went on, we did jager bombs at one point, which I had never had before. They are actually really tasty! I don’t like jagermeister, because it tastes like black licorice, but with red bull it’s very yummy. I don’t like red bull on it’s own either… hmm. It also seems like a bad idea to mix an energy drink with alcohol, but we only did the one. Actually, funny story, just as we had finished that, and my side of the hallway finished all theirs first (victory!!!) the Vice Master came up to check on us.

Ruh-roh…

The Vice Master is the guy I interviewed with to come here, and he sort of runs the school. He checks up on every corri-crawl, to make sure it’s not out of hand, and people from other corridors aren’t supposed to be there… a.k.a. me…
So, I walked down the hallway, away from the Vice Master, to go find Olivia, who was currently kissing one of the guys who lives in 3rd North, Will. Haha, we’ll get to that later. But I was like, “hey guys, the Vice Master is here, did you know?” and they were like “OH MY GOD you’re not supposed to be here! Go hide in the closet! Did he see you?!” so they pushed me into Will’s room, where they were hanging out, while I was thinking, what? Is this like bad? What's going ’on? Are we in trouble? And then someone was like, “oh calm down, don’t put her in the closet, the Vice Master won’t do anything, he’s just here to check up.” So I just stayed in the room until he left, just in case, and we went back to partying.

After a little while though, I hadn’t seen Olivia in a while, and I was a little worried, because her key was still in her door, and if she had gone outside, she would be locked out. You see, I thought she might have gone outside because, like I said earlier, I saw her kiss Will, not very secretively, and then I heard Alyssa, a girl I don’t know but who is Will’s best friend, was crying because of it. I thought, oh no, here comes the drama of the night. So I thought Olivia had got caught up in all that, possibly yelled at, and ran outside to get away in a dramatic huff. But, it turned out to not be dramatic at all, I later found out.

At the time, I was worried because I didn’t know where she was, so Chris, another guy who’s really nice who was dressed as Hannibal Lector (LOL), and I walked out down to the place where you can get snacks from vending machines, because knowing Olivia, I can see her wanting a snack in the middle of the night. But we couldn’t find her! So we went to her room to wait, propped her door open and sat there for a little while.

Ryan (who everyone called Juddie) came in to hang out too, and then the boys decided Olivia was probably hooking up with Akhila, because we hadn’t seen Akhila in a while either. (that would have been bad. Not that Akhila was a bad guy, he was just sort of… a horny polecat, to use a phrase used by a friend’s dad a long time ago.) Juddie seemed okay with this, because it turns out, after hooking up with Akhila, girls end up in a long term relationship with someone else. Juddie thought it could be his turn, haha!
But then Olivia came back.

Turns out she had been waiting with Sam May for the pizza guy to come, so they were downstairs. Psch, no dramatic story around that. Olivia is not a very dramatic person, so I wasn’t expecting it really, I just know there’s usually a dramatic moment at every party where someone cries and someone else is called a bitch, and they guy is usually at fault, but he just uses some man excuse, like “I thought we were going to be casual!” or something dimwitted like that. But no, turns out no drama. :)

And the party went on with great speed. Really. Like at one point I checked what time it was and it was 11:30, and I thought, oh, the night is young, and then suddenly it was 4 am.

The rest of the night involved a kiddie pool, a “nuddy run”, and lots of people in their underwear. Lemme lay it out for ya.

First, I went to the bathroom, down the hall, past the door where we covered the windows so we could make 3rd North extra dark and creepy, and as I was coming out of the bathroom, suddenly everyone was there and all the guys were taking their clothes off. And I mean ALL their clothes. Now this is called a “nuddy run,” I think. “Nuddy” as in nude, as in naked. And I was like OHHH GEEZ AVERT EYES AVERT EYES!!! I didn’t know these guys that well, if you know what I mean!!! And then they all pranced downstairs like a bunch of happy schoolboys and I think went to run around the North building naked. I’m not sure if they went all around the grounds, because we had a bit of an incident last week with a corri-crawl with these two naked guys who barged into a sleeping girl’s room. (It resulted in the girl leaving, which was very sad for Queens, I guess, because they had this big meeting with us about it. That wasn’t the only thing that made her leave, though, she just wasn’t having a good time here. It’s really too bad.) So I don’t think they ran all over the campus, like they traditionally would, but they ran at least downstairs.

Later, I was in the hallway, doing who knows what, hangin’ out with my homies, the usual, (the ones who weren’t running around naked, I guess), and then all these girls run in, in just their undies and start dancing on the dance floor. Oh, and any guys that were there too. Meaning, everyone was in their underwear. I actually felt strange having clothes on, so I was like, “Olivia, should I take these off?” and of course she was like “YEAAAHH!!” and she helped me out of them like a good friend.

Yeah, never done THAT before. Seriously. In all my twenties years, I have never been in just my undies in a public setting, even in college. Well, unless my girlfriends were in the room while I was changing. So don’t go thinking I do this a lot!!! Because I certainly don’t. Haha. But really, the awesome party setting called for it, so I had to go with the flow.

It was totally fun and comfortable, nothing creepy. (I can just sense my protective aunts thinking, oh my poor, sweet, innocent niece! Anything could happen in that situation! But don’t worry, everyone here is extremely kind, the opposite of creepy, and knows what boundaries are.)

So yeah, those were the main parts of my night! Later, when it was about 4:30 am, I figured I should go to bed (though I had no sense of time at that point, with no clock to check) and Olivia gave me a shirt (because I couldn’t find mine… heh heh) and I walked back to my room fully-clothed and reminiscing on my super satisfying night.

Two words: good times.

At one point in the night (I didn’t know where to put this because I can’t remember when exactly it happened) I was getting pretty much hit on by this guy, Dan. (Ahhh, that brings me back to first grade, when I used to like my neighbor, Daniel, and everyone would sing “Daniel and Danielle, sittin’ in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G” Not my favorite song anymore...) Dan was, of course, drunk, so I don’t think he would have acted that way otherwise, especially since he has a girlfriend, as I brought up to him that night a-HEM, but he was rubbing my back and standing pretty close and at one time leaned in for a kiss (that’s when the “oh, remember you have a girlfriend you really like?” thing happened… :/) and of course, I ignored his advances because I wouldn’t do that to my fellow womankind. I was very tempted though, I’ll be honest, because he’s cute and Australian and really funny and nice. But everyone here is funny and nice, that really doesn’t make him anything special haha. Later, right before I was leaving, he tried the rubbing-back, arm-around-me move again, and I thwarted his advances yet again! Haha! Try to stop me!

And the rest of my weekend, I have been trying to write a paper and plan what to do for when my mom gets here and RECUPERATE from Thursday night. Gosh, it was crazy. And I stayed up soooooooo late. (I skyped my friend Drew when I got back to my room, randomly. Haha it was hilarious, though!)

Seriously, though, I haven’t gone out since. And I’m not going out tonight, Sunday night, when lot of Queens people go out, supposedly. I really need to just get my strength back and make sure I’m not getting a cold, haha. Vitamin C, here I come!

And now I am simply in a state of “I love life. I love people! I love EVERYONE! EVERYTHING IS BEAUTIFUL!!” Like I just walked down the hallway from Olivia’s room after watching an episode of Veronica Mars, and all the people in the hallway were just like “Hey! What’s goin’ on? Wanna join?” etc etc really nice, friendly things, as usual. I just love PEOPLE. GAH. Life is beautiful.

And now, after writing almost 9 full pages, single-spaced on Word, I am going to post this and go to bed. I hope you guys don’t have lives right now, because it will take have taken you for-ev-er to read this. Hope you had fun! You asked for it. Haha. I love and miss everyone and hope everyone’s lives are awesome and fun, even if you aren’t going to parties where everyone ends up in their underwear! Xoxoxo! Goodnight!

A Little Bit o' This, a Little Bit o' That

Pant pant pant pant.

I have been SO BUSY. I really need to update this thingy! But now I'm going to bed. I have some fun news for you guys so I will make sure to post tomorrow. I got invited to Olivia's Corri Crawl, which is like a party but just for the people in the hallway you live on, and they invited little old me!!!! I was so psyched and I felt so looooved. And it was crazy fun. That was actually on Thursday night. Since then, I have been recuperating from that night (it got a little crazy, but in the best ways possible :D) and working on an essay that's due next week. I hate homework. Haha. Melbourne has been so awesome so far because I haven't had any actual work to do yet, except for that presentation. I guess I have to tell you guys about that too! Sheesh, are you guys behind.

Well, gee, I think I'll go to bed because I am already falling asleep, and then I can update this tomorrow morning. I love and miss everyone! Oh, and one more little thing, ELEVEN DAYS UNTIL MY MOMMY COMES!!!!! I know, all you people who aren't me are so jealous that you don't get to spend a bunch of vacation time with her. I cannot wait. I was also procrastinating my paper today and that involved a lot of planning what to do when Mom comes. Anyway, I am ranting, I will update tomorrow!

xoxoxoxoxoxo!!!!!

Busy Busy Busy!

I thought of entitling this post “Busy Little Bee” but that makes me think of Joaquin Phoenix acting like a real creeper in Gladiator, and that makes me uncomfortable haha.

This post is dedicated to my amazing friends back home. I got to talk to Margaret today on skype, and I am just so thankful I can talk to all my pals back home every so often, like Moin, Margaret, Ellen, Anthony, even if just for five minutes. I would like to talk to everyone else too! So pals, if you have a skype account, please add me. I am the one that’s not my full name, it’s the other one. I feel weird putting my skype name on here, so if you want it, just email me or send me a message on facebook. Seriously, I have the best friends anyone could ask for. EVER. :P

I have been very busy so I just wanted to write a short post.

Tomorrow I am presenting on national iconography in early Australian art during the impressionist period. I have been working NONSTOP along with a lot of procrastinating by going online and looking at random stuff like fashion photography and finding Queens people on facebook.
There’s this guy I think is really cute here at Queens, he lives on Olivia’s floor. I sat next to him at dinner tonight. I’m not sure if he’s a real ladies man, it doesn’t seem like he gets noticed a lot and he’s pretty quiet. His name is Matt. Just friended him on facebook. :D He just seems really interesting, and he is very nice, and he seems smart. Whenever he cracks a joke, it’s always a good one. So yeah, I have a little crush on him. I will go on (and on, probably) in my next post, probably tomorrow night, unless I’m out celebrating being done with this presentation.

Anyway, I love and miss everyone SO MUCH!!!! I guess this post was more of a letter to everyone, haha. Oh, and I decorated my room with lots of pictures of your guys’ faces. :) I love you!!!!!! Xoxoxo! Goodnight!

Well, I'm Pooped!

Phew, am I tired.

Maybe it’s because I usually let myself sleep in all the way on weekends, like I won’t set any alarm so I can wake up on my own accord. But this weekend I did set alarms, and this morning I got up at 9. But I also went to bed at 11:30, which is pretty early for the weekend. I think I just have a lot to do lately, and I’m trying to get integrated with the Queeners, and I have a lot of work for school right now. I have a presentation to do on Wednesday on whatever I am going to write my paper on that is due next Wednesday, so I’m trying to figure that out.

I was just walking back from getting a coffee (which was a GREAT idea because I was so tired) and it started absolutely pouring for about 5 minutes and then just drizzled for the rest of my walk back. As I walked under the trees, a bunch of big raindrops fell and I was reminded of my absolute FAVORITE EVER kids’ movie, My Neighbor Totoro, when he gets an umbrella and is standing at the bus stop and jumps to make all the drops on the tree fall and make that sound when they hit his umbrella. I almost paused my walking and jumped, but then I was like, wait a minute, I am a tenth of the weight of one of these trees, my jump wouldn’t make any kind of difference and I kept myself from looking like an idiot jumping on the sidewalk. But then the rest of my walk back, I kept thinking of Totoro whenever a raindrop hit my umbrella, which made me very happy to be walking in the rain. My boots, however, are made of suede-ish fabric and are therefore now completely soaked. Here is what happened to my socks:





So I guess I will go through my weekend starting Friday. That’s when Olivia’s best friend, Anna, came, so to celebrate, we went to Perseverance for 90’s night! That turned out to be really fun. I convinced Monika to come, because she doesn’t get many chance to go out because she hangs out with Morgan so much, who doesn’t really like to go out and doesn’t drink at all, so Monika hadn’t really had a really good night here yet. I played wingwoman for her. Olivia hit it off with this guy and went to dance with him on the big crowded dance floor, and I didn’t want to lose her, so Monika and I followed so we could just dance nearby. Then the guy’s friend ended up talking to us, and he bought us drinks. He was talking to Monika most, of course. I wasn’t really interested in meeting a guy or anything that night, so I was happy to get Monika to get to know this guy more. He was cute! And seemed smart and had a good sense of humor. His name turned out to be Daniel, so of course I approved. ;) While he was buying us drinks, another guy talked me up at the bar, but I didn’t feel like putting any effort into getting to know any guys that night, so when we left to go dance again, I just said “see ya later.” He did say “maybe I’ll see you out there” but I didn’t see him at all after that, and I can’t remember his name, haha, so it’s no big thang. So Monika, Daniel and I all went back on the dance floor where I also found Andrea, Steph and … another girl we came with, so I could dance with them while Monika could dance with Daniel. We actually came to Perseverance in a big group, it was me, Olivia, Anna, Monika, Andrea, Steph (a girl who lives in Newman College with Andrea), and two other Newman girls that I forgot the names of. They were the same Newman girls who ditched us at Pugg’s, so I wasn’t so keen on getting to know them well enough to remember their names. But Steph turned out to be totally fun to dance and sing a long with, so that was really fun. For a while it was just Andrea, Steph, and I. That was good, because Andrea is also really fun and likes to joke a lot. The other Newman girls kind of sucked the fun out of it because they were just shuffling foot to foot, not singing along, looking around as if for something cooler to be doing. I hate it when people do that. But while I was dancing with all them, Monika got a chance to make out with Daniel at the edge of the dance floor. Go girrrrrl! Later she told me it was one of those oh screw it, I’m in Australia moments. She’s usually a little reserved, though once you get to know her she’s totally fun and loves to joke around, kind of like me, so I’m glad she just went ahead and kissed him.
Later, Daniel went to go find his friends again and Monika and I met up with the other girls outside to cool off. Daniel had gotten Monika’s number, so he was texting her that we should come sit with him and his friends over at another table, and as we were all peering over her shoulder at her phone to figure out how to respond, he just walked up behind us and peered over us. I didn’t notice him to he was literally right above us, and I totally shrieked. Anna had a good laugh, because she could actually see him coming the whole time and just didn’t tell us. Haha, I really like Anna. We have a lot in common. We laughed about that for a good five minutes. Anyway, Daniel went to go get a drink with his friends inside, and then we all decided to leave. As we were leaving, Monika got a text from him saying “I bought you a drink, where are you now?” but we were already out the door, meaning we’d have to wait in line to get back in. So then he asked to see her the next night (yay!) and so they planned to do that. I really like Daniel, he wasn’t a creep, he was witty and nice and really polite. Good for my girl Monika I think. But she ended up not seeing him the next night (last night) because he was at a club we had never been to and she wasn’t feeling up to going out. I would have gone with her, if she had wanted me to, because I wouldn’t want her to go to a club she’d never been to alone, but she ended up not going. I hope they can hang out soon!

So yesterday (Saturday) I had a pretty empty day, Olivia invited me to hang out with her and Anna in the city, but I needed to work on my presentation. So I did a heckuva lot of reading yesterday. And then, having some time on my hands and needing a break from really heavy art history reading, I went down Lygon to visit the hotel my mom is thinking of staying at. It was nice! And close to some pretty tasty looking restaurants, so I approve, mom! ;)
Last night, I just finished some more reading (I am very proud of this, it was a SATURDAY NIGHT people. Check out my work ethic!) and then watched a couple episodes of How I Met Your Mother and then half of the movie The History Boys. I had never seen HIMYM, and lots of people have told me it’s really funny, so I tried it out. I thought it was good, I just have a hard time with canned laughter shows. So I’ll watch a couple more episodes to see if I like it. The History Boys is an interesting movie. It’s a BBC Films production, so it’s very English, and by that I mean sometimes it’s hard for me to follow because they use such long, literary words and the dramatic parts of the film are really subtle and realistic, not like American films. But it is very good. I’ve seen it before and I really like it.

Anywhoo, today I went to the aquarium! I planned to go yesterday, but Olivia wanted to leave earlier in the day to have more time and it was already about 12, so we postponed until today. We still only left at about 11, though, haha. I woke up at 9, thinking we were leaving at 10, but then Olivia and Anna seemed to be cool with leaving later. Way to let me know, guys, I could have slept another hour and possibly gotten pancakes at breakfast (hot food isn’t served till later for weekend breakfast, just toast and cereal before 10:30). Whine whine whine.
The aquarium was awesome! Lots of fishies and some sharks and PENGUINS!!! Wheee! The kind that actually live in cold conditions, like Antarctica style. I took a lot of pictures, so those will follow. :)

So today, for the rest of the day, I am going to work on my presentation, meaning doing a lot more reading interspersed with a couple tv shows, most likely, then go to dinner and out to a pub with Olivia and Anna tonight. Gotta send Anna off in style! I have put off my work for at least an hour and a half now, what with uploading my photos and writing this thing and surfin’ the net. So all my love to everyone overseas! I love and miss everyone, and I will update again with any fun news from tonight! Xoxo!!





















Olivia and Anna


Olivia and I


Click to enlarge, so you can actually see! :)

Oh, and I forgot I took a video of the penguins swimming while they were feeding. Here it is!!! :D

Pheeeew, Friday!!

I'm so glad it's Friday. I just need some rest. Today, I almost just stayed in my room all day and did reading and watched tv and movies! But I forced myself to go get a lightbulb and clothes hangers, which I needed to do. I also ended up getting... a sweater and a cute shirt! Baahhh, spendin' too much moolah. But they were super deals, each was ten bucks. I'm just trying to integrate myself into Australian fashion. Sort of. I don't want to give up my own style, but I do feel like my sense of style is just nothing like some Australians'. So I got one shirt that I thought was sort of Australian-style. It has lace cap sleeves. It's pretty cute! It was one of the only things I actually thought was cute in the store, along with the sweater (a plain light blue. Brings out my eyes!).

Oh, another thing:

Cute Australian boys who ride motorcycles.

*__*

I saw these two guys walking back to my room leaning on their bikes and they were quite attractive and I absolutely swooned. Sigh. I know motorcycles are like little death traps you can ride, but I think people look really good riding them.

So I think I might get some reading for my presentation done, or I might paint my nails and watch United States of Tara. Haha. One or the other. Ummmm but it's dinner time, so I'm going to go chomp some down.

I'm Sane but I'm Overwhelmed, I'm Lost but I'm Hopeful

Phew.

I need a massage and a Law and Order: SVU marathon.

I’m still having upsy-downsy-ness. It’s just some things can really get me down really quickly, but some things can really make me happy. It just feels like my life is a little slump-tacular right now. And the weather doesn’t help. It’s always raining.
I got to skype my Dad today, so he heard all about it. Still adjusting to life in Queens, still having to meet people and be conscious of that kind of stuff, like what first impressions I make and trying to make a connection with someone that will make them want to see me again.
Can your body have a physical reaction to a place? I think it can. I remember thinking this before, back when I was at UniLodge. I can’t remember if I blogged about it though. Like right now, the palms of my hands are peeling. Not very much, only so that I would notice, but that never happens. And I am breaking out on my back. Which also never happens, and I was also very grateful for, but now there are zits poppin’ up and it’s awful and I want them to leave!!!!! I think the clearness of my skin can definitely be stress related. Womp wooooooomp.
I know these are totally things that you guys want to hear about, and I know you just love hearing about my teenager skin, but I feel like blogging about it, so I’m gonna. Deal. ;)

Tonight a lot of people from Queens (and from other colleges, I hear) are all going to a bar called PA’s. Never been there. I was so tempted to go though! I totally would if I didn’t have a 9 am tutorial tomorrow. I am actually kind of upset I can’t. I want to meet more people and hang out with Queens people. But they said they usually get there around 11!! I thought, if I were to go, I would just go for a while then leave around 11! Haha. Me and my early night sensibilities. I wish they were going out tomorrow night, and then I wouldn’t have class the next day.

Siiiiggghhhh.

Oh well. I still need to do reading for tomorrow, and I kind of just want to stay in and watch a movie anyway. Earlier today, I thought a good tearjerker would be good. Then at least I could get all my sad out and get past it. I also want to go to bed early. I have been very good at it lately, going to bed around 11 (yes, that is early, and yes, I do know I am crazy according to you older people :P) and then it’s easy to wake up at 9.

Oh, and today, while talking to my Dad, we discussed travel trips for spring break and post finals. I am very excited. I just have to find a well-priced trip. Airfare is going to be… upsetting, probably. They have all these pre-planned trips for students that involve a lot of rafting and scuba diving and tour stuff that sound fun and I know a lot of people doing them, but I have this idea in my head where I can find some Australians to travel with, and we can travel really cheap and light and just go exploring. That would be AWESOME. Ahhh. Such a dream. I still have time to find them, though. Spring break is in a month and a week though… haha, that’s pretty close.

Anyway, that was my super boring post that I just wrote out to get my thoughts down and let you know what’s been happing (a.k.a. nothing exciting) but I’m sure I will have some stories from this weekend. Olivia’s best friend is coming to visit for the weekend (she’s studying abroad in Sydney) so we are going to go out. I will try to take pictures! And remember to post them!

OH and big shout out to my MOIN!!! WHO JUST TURNED 20!!!! WHOOOOOOO! I congratulate you, you have successfully avoided teenage pregnancy. Haha anywaaaay, happy birthday, moin! I love you so so much and I wish I could have been there! I miss you like Nemo missed his papa fish Marlin! Happy birthday!!

I love and miss everyone!!! So so so much! Xxoo



p.s. this week’s title comes from an Alanis Morissette song, “Hand in my Pocket.” I have been listening to her angsty tunes a lot lately… haha goodnight! xoxo

What a Dizz-ay

"Dizz-ay" means "day" to all you older folks. Adding "izz" to a word automatically makes it cool, you know. Like “fo’ shizzle!” means “for sure!” and “Let’s go to the pizz-ub!” means “let’s go to the pub!” and “I would like some pizz-izza!” means “I would like some pizza!”
yes, I know it sounds really very cool and hip.

Anywhoo, back to the point of this post!

THIS KLEENEX BOX:



GAH. I KNOW. UH-MAY-ZING. An adorable little baby seal kissing an adorable mama seal! I bought the three pack just for this box. It wasn’t even the cheapest either, because it was Kleenex and not the store brand. But I DIDN’T CARE. SEALS. Ugggghhh I have never seen such a cute Kleenex box in my life.

That’s not really the point of this post, but it is still very important.

I had a very upsy, downsy day. Like a good thing would happen, then a bad thing, then a good thing, then a bad thing. Weird karma all over the place.
Like I walked to get lunch and ended up talking to this guy who is in the Senior Common Room of Queens, which means he’s a graduate student who also tutors people in Queens and lives there, and he was really nice and friendly. But then I went to go pick up the reader for my Australian Art class, and it still wasn’t in, and I couldn’t find a book I need for Aboriginal Writing, and I searched up and down the library, walking tons of stairs. But then the awesome manager at the bank gave me a really awesome wave when he saw me. But then I burned my tongue on a mocha. And then on the tram, a skateboarder tried to hold onto the tram as it moved and the tram driver pulled the emergency brake, which made me fall over and spill the mocha all over my white sweater. But then I found the seal Kleenex box. But then I had to carry a ton of heavy stuff from UniLodge to Queens. But then I went to the soiree tonight, which was really like a talent show for Queens, and I heard some really good music. But then I learned that we have to take a “muck-up” picture tomorrow for Queens as well as a formal one, and I have no one in my hall to go in a theme with. And I heard Olivia’s entire floor brainstorming all together and I felt a little alone.

…

But now I am ending my day well, with Tim Tams (I got the “value share pack”…) and Mad Men. I am also listening to Jonathan Coulton’s version of “Baby Got Back”, which makes me very happy.
So overall, a weird day. Generally good, though. I feel like those little bad things didn’t really keep me from feeling good. There are some really musically talented people in Queens. Tonight I heard really good acoustic versions of “I Want It That Way” originally by the Backstreet Boys and “Oh My Gosh” originally by Usher. Both were sung by girls, by the way. They were aaaaawesooooome! OH, and this guy played on cello the Bach Cello Suite #1 in G Prelude, which is an AMAZING piece and I loooove it by Yo-Yo Ma so I automatically thought that guy was super hot. Haha. Oh, musicians.

So about James, I DID look him up on facebook (Mollie!!!) but, alas, I cannot find him. Facebook made me look by city as well as within New Zealand, so I didn’t know which city to look in. So I looked in all of them, of course, and I couldn’t find him! None of them looked like him, but there was one with no profile picture and just one friend. So maybe he doesn’t have facebook. :( I don’t know. Still can’t tell if Australians really use facebook.

So I thought I would end this post with a picture or two! Just so you guys can see who I’m hangin’ with!

So this is Andrea on the left and Olivia on the right! Me in the middle, o' course. ;)

And this is my pal Monika!


I didn't take either of these by the way. They're just on facebook!

So I will post soon! Hopefully I will have a more exciting and/or adventurous and/or involving swash buckling post next! Swash buckling would be good. I'll try to make that happen... :/
Goodnight! Well, to me. Good day to you all! xoxoxoxo!

Because I'm Bored...

I'm writing this post.

I came across this dress today.. Just now I walked to Border's and Woolworth's to get a white mocha and restock on Tim Tams, and I walked past this store that said "everything 50% off, starts at $5!" so I walked in. I found this dress, which was the first thing that I was really like, ohhhhh this is so cute! I want it I want it! so I am keeping it in the back of my mind, but it is.... $45!!! And that's with 50% off!!! Sheesh. Why is everything so expensive here???? :(

But the sale should be going on through next week, because I think they are trying to get rid of their "winter" stuff, so if I keep thinking about it, I might just go get it on Monday. I have only spent, like, $30 on clothes here so far, which is reeeeally good for me, so maybe I will treat myself. :)

Sweet, Sweet Saturday

I am having a good Saturday and I had a great Friday. Things are really feeling good for me lately. :)

Last night, Olivia and I were going to go to the footie game at the G (the MCG, the Melbourne Cricket Ground. They like to shorten everything here, then shorten it again…) but we decided to be lazy and just get dinner at Queens and try to convince people to go out with us to Perseverance. Which turned out to be a great idea! We got Ray and Sara J to come with us. They both live on Olivia’s floor, and I really like both of them. We walked to Perseverance, which turned out to be kind of far to walk, but we had a really nice time there. Mostly we sat and chatted and got a couple jugs of beer to share. I had told Monika that I was going to Perseverance, and so she convinced Morgan to come with her and they came a little later. It was nice to just hang out. I had no plans or goals for the night, so there was no pressure to do anything specific.
On Friday night, it’s 90’s night at Perseverance (I think I mentioned that before) so of course we had to dance for a little while. We waited for Monika and Morgan to get there, because they like to dance, and then we pretty much went all out. Well, us Americans did. The Australian version of dancing “all out” is raising their hands above their head for a couple beats. But it was so packed and I was with 3 other American girls, so I didn’t feel quite so weird about dancing the way I like to dance. And there was no room for anyone to just stand and stare at us. It was nice. And they played fun music!

After dancing, Olivia and I went out back for some air, just to sit for a while. The outdoor part in the back is where the smokers hang out, though, but it can be easy to ignore if you’re at a bar. Then this guy approached us, and I wasn’t really sure what he was asking, because it was so loud, but I think he asked where he could buy a light. Or maybe if we need a light. I’m not too sure. But I told him we wouldn’t know where to buy a light (hoping that’s what he was asking) because we are American and don’t know any places around here, and then he went on to ask me all the typical stuff, like what I was doing in Australia, etc, etc. The things you always get asked when you tell people you're American. I was sitting, so he just asked to sit next to me. He explained he was visiting his “mum” (awwww! It was so cute the way he said “mum!”) who lives in Melbourne while his brother and sister were also visiting, but that his siblings brought him to Perseverance and then he lost them, haha.

We talked for a long time. We just talked about school, and differences here and in America, and he told me about New Zealand, which is where he is actually from and lives now, and how I should visit there. He told me to just go wherever I feel, because it’s more of a place to explore than tour or anything like that. He’s studying zoology in a university in New Zealand. He also told me about places to go in Australia, and he kept asking me why I chose Melbourne, because Melbourne certainly doesn’t have the best weather, haha. We also talked about interactions between men and women at bars and clubs, which was really interesting. He was extremely sincere when he told me that he doesn’t like to approach girls on the dancefloor, because usually only skeezballs do that so they can take random women home. He said he likes to talk to a girl and get to know her before asking to buy her a drink. At the time, I couldn’t tell of this was some sort of nice guy speech that he gives girls a lot, but looking back on it now, I think he was being sincere. He was also extremely polite, saying things like, “oh, I’ve been talking this whole time, you tell me what you think now” and things like that. We actually didn’t introduce ourselves until a few minutes into conversation, which was funny. His name was James. We also talked about our last names, because he asked me where I was from originally, meaning before my family came to America, and I told him I was French, and we started talking about last names. His is White, though, so that means almost nothing haha. Wow, now that I write all this out, we talked about so, so much. We must have been talking for a long time. We even talked about indoor heating! Haha, because he lives in New Zealand and I heard that they don’t use indoor heating there. Turns out they don’t. He said it was too expensive, and he just uses blankets if he needs to. I was amazed, haha.

Gradually, throughout our conversation, James put his hand on my knee and leaned in closer to me as we spoke. Then he took my hand. !!! WHAT. That’s not how these things go! I am much more used to guys pulling you in towards them and putting their hand on your booty before they try to drunkenly kiss you! Hand holding???
And that’s when I knew he was a keeper. Hahaha.
But really, James was the most polite, sweetest, easiest-to-talk-to person I had ever met at a bar. And he holds hand! It was crazy. He was also pretty cute. He was tall, he had reddish short hair, with some facial hair sort of forming a beard, but it was pretty short. He had pretty, clear eyes, green or blue, I can’t remember, and he dressed sort of … punk, I guess. That’s sort of the norm here, kind of alternative hip fashion. He was wearing a black leather jacket, which I later found out was really nice to touch. (In a hug, people! Don’t go getting any wrong ideas about me, feeling up his jacket or anything! Hahaha.) James was the first guy I’ve met that I actually considered kissing within meeting him that night. Like, really considering it.

But, sadly, my night ended abruptly. Olivia had been sitting with Sara J and Ray next to me (she told me later they were just sitting there talking about me and James and the fact that we were holding hands, haha! Losers. Just kidding. I really like those guys.) and they were all about ready to go, and they were talking to a couple other girls we know about leaving, so Olivia told me their plan to leave. I wanted to go with them, because I didn’t really want to find my way back alone because I’ve never done that before. But that would mean saying bye to James. :( I guess it was a good thing, though, since James was only here for the weekend, and I was sure I’d see him again. But I should have got his number! I could have called him when I visit New Zealand and he could have totally showed me around like a local! I am really upset that I didn’t ask for it. He didn’t ask for mine. :( But I told him I was going to leave with them, so he kissed my cheek, told me to have a great time while I’m here, gave me a hug and kissed my cheek again, and then he walked away. Siiiiiiggghhhhh. His leather jacket felt really smooth and cool to touch.

I should have got his number.

I don’t want to end a post on a sad note, so I’ll just say today has been very nice and restful, which is what I need. I had an AWESOME breakfast. They have these little mini pies and quiches, and by pies I mean meat pies, like pot pies back home. I think I had four, haha. They were delish. There was also eggs and bacon and … fried chicken. HAHA I was like, “are you guys for real???”

Oh, and I also tried Vegemite! YUUUUUUUUCK. It tastes like creepy, super strong soy sauce in spread form. It is SO weird. Mom, Dad, you guys have to try it when you come.

So after breakfast, I’ve just been doing some reading and then writing this. I’m going to go see about a bank check for the termination fee for UniLodge, and go get the rest of my stuff from my room there. That’s all I have planned. Oh, and Olivia and I are going to have a Veronica Mars marathon tonight. She got me hoooooked! It’s a really great show, as all my super smart friends whom I should really listen to when they tell me what to watch have told me. So yep, I’m just trying to get my strength back and relax. I don’t know if you can just tell through my writing, but I am really tired. I will post again when I have more news about anything at all, as usual! I love and miss everyone! Wish you guys could come experience this with me. Love love love!!!