Say goodbye to the dull school days, look alive and change your ways, IT'S SUMMER TIME!!!

SCHOOOOOOOOOOOOOL OUT FOR SUMMER! :-D Don't know if you can tell but i'm a LITTLE excited to be done! i gave my presentation and turned in my paper and i'm aaaaaall done. as of tuesday nov 25th @ 4:30pm i officially completed the 1st half of my masters degree! kinda crazy really. on thursday we (most of the americans and a few other students) went to des' house for our thanksgiving day fun. kate (actually lives in arlington now!) had a family tradition of running a mile turkey trot before dinner and thought it would be fun for us to get in on the exercise. her dad was VERY excited to have the run go international and we even got hooked up w/shirts! (see pics) the race went well, however the course was VERY confusing and some people got lost! they eventually found their way back, the 1st group ended up being dq'd cause they took a short cut and the 2nd group finished their mile in ~20mins. i was quite proud of myself for just running a mile (i finished 5th with a time of 9.35). if you know me @ all you know that i hate running, and the last time i had to run the mile in school i just walked. so it was pretty much my goal just to finish w/out walking :) we went back to the house hot a sweaty and drank and ate the day away. we had TONS of food and everyone was completely stuffed, in the typical thanksgiving fashion. it was a beautiful sunny day and we all sat outside on the porch, in a very atypical, but very aussie fashion ;)

on saturday i did some xmas shopping in the rocks. this area of sydney harbor is very famous and every weekend has a whole street lined with vendors. everything is very nice and very austrailan. i won't tell you what i bought because that would give away the xmas surprises!! i brought my roommate, sophie, with me and we had a great time shopping around. after we walked up george street (one of the big main streets in sydney), continued shopping and headed over to china town. she said i HAD to go there before going home. i don't know if it was a must, but it was quite cool. i can see why she would be so amazed with it, coming from france, but i'd def seen shops like that before :) we had dinner @ a taiwanese place and i ordered the beef and veggies noodles, sounds safe right? WRONG!!! it was SUPER spicy :'( i ate it anyway, but my mouth was on fire. on our way back to the bus stop we saw tons of flying foxes over head. i'd seen a few since i'd been here but NOTHING like this. they were all coming form the same area of town (i later heard that they migrate everyday from the botanical gardens to another park in town). it was REALLY cool, check out the video below if you can :)





sunday was a significantly better day (weather wise...one of the 1st in a LOOONG time) and i had a meeting @ bondi beach. i was interested in taking a photography class and met with the french photographer on bondi beach. i'd never been to the world famous bondi before and i was even more excited the weather was nice :) my chat w/marie was only a few mins and so i spent the rest of the morning on the beach. it couldn't have been a better day! around 1pm i got tired of being alone on the beach and headed back to town to meet up with hayley and her friend kat. we ate a quick lunch and headed to maroubra beach to meet up w/other friends. i'd never been to maroubra either and let me tell you, it's DEF worth going to. it's BEAUTIFUL! (see pics)

monday morning i met with christine, amanda, and amanda's friend hassan @ 5am! there is a coastal walk from coogee to bondi and we wanted to go and see the sunrise. let me tell you, that is something i'm GLAD i did before leaving. it was prob one of the best sunrises i've seen and the walk was very nice as well (see pics). after we arrived in bondi we had breky (aka breakfast) and went for a swim. at first we just jumped in the water right in front of our towles...then a local man told us that we couldn't swim there because we weren't between the flags! :-o we had committed the cardinal sin of swimming in oz!!! they're always reminding you to SWIM BETWEEN THE FLAGS!!! after we moved down amanda and i were in search for bigger and better waves to jump over and dive under. we were having tons of fun, and i felt just like a kid again :) after a while we turned around to look back to the beach and realized that all the people were very small! we decided we'd better move back in but all the waves were gone and it was really hard to swim!! eventually the waves helped us out and we made it back to shore, exhausted. here in oz they have a tv show called 'bondi resuce' and it's basically a local, more serious baywatch all abt the rescues on bondi beach. amanda and i joked that we were almost famous, and could have been on bondi rescue! but it wasn't really that serious ;) after we dried off we headed home...well everyone else went home, but i headed back to the beach!! as i'm sure you can tell i'm very excited to have 3 beaches w/in a hour of my house :-D it was another day spent relaxing on the beach.

tuesday and wednesday were STILL nice beach days so i began my quest for a whole week @ the beach :) all this beach time had really taken a tole on my sunscreen so i eventually had to buy a new bottle. apparently the aussies think that since SO many people go to the beach and need sunscreen they can charge whatever they want, which led to me paying $20 for a bottle of sunscreen!!!! wednesday night we went to the city to celebrate julien's birthday and we had a grand old time. thursday, after an afternoon on the beach, i went to my photography class. i've posted the pictures, but they are by request only because the theme of the photo shoot was 'ecole de l'erotique: femmes de casanova', so i'm sure you can understand why i don't think EVERYONE on the internet needs to see them.

today is friday, and it's looking a bit cloudy now but i'm optimistic that the weather will clear up and i'll get to go back to the beach :) now that i have NO school work to do, no one can fuss @ me abt studying and i have NO reason to feel guilty about enjoying the australian sun, sand and water!!! AND since i already mentioned the sunscreen, you don't have to worry abt me getting burned either :-P on a totally unrelated, non-beach note, i have FINALLY fixed my webacam!!!! so feel free to call me on skype sometimes and you can watch me sitting around talking to you, hahaha. miss everyone, and i hope you're enjoying the winter as much as i'm enjoying the beach!

So Close!!

g'day! how ya goin? nah, i'm just kidding, but if i hung out w/more aussies that's prob what i'd say. i actually think it's kinda funny that i haven't picked up any aussie slang, but that's due to my limited aussie exposure. if anything i'd be picking up canandian slang...but they don't really have any, hahaha. so it's monday afternoon and i was going to meet up w/ashley to work on our possum report (very last final paper @ unsw!!), but she said there was no point cause she didn't get much done. so i thought i'd be a good little traveler and update my blog...instead of waiting for another month to go by! sorry, i've been so bad @ this :-\

anyway, like i said i only have ONE paper left now. the big one. the possum paper. and it sucks cause everyone else is done w/their papers and finals and so i'm stuck @ home writing still while everyone else is partyin. guess all the free time during the semester has finally caught up w/me. it's not that difficult of a paper, but the literature review is the worst. i have to look @ scientific journals and write a summary of how aussies are managing the brushtail possum population...which they're not. so it's a tad difficult to write about, ha! my paper is due nov 25th and i have a presentation do to (w/ashley) on the 21st, so like i said, i'm so close!! everyone is gearing up for our big turkey day celebration @ des' w/the flemming family turkey trot before hand. kate (girl in my program who actually lives in ballston!?! small world, i know) has a family tradition to go to a park before thanksgiving dinner and have a mile race. she thought it would be fun if we all participated this year and brought the trot to a global scale! of course most of us hate to running, but we get free shirts for joining in the healthy exercise, so hey, why not! i thought that maybe when i get back i'll start making my family do a turkey trot...what do you say guys? ;)

that just about covers my future plans for november, and that leaves the whole month of december for whatever i want! :-D free time here i come! i was going to use the month to travel the country, but didn't really think traveling to big cities on the coast alone was such a good idea, so i'll be staying close to home. you know, enjoying the beaches of australia in december while everyone else is freezing :-P jealous?? i booked my plane ticket to NZ and i will be leaving jan 6th just in time to get to wellington for the peace festival. my friend amanda (in my program, originally from welli) has invited us to a peace festival near her house. it's a 3 day concert w/overnight camping. i'm picturing a NZ version of woodstock. of course when i mentioned that to another kiwi going she said "what's woodstock?" lol, guess that was only a crazy american thing! there's a bunch of bands playing, but of course i've never heard of any of them. here's the website if you wanna check it out. and don't worry, i promise to be good :)

http://www.parihaka.com/Festival/2009/Festival

oh, speaking of december, i have sent this message to my parents to spread to the fam, but in case you're outta the loop: PLEASE DO NOT SEND XMAS PRESENTS TO MY ADDRESS HERE. my landlady is really bad abt packages and unless i'm here during the day to get them who knows how long it might be before i actually get them. PLEASE!! i know you guys love me, and miss me, but i'd REALLY prefer to get them when i get home, it will be like a super deluxe welcome home :-D

okay, with that outta the way, on to what i've been up to:
*halloween- i def think i had the BEST costume @ the party. however, no one really knew who i was!! :'( i know if i was home EVERYONE would get it, but being here people thought i was greek, or a princess!! check out the pics, and see for yourself. but i thought i was dead on. ps you know you love my torch ;) and pps. thanks to julie and mimi/papa for the halloween cards :-*

*bat phd work- i went out twice to help caragh (pronounced car-uh). it wasn't very exciting work, but hopefully her research will help out w/bat conservation. we drove around the western suburbs of sydney and set up insect traps and anabats. there were 2 types of insect traps, the 1st was a light trap (bucket with a funnel on top and a light sitting in on the top. when the bugs fly to the light they fall into the bucket) and the 2nd was a intercept trap (2 wooden stakes with cellophane between the and trays below, when the bugs fly around they run into the cellophane and fall into the trays. the trays have alcohol in them which kills the bugs). she'll later be using these bugs to identify what the bats are eating (turns out no research has really been done on sydney bats! so no one knows what they eat!). my job was to help pull the bugs out of the alcohol w/a paint brush and put them into collection jars. the anabats is a little microphone recorder which collects the sonar the bats emit while searching for bugs. you're able to graph the sound and use it to identify the species of bat (each bat species has it's own sonar pattern). i didn't get to see any of the graphs, but i'm sure they're neat. so while my part of the research was strictly field help, i know it was for the greater good of the bats. while all our work was during the day, and i saw no bats, i did get to see a WILD bearded dragon and some wild kangaroos!

*bandicooting-on sunday, i woke up @ 4:30am to go to north head, just north of the sydney harbor. snoop, one of des' assistants, does work w/trapping bandicoots there, and needed some help. so from 5am-12pm we collected bandicoots from 7 transects setup all over the head land heath. heath is VERY dense (see pics), but the bandicoots are soo cute, so it's okay :) they're trying to figure out how the bandicoot populations are affected by construction in the area and make sure their numbers don't drop more than they already have. we caught several bandicoots, as well as brushtail possums and black rats. the possums we released (although it was difficult to get them out of the traps...they're very stubborn), but the black rats we had to kill. they're non-natives and are kicking out the native bush rats which have no where else to go and thus their populations are declining. we gave them a lethal injection of a barbiturate, which slows their heart down until they die. we had to take the bodies with us so no wild animals would eat them, because the dosage was high enough to kill whatever ate them! so...that meant we had a bag full of dead rats in the back of the truck...gross/smelly! after checking/resetting all the traps, we enjoyed the view and had coffee/hot chocolate in manly. i'd never been to manly before but the park we sat in was very beautiful, and i hear the beach is great. so it's def on my list of places to explore in december :)

that's been abt it. went out few times for birthday celebrations and such. and in case i'm the only one who's learned this lesson, let me impart my wisdom on you: do NOT let irishmen buy you mystery shots...cause they might be gin...and a shot of gin is VERY gross. i repeat DO NOT TAKE SHOTS OF GIN...EVER! bleh! okay, wisdom over. so that's been my life in october...check out my pics and maybe i'll talk to everyone soon!! :-D

sorry!!

hey everyone, sorry it's been so long since my last post. i know everyone's been dying to hear what i've been up to, but mostly it's been school work. i've really cut back on my going out on the weekends in hopes to save a little money. i did the math and if i had kept up my old ways i wouldn't have lasted til jan!! so, within the last month i: went to alice springs and uluru, had a job interview @ an ice cream place, went whale watching, went to canberra, and had 1 out of 3 of my huge papers due, on tuesday i will be helping a PhD student w/some research and on friday i'm going to a big halloween party! now i know that hasn't really told you anything abt what i've really been doing, so the details are below. if you would like to read then, be my guest. if not...well there isn't really anything i can do abt that, so just read them if you want :-P

*alice springs, uluru and the olgas-sep 29-oct 2:
this was my 1st flight since i'd been to oz and i was very excited to go traveling. as you know i'd been on a few little day trips here and there, but this was my 1st real trip. it was my spring break so i had all week off from school and wanted to make it worth my while. my flight left @ 8am, so i made sure to call the cab to get me to the airport w/plenty of time. there aren't any rules abt liquids here, but i still had no idea what to expect. little did i know that when i got to the airport i would be through security and to my gate w/in 5mins!! i didn't even have to take off my shoes! so...since i had plenty of time to kill waiting at my gate, i decided to finish my book. i'd been reading a daddy recommended book "in a sunburned country" all abt australia and it really gave me a good idea of what to expect. good job pops ;) so w/my book finished (don't worry i had planned ahead and gone TO THE LIBRARY!! to rent another one-"a brave new world") i just sat around the gate and looked out the window. once on the plane (i had a window seat :-D woohoo) i took a little nap, but was careful not to sleep the whole time (3 hr flight to get to central oz) cause i wanted to see the outback below. i struck up a little convo w/the father and daughter sitting next to me, and watched the red earth go by below. i tired to take some pics of it, but they aren't even close to portraying to the beautiful colors. once at the tiny airport, we unloaded at the tarmac and were welcomed by many cute little signs in different languages. it was hot, but even still wearing my jacket, i wasn't sweating. i got in a cab who drove me abt 15-20mins to my hotel...which was beautiful. even from the cab i could see that alice springs wasn't what you would call a fancy town. think, middle of no where southwest. they did have car dealerships and plenty of pubs, but there wasn't anything pretty abt it. once in my hotel i flipped through a few tv channels and went exploring in the town. there was a mall nearby that i could i would survey so i would know what stores to go to on wed (aka my day in alice springs). i had planned out my trip so i would have 2 days of travel, a day at uluru w/a tour group, and a day in alice springs. little did i know that the mall was a target and maybe 7 clothing stores, 5 souvenir shops, and 2 jewelry stores. so since that didn't really take up as much time as i had hoped i continued on my exploration of alice springs. there were many other people around, even in the hot afternoon, but i could tell they were all tourists as well. i made my way to the grocery store and bought some breakfast and dinner foods, so i wouldn't have to spend a ton of extra money at restaurants. i made my way back to my hotel and thought i would go sit by the pool. it was abt 5pm and the sun was hidden by the building side, so i just sat and started my new book. there was however, a bit of a commotion. 2 young boys, prob 11 and 15, were sitting in the hot tub (aka spa as they call it here), laughing and enjoying themselves, as brothers often do...when they're not fighting abt something. after abt 20mins they got out and went for a swim in the pool. a short while later a man and his young daughter, maybe 7 or 8, came down to enjoy the water. the little girl got in the spa, but was only in there for ~2mins...not even, before getting out and whispering something to her dad. he then walked over to the spa, looked @ something, and then angrily walked back. other people @ the pool were wondering what he was looking @...as was i, and he said that someone had pooed in the spa! he automatically blamed the 2 boys that were in it previously but they said that it wasn't them and they had just noticed and that's why they got out. the man didn't think that made any sense because his daughter had noticed the poo after only being in the spa for 2 mins, and the boys were in there for 20! accusations were made and the man started arguing w/the boys parents...and that was enough for me, it was too hard to read w/all the noise and since i couldn't get in the spa, i went back to my room. the tour i had arranged was going to pick me up @ 5:55am! so i called it an early night.

in the morning i boarded a freezing cold coach bus, and we drove around the town picking up other tourists from their hotels. we then started on our 3hr car ride to uluru. now, incase you're not up on your oz/aborigine politics, uluru used to be called ayre's rock. it is in central oz and the world's largest monolith (gigantic stone). if you've seen pics of a huge red rock from oz...that's the one. it was an all day tour...and when i say all day, i mean they picked me up at 6am and we weren't planning on returning until 2am. i slept most of the ride to the half way point, mount ebenezer, where we stopped at a small camping, restaurant, art gallery place. i bought some aboriginal art! :-D and got back on the bus so ride the rest of the way to uluru. on the way there we stopped at a look out hill to see lake amadeus. a HUGE salt lake in central oz, well it's supposed to be a lake, but the 5+ yr drought made it more of a salt flat. it was huge, but the thing i was more in love w/was the sand! it was beautiful!!! so fine and smooth, and the most amazing color. after a few more hrs of driving/sleeping, we arrived at the national park. turns out the aborigines own the land, because it's sacred to them, but the gov leases it from them so tourists can come visit. the olgas are a small grouping of monoliths, just like ayres rock, but aren't as famous because they are not one continuous monolith. the walked around them for a while and that's when it got really hot. it was the middle of the day...in the desert...in australia. i think it was almost 95oF (of course the aussie's would say the temp in Celsius...which i'm still trying to get used to). we went to the tourist center, and ate our bag lunches and then went to the rock!!! let me tell you, you really cannot tell how huge it really is until you're standing next to it. it's not huge in a tall way, but in a massive way. you really feel like it's a gigantic red boulder just sitting in the middle of the desert, solid and unmovable. you can still climb the rock, even though there are signs everywhere from the natives asking you not to climb out of respect, but that day it was closed cause it was too windy. apparently people have died trying to climb it! not people 100s of yrs ago...people maybe just 15 yrs ago. someone's hat blows off and they reach to grab it and oops, there they go off the edge. if you look @ my pics you can see the climb path...it looks scary and i'm almost glad that it was closed! we toured around the base of the rock, learning abt aboriginal legends and looking at old cave art (very cool). an hour or so before sunset we headed to the 'sunset viewing area', where all the tour buses gather to see if the rock will change to beautiful colors in the setting sun, and eat dinner. our tour guides prepared wonderful bangers (aka sausages) for us, and we sipped on wine and champagne in the setting desert sun. the rock didn't change any cool colors, but it was still a nice evening. we then jumped back on the bus...tired and slightly drunk, and started our way back to alice. again we stopped at mount ebenezer, and i bought sophie a bday present before continuing on our journey home. when i got back to my hotel room, the plan was to shower and get in bed asap. if you look @ my pics you'll see how red my skin got from the sand. taylor seemed to think the pic of my feet was to see how swollen they looked...but no taylor, that's just how feet look, thanks :-P

the next morning i woke up and headed to the alice springs reptile center. one of the highlights in the town, and known for it's salt water croc named terry. when i arrived and paid, they said that the out door area was closed, and i overheard a woman say something about the police. i peeked out the window but nothing look out of the ordinary, so i though maybe it was break time for the outside...who knows. i took my sweet time looking at all the snaked and lizards native to australia and worked on getting good pics of the zoo collection. since i didn't really have much else to do that day, i knew i should make it last. there were 2 rooms w/animals and a large room full of fossils where they were showing a movie. after slowly making my way around the room, taking up time reading all the captions and watching the entire movie, i asked the woman at the front desk when the outside would open again. she said it already had, so i made my way to the back. there were many cool reptiles outside, and terry was a big disappointment because he was mostly hidden, and there was still not sign of anything having gone wrong. i went back inside and watched the demo, where you got to hold some of the creatures. i took a few pics with a blue tongue lizard and held the shingle back lizard. then i'd seen about all i could see and started to leave. as i walked out the door i over heard a little boy telling the woman at the desk that he knew what happened...here's where it gets interesting.

boy-i know what happened
woman-what do you mean what happend?
boy-i know what happened with the crocodile.
woman-oh, what do you mean? (acting very suspicious) who told you that?
boy-i talked to sara, she told me about the boy and the crocodile and... (his mother covers his mouth)
woman-okay, that's enough. you don't need to be talking about that.

it was very strange, and i didn't find out until i got home what had happened. according to the news, a 7yr old boy had jumped the fence outside and killed several reptiles with rocks before feeding them to terry!! here's the news article if you want to read it. it's crazy! imagine being that boy's parents!!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7649876

i then walked around town and made my way up billy goat hill, which offered a view of the city, but wasn't really anything special. it was getting really hot and i was actually kind of bored, so i went back to my hotel to have lunch. i've been trying different types of aussie meats since i've been here and for lunch i had a camel wrap! i couldn't really tell what the meat tasted like because there were so many onions, but i'm sure it was just like beef. i went to my room, and took a nap...mostly because i didn't have anything else to do. when i woke up i went back out and made my way up anzac hill at the opposite end of town from billy goat hill. it was much nicer and had a small monument at the top (anzac stands for australian, new zealand, army corps and they're honored all over the country w/street names and museums). i did a little souvenir shopping and went home for the night. however, when i bought my food for the week i hadn't realized that there was no microwave, so i thaw my dinner i had to fill the sink w/hot water and wait...it wasn't very affective, but it kind of worked. that's abt as magiver as i get ;)

the next day i did a few last min things around town and hoped on the shuttle bus to the airport. on the way there, while i was reading my book, i noticed that i was almost done with it! now those of you that know me, know i'm not a reader. i had once been assigned to read 'brave new world' and was unable to finish it in time for the assignments and simply read the cliff's notes. i was really having a hard time understanding why i couldn't finish it before when after 3 days i was almost done. i searched all over the cover of the book to try to figure out what the deal was, and finally i saw that it was an abbreviated version!!! awesome. i had basically just wasted 3 days of reading a book, and i didn't even really read the book. abbreviated versions don't count! i went ahead and finished it anyway, but i was really disappointed :( on my plane ride home i talked to a guy abt cool places to visit in new zealand, but unfortunately i forgot all of them...oops. i had a terrible cab ride home which cost me $20 more than i expected and then had to walk up the street just to be able to pay my rent on time. bleh, what a way to end a great trip.

*job interview @ cold rock-oct 7:
not much to say abt this one, but i went for my interview and they asked me silly questions like 'do you like ice cream?' and said they would let me know by sunday if i got the job. on friday i get an email saying they are 'not continuing with my application'. apparently i was supposed to say i didn't like ice cream?? and it's an awesome booster that as a woman w/my masters i can't even get a job as an ice cream scooper! i can't wait to try to find a real job back in the states...THAT'LL be fun!

*whale watching-oct 9:
my class went out on a profession whale watching cruise in the sydney harbor. i'd never been whale watching before and i was really excited. we followed around a mother and baby humpback whale for a few hours and i got some good pics. the baby was breeching all over the place, and we also saw several common dolphins (much diff than bottlenose). you'll have to check out my pics, it was a beautiful day :) later that day i get an email abt my nz classes. before we start classes we got on 2 field trips to get data for a project that's due later that semester. originally i was told the trips would be in jan, so i told nathan to move his leave from june to feb, so he could come to nz for my bday! well...the email tells me that we will be gone most of feb. GREAT. i told nathan to see if he could move his leave again, but he said it's gonna be rough because he had a hard enough time changing it from june to feb, and not to change it to march...well we'll see what happens. i haven't heard anything yet :-\

*canberra, floriade, parliament, and the war memorial-oct 11:
the last day tour i had planned for myself was the canberra, the oz capital. after having seen so many state capitals in my days, i thought i needed to go see the official australian on too. i was a 3hr bus ride south, into the mountains and farm land. when the gov was trying to find an official capital melbourne and sydney fought, so they picked someplace in the middle so now one would win. hahaha, sounds like a mom solution to me! there was a huge flower festival there, called floriade. hundreds of people get together and plant flowers in pictures. the theme this year was 'movies that influenced australia', most of them i had never heard of but it was still beautiful. it was also kind of hard to see the images they created because you couldn't get a bird's eye view, so i mainly just enjoyed the pretty colors :) i did see a black swan family, they were so cute, mom and dad w/3 cute grey chicks :) we also visited parliament house where the oz government is. they have a house of rep and a senate just like the US, but they run everything like the British do. again, i'm not so in to politics, so i had little idea of how that all works, even after the tour. the last stop on our trip was the to the australian war memorial. i was just expecting a few plaques lying around and maybe some flowers left by family members, but it was really something. not only was there a beautiful memorial, but there was also a jam backed museum. i took a few cool pics, so check those out too. when they closed the memorial at sunset, they had a bagpipe player play and it was very beautiful. unfortunately the video i took got cut in half because i didn't have enough room on my memory card. so after i deleted some old pics i got the rest of the song. the first video is below if you want to watch it. then we headed on home.


*since then i've just been working on my papers like i said. the one i finished was about the management of the ground parrot. i know...super interesting right? the one i'm working on now is on the effects of international fishing on petrels in the southern hemisphere...again, super interesting. i watched all the prez debates and voted already, so no worries all you patriotic americans out there, i'm done my part :) everyone i meet here is very excited to see what will happen, and they all hope obama wins...and think he will. my french roommate had no doubts that he's already the winner...i'm not making any guesses and i'll have to wait until nov 5th to see what happens (and yes i know election day is nov 4, but that's nov 5th here ;) i'm so smart). the research i'm doing tomorrow is w/a PhD student who's studying bats here in sydney. originally i thought i would be helping her trap the bats and was really excited, but now i find out that we're just collecting insects :-\ not as exciting, but hey, experience is experience. the halloween party i'm going to on friday should be lots of fun, cause it's a bunch of international students from my program. aussie's don't really celebrate halloween, so we foreigners have got to get together and live it up! i'm going to the be the statue of liberty...but i haven't gotten my costume together yet! we're planning a thanksgiving dinner @ my prof's house, which should be fun, and we're doing a turkey trot 1mile run before hand...i'll let you know how it goes! what else...i've been going to the gym abt 3 times a week, and i don't feel much fitter...although i'm sure i am. i'm gettin good @ cooking kangaroo meat. and if you want anything for xmas send me your address :) that's all for now, and i'll try to be better abt posting once i'm done w/all my papers.

Short Recap-no annoying details

i've gotten some feed back on my blog posts, and it seems that most of you out there are very busy with your lives in the states. i understand that i write a lot (it just reflects on how much i talk ;) hahaha), but i felt it necessary to explain the details of my life here in sydney in hopes of my loved ones back home might feel connected to what i am up to. thus i will write a "non-detailed-ful" blog post, just for those of you that are too busy to read about all of my exciting adventures. and here we go:

aug 25-31:
*applied for jobs at 5 places, no responses :(
*went for a run! to the beach, left me w/VERY sore shins (i haven't run since then)
*had a birthday picnic for a friend at Bronte beach, it was very beautiful, but windy and cold
*attended my 1st rugby game (actually it was australian rules football...don't ask me the difference) we won, and it was fun/rainy, afterwords went out w/christine and frank and some of frank's irish friends (we went to a SUPER fancy bar, the fanciest i've ever been to, it wasn't very much fun, i was a 7th wheel)
*des set out our 1st set of traps (for the possums) at his house and his neighbors' houses

sep 1-7:
*caught one possum @ des', our 1st, and gave her a marker chip and an ear bunch
*went to cowan monday-wed w/ashley and snoop to trap possums and spotlight (shine a giant flashlight around in the trees @ night in hopes to see the possums' eyes reflecting back)
*went to a lecture des gave on the genetics of homosexuality, very interested, but we're not sure how reliable his sources are...?
*went to toranga zoo w/my class, it was rainy all day, but we still saw lots of cool animals. i never thought i would have spent all day there and we didn't even see everything!
*assignment #2 due, wrote about the sydney rock oyster and how it's harvest is affecting the populations
*sat night went out w/shannon, chris, some of chris' friends from back in the day, hayley, and the german guys to the argyle. it was cool (the outside looked like a castle and the inside looked like a cabin...i feel like nathan would love to live there) went to kings cross, and had a terrible time getting a cab :(

sep 8-14:
*went back to cowan (this time just ashley and i) to trap/spotlight
*got my 1st assignment back (cardinal pell letter) received an HD (high distinction aka A+) :-D
*bought a blender...i missed smoothies too much ;)
*purchased my tix to alice springs and tour to uluru (aka ayers rock, also on my list of "things to do"). i will be headed to the 'outback' sep 29-oct 2 (aka my spring break).
*sat was beautiful and i went to coogee beach for the 1st time
*sun was not as nice but i went on a trip to the blue mountains...in the rain. but luckily the weather cooperated and it didn't' rain while we were hiking around. the blue mountains are the site of the famous three sisters (a rock formation). it was also on my list of 'things to do while in australia' :)

sep 15-21:
*went back to cowan AGAIN (we thought we were done after 2 weeks, but snoop thought we should go back...) found out we had trapped almost 90% of the population and had our only 2 escapees. ashley got bitten (didn't break the skin, she's fine) and i got 2 ticks :( (i'm also fine...not lymes disease...that i know of! jk, i promise)
*applied for 2 more jobs, still haven't heard anything
*am still working on learning to cook. trying to find cheap fish to buy, but am unsuccessful.
*happy i get to talk to nathan @ least 1hr a night, if his internet is behaving :)
*bought a 3 month unigym membership ($143!) so now i have to start going everyday!! i went for the 1st time on friday. gym is small, crowded, and had stale sweaty air...i would NOT go to this gym if there was another choice. people wear whatever they want (ie street clothes) and there is not a wide variety of machines to use :(
*sat AND sun i went to the beach :-D i've been reading my book, 'in a sunburned country' which daddy lent to me, and i am almost done!! i bought '1984' from barnesandnoble.com with an old gift certificate (thanks julie!) the book=$9, shipping=$12!, crazy. hopefully it will arrive before i'm done w/this book. i can't go to the beach w/out a book to read!!
*because it is getting so warm we are finding cockroaches in our kitchen (only 2 so far) but i'm worried it will become a problem. apparently they will come even if we keep the place spotless, but i'd like to think ioanna (romain roommate) will use that as incentive to keep the place cleaner, but i'm sure she wont :(

today, sept 22:
*enjoyed a lazy morning and watch law and order
*came to campus to use the free internet and completed the assignment i have due sunday (an ethics application for a project we make up)
*updated my pictures/blog
*later i will go to the gym, get groceries, fix dinner, and relax in front of the tv
*i have 3 big papers to do for my classes, and 2 of them are due in 1 month!! yikes!

hope you've enjoyed my quick recap of what i've been up to for the last month or so. if you have questions or would like the details that go w/any of the above mentioned stories just email me :) thanks for reading!

for all those parents and grandparents out there...a 100% G rated post :-P

finally, what you've all (well, most of you i'm sure) been waiting for!! tales of my non-bar related adventures. i know my posts have been a bit "dodgy" (aussie for iffy, or questionable) at times, but i can safely say that the last 2 weeks have been filled with nothing but G rated Aussie-ness. Since my last post i completed a paper (my 1st real assignment as a grad student!!) and have observed some beautiful australian sights. today i am sitting outside on a campus bench in the beautiful sunshine and will tell you of all i have seen.

my paper was to be a letter to cardinal pell (archbishop of australia). he spoke at world youth day, commenting about how the western world's population of at risk and people should have more babies to maintain it's growth rate. my class was to respond to this in letter form and focus on how this action might affect the world on a global scale. i did not agree with cardinal pell, and personally felt he was more worried about increasing the number of catholics in the west, rather than the overall population. with the earth rapidly exceeding it's carrying capacity, i told the cardinal it would be a better idea to adopt children into good, catholic homes, and work on improving the morals of those already living on earth. (if you would like to ready my letter...don't feel bad if you say no, i prob wouldn't be too excited about it either...let me know and i will send you a copy, it is supposed to be an excessive in public advocacy, so i'm interested in seeing what a 'lay person' would say). that letter took up most of my week and weekend, but i did take a little break sat night. i met up with christine, hayley and frank to watch the end of the rugby game at frank's place. and we waited to hear from shannon and chris (who were at the rugby game) about a house party a friend of theirs was having. after the game was over and they were back home we went to their place for a few drinks about met up with paddy and dave (remember hayley's irish friends), and steve and dave (2 of frank's irish friends). please note that i am constantly surrounded by irshmen and canadians...i'm such a minority! hahaha. we then walked a few blocks in coogee to eva's house (it was her birthday) and split into 2 groups along the way. christine, frank, shannon and i (aka the slow ones) got a little separated from everyone else en route. a few blocks from where we were supposed to be, we saw that someone else was having a fun party and shannon and i decided to go make friends. we walked up to the house and started chatting away. i met a guy on the stairs and our conversation went like this:
me: hey what's goin on. is this eva's house?
him: no. how are you?
me: i'm good. how are you?
him: fine. are you canadian?
me: (very confused/amused) no hahaha i'm american, everyone keeps asking me that! i don't get it? do i sound canadian?
him: well i can't really tell the difference
me: well why do you think everyone keeps guessing candaian? i heard they get offended when you ask them if they're american so it's just safer to assume candadian.
him: well you smile alot...american's don't smile and candaians do.
me: really? i know lots of americans that smile all the time

that was about the time christine decided it was time to find our real party and shannon and i said goodbye to our new friends. when we arrived at eva's house we spent most of our time on the back patio talking to the people we came with, because everyone else was either really drunk or already knew everyone. there were also a few people in costumes (apparently 1/2 of them thought it was a costume party, and the other 1/2 didn't get the memo). there weren't many highlights worth mentioning from the party, and afterwards christine and frank walked me home (i later found out they got lost on their way home...lesson: don't follow a drunk irishman home). sunday night i finished my paper, and thus concluded my studious weekend.

on tuesday i received some great news. my student loans had cleared!! i finally had some money i didn't have to pay to spend! :-D i also found out that dodo aka my crappy Internet service, had refunded almost all of my money :-D (they only kept about $50). so with all this new money burning a hole in my pocket i headed to the mall. i didn't spend it on new clothes or anything fun like that, instead i bought ink, new proactiv stuff, a yoga mat, and some groceries. on wednesday i started getting ready for my big trip. my austrlasain mammals class was going on a camping trip to the cowan field station thursday night. since i didn't come to aus. with camping gear i had to go buy a sleeping bag. it was supposed to rain thrusday night and i was worried about freezing, but i decided to save a few bucks get a cheap sleeping bag and wear lots of clothes to bed.

thrusday was a great day. we arrived at cowan around 9:30am via train, after getting up at 6am! (i def don't miss being up that early, but i DO miss cheering, esp after seeing the olympics and watching football movies on tv) it was a cool morning but once we were moving around it got warmer. our 1st task was to catch tammar wallabies with nets. we were instructed on the best method, but it was REALLY hard. i ended up being last to attempt a capture, but i was unsuccessful. we didn't want to keep trying because the wallabies were getting stressed out. it's very dangerous to get wallabies and kangaroos stressed because once they reach a certain point they can die with in an hour. the wallabies start to lick their arms and bellies to try to cool off, so when we saw them getting "wet" we let the pros handle it. we placed each trapped wallaby in a burlap sack and tied it shut. our next task was to examine each wallaby. we had to hold them (in the sack) between our thighs, reach into the bag and cover their eyes. if they see day light they will try to escape. once their eyes were covered (which most of them hated, but they don't usually bite, so that was good) we lifted their heads out of the bag and examined their ears and jaw. we then flipped them over on their backs, and examined their feet, tail, and pouch while their heads were hidden in the bag. i did have a female wallaby to examine, but she did not have any pouch young. other groups did have joeys (look @ my new pics!) and it was really exciting to see. we had a lunch, watched 2 female red kangaroos be released after examinations (again, see pics), watched the grey kangaroos get fed (pics), set up our tents, and went for a walk around the station. we had a bbq dinner and made a camp fire. now many of you know i have years of camping experience. however though out my many years of camping i had very few opportunities to use my fire building skills, so i decided now was my chance to prove to myself i could do it/show off a little. after all, not every girl knows how to build a fire. after only two lighting attempts my fire was up and blazing. :-D i was very proud and everyone seemed equally impressed. after dinner and a few drinks (after all, what's a UNSW bio event with out drinking?!) we went spotlighting. i was in james' group and he walked us around with a huge high powered flashlight scanning the trees. the idea is that if there is a nocturnal animal around it's eyes will shine back in the light. we were able to see a few possums, which was pretty neat, but after seeing 5 it's novelty wore off. we later attempted to play a few callbacks (sounds played over a megaphone to try to get animals in the area to call back), but it was unsuccessful. turns out everyone's "few" drinks were not quite so few, and it was rather difficult for everyone to stay quite. we re tuned back to the camp fire and played a few rounds of charades, told a few jokes, and tried to think of games we could all play. i thought the group how to play maffia, and all my patahontas memories came flooding back. it's amazing that it's easier to get a group of 20 13year olds to focus compared to the group of 21 drunk 20 something grad students. i attempted to teach a few other games too, but it was pretty useless. later in the evening, when i went to crawl into my tent, i saw that there was no room letf for me :'( i thought i would have to resort to sleeping just outside the tent on our "porch" (see the pics), but it all worked out because amanda and christine had and extra space in their tent. which was quite lucky because around 4am it started to rain and the temp dropped about 10 degrees. in the morning we were supposed to go catch wallabies again, but since it was raining it didn't really work out. a park ranger came to talk to us, and we watched james and snoop show us a black footed rock wallaby and a potaroo, and had lunch. the rain was on and off all day, so we didn't really do much. when i got back home i planned to shower, eat dinner and go to bed asap...however i had no hot water :'( i made myself a HUGE batch of alphabet soup sans alphabets :( watched a little tv and went to bed early. i knew i had to get up early again on saturday.

earlier in the week i purchased a ticket to go on a tour of the royal national park. we had to meet on campus @ 7:45am which meant i would have to get up @ 6am...again. our tour was amazing. our guide angie took us to the park where we canoed for 2 hrs, walked along the gusty cliffs, saw amazing views of the beach, and hiked along a waterfall. we also "learned" how to through a boomerang. i was NOT very successful, however i did manage to knock down the other tour guide with my amazingly terrible aim (boomerangs used to be used for hunting kangaroos...i was just practicing hehehe). i took TONS of pics during the whole trip so make sure the check them out...it was truly beautiful, however i was having trouble getting my camera to do what i wanted, so if the color is off, just use your imagination. when i got home i finally took that warm shower, ate dinner and again went to bed early. i was exhausted! and there was a good possibility i was going to have to get up early AGAIN!

i had signed myself up for a 2nd tour from spit bridge to the manly beaches. which are said to be some of sydney's most beautiful. it also included a 2-3hrs hike through the bush, and a ferry ride back to circular quay. we were too meet in town @ 9:20am...but when my alarm went off @ 7am...i knew it wasn't going to happen. i'll just have to take my own trip through manly some other time. when i'm not still recovering from other adventures :)

and that ladies and gentleman pretty much catches us up with my life. i hope you're proud :) a full 2 weeks filled with studying, education, and sightseeing. i know i'm hear for more than the sydney night life :-P (well the bar life...cause i will be doing my project on possums...which technically are night life ;) as soon as i start w/that i'll be keeping you posted as well).

**once again i have added new photos. sorry for all the confusion from before, but now that we've got all the kinks worked out i hope everyone will enjoy them. since there are so many i will try to upload them in groups, but sometimes it takes a while. 1st up will be my pics of cowan.

love hate relationship

the honeymoon is officially over. the rose colored glasses are finally off, and i am now seeing sydney for what it really is. don't get me wrong! i still like it "heaps" (aussie speak for a lot, or any large amount), but i AM noticing things i do NOT like. as i give you the highlights of the last week or so, see if you can find them from now on.

my last post left me even more penny-less (or 5cent less, because they don't have pennies here, they just round everything up to the nearest 5cents, a loaf of bread costing $4.91 would then cost you $5...hint hint for all those playing the "find things trystan hates" game, that's not a +), but glad i had found internet service for my house. it was to arrive on tuesday. friday i had my "formal" meeting with des about our research projects. everyone from the class, which is only 6 girls, met up with des, and one of his assistants, andrew aka snoop (i asked him why they called him snoop and he had no idea...weird), to talk about which projects everyone was going to be working on. it was a VERY casual meeting, which consisted of 5 min conversations about each person's project, 2 bottles of white wine, and a bunch of bs'ing about random semi-science related topics. not a bad way to start the weekend if you ask me :) i "rang" (aussie for called) shannon and chris to see what they were up to that coming weekend, and found out it was shannon's bday on sunday. chris, being a sweet bf, had bought tickets for he and shannon to go see phantom of the opera (i was immediately jealous for 2 reasons, 1 my bf wasn't there to hang out w/me :( and 2 I WANT TO SEE THE PHANTOM IN SYDNEY! how cool!) they said they might go out to an ISS event in coogee when they got home, and they'd call me. so i sat around on the sofa watching law&order until 11ish when chris called. he said the party in coogee was no good and they were going to bed. we did however make plans to go out for shannon's bday saturday night.

earlier in the week my romanian roommate ioanna (pronounced yo-ahna), had said she and her friends wanted an excuse for a house party so they had decided to "welcome" me to sydney. they were all going to come over sat night around 7, which i was a little iffy about because i would have rather spent the night w/people i knew. i decided i would stay @ home for a few hours, then meet shannon and chris when they were going out to the bar. i was still in search of a cheap printer, so i headed to bondi junction (HUGE mall in bondi). there, i wondered around looking at all the different stores they had, and bough shannon a small bday/house warming gift, and found a store with the best printer i could find. it happened to be the post office! (they have post offices everywhere). they also had a pet store in the mall...with puppies in the window! just like the song! it was horrible! i had NEVER seen a pet store window with puppies before, and i immediately wanted to buy them all! how sad for those cute little puppies :( i thought that had gone out in the 50's with soda shops or something. and really, who just walks out of the mall with a dog? go in for a sweater and new shoes, walk out with a dog? weird. since i had never been to bondi before i was a little unsure about which buses when were. i THOUGHT i had gotten on the same bus i took there, but i did not. i told the bus driver when i got on that i needed to go to carrington and carr, and asked if he could let me know when we were there. he did let me know when we were on the last stop on carr st...which was nowhere near where i needed to be. since i was now lost somewhere near my house i figured i'd just star walking up hill (my house is at the top of a hill, almost the highest point in the area). after a few wrong turns, and reorientation via the semi-familiar skyline of the city i found a park. there IS a park "near" my house, so i was on the right track. however, it was dark, i was only half sure of where i was, and i could hear voices coming from the pick black park. trying to stay calm and keep an ear on the voices and an eye on the guy walking behind me on his cell phone, i finally made it back to my street unharmed. ::sigh of relief::

ioanna's friends were mostly people from work, all of whom already knew each other, which made the evening a little awkward for me. however, there were 2 other americans there from springfield va! they were originally from chicago and had gone to college @ university of wisconson! (small world!) ioanna and her bf jeff, made fish and prawns for dinner, as well as steamed veggies and a salad. all our guests brought appetizers and drinks and it was quite a feast (a few things to note...amazing things to note, if you don't think it's amazing you don't know me very well :-P 1 the 2 americans brought small baguette slices with oil, tomatoes, and scallions on them...DELICIOUS...try not to pass out yet, but they were really great. i'm getting the recipe later. and an even bigger kicker, 2 ioanna made a sort of guacamole dip with avocado, feta, and ricotta...also DELICIOUS! i don't know who this new trystan is, but apparently she likes tomato bread and avocado cheese!!) over all the food was great, the company mediocre, but it was time to party!

shannon had said that i could invite whomever i wanted to join (ashley and liz were the only takers) and we were meeting at the beach palace @ 9pm. around 9:30 i walked to coogee (i missed the bus...sometimes there are SO frequent you get 5 buses @ once, then sometimes you have 1hr btwn buses...grr). shannon and chris' friend paul was visiting, and they had made some new friends: frank, irish; steve, aussie; and hailey, canadian (she lives w/christine! again small world...all the white kids have found each other and have made their own little clique...like the asian kids in high school, but in reverse. we walk around speaking english and have family guy on our binders...lol. jk...kinda). after a few glasses of wine from shannon's purse, we headed upstairs where there was loud music, drunken dancers, and sticky carpeted floors (fyi NEVER put carpet in a night club...i was scared i was going to loose my shoes!) we wondered around most of the evening, a little dancing here, a few random shots there. met a few random people waiting in "que" (aussie for line) at the bar.

guy #1, the polite guy: very nice. started a conversation with me about sydney. if i was liking it, where i was from. then he asked me if i was here alone. i said no, i had come w/my friends for shannon's bday. he said he did not want to offend any boyfriend/significant other, and i told him i DID in fact have a bf was in iraq in the US army. he said that he didn't want to intrude, and said goodnight...which wasn't really goodnight. BUT i thought i was very polite of him to ask if i was "taken". after the 2 guys i met last weekend it was a nice change of pace. later i saw him again and he offered to buy me a drink. **side note: i've been on a mission to have a random guy buy me a drink @ a bar. it know it's crazy, but it just doesn't happen to me** i agreed and we walked to the bar, the "que" was quite long so when 2 guys with a tray of coronas walked past he grabbed one for me. the 1st guy was disapproving, but his friend said it was fine. i asked "polite guy" if he knew them, but he said he didn't. even cooler! i just had a guy @ a bar steal me a drink! :-D he said he didn't want to be pushy, since i had a bf, he just wanted me to have a good night, and he'd be back to get me another drink when i was done with that one. he didn't come back, which was fine with me.

guy #2, steve...the "gentleman": our new friend steve, was the only local we'd met so far. he was frank's roommate and had his arm in a sling. i'm sure he was quite drunk that night because he introduced himself to me several times throughout the night. i later asked him what had happened to his arm and he led me over to the sofas, presumably so we could hear each other better. we sat down and he started telling me about his gf, who was in the army and that they were doing the long distance thing. she understood that he was going to "do his thing" and she was going to do hers. i told him i was in a similar situation, with my bf in the army as well. he asked me if i had met anyone nice in sydney and i told him about the 2 kiss attempts i had gotten last weekend. he was appalled and hold me he'd show me how an australian gentleman said hello to a pretty girl. i was thinking i'd get a simple kiss on the hand or cheek...but that was not the case. he started slowly leaning in...me:still hoping he'll turn for my cheek @ the last second...but he didn't...and he kissed me. immediately i said "HOW IS THAT YOU BEING A GENTLEMAN! YOU JUST TOLD ME YOU HAD A GF, AND I TOLD YOU I HAD A BF! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" he drunkenly apologized and said "oh, sorry, let's still be friends, i don't want this to be weird, let's just keep it @ just once" i cautiously agreed to brush it under the rug...then he leans in again! i backed up "steve! you said just once!" "ya...just once" "no...that was the just once...that's all you get" "oh...that didn't count, i thought we meant just once more" "no!! once is once!" he mumbled something about how he was sorry, fell off the sofa a little, then started talking to some other girls, so i left. that was enough for me!

guy #3, the technology guy: after dancing a while with ashley and liz...guy #3 showed up. he dragged me out to dance...awkwardly. and i tried to make the best of it. he smelled a little, and was w/his 3 friends, one of whom was a priest who the forced out to "meet people". we danced for a while and when he had to go he asked for my #. i told him it was a brand new phone and i didn't know what it was yet (very true). he said "i'll give you my number and you can call me and then i'll have it. i told him my phone was dead and i couldn't call anyone (not so true). he then insisted that i must know my email address and that he really wanted to show me around the city so we had to talk through email. he gave me his (which i convinently lost...) and i gave him "mine" which also conveniently was catherine's email (sorry cath! i figured out of all the email addressed i knew you'd be the most understanding ;) love you).

after all that excitement liz, ashely and i left the bar and called it a night.

the saga of my crappy internet:
on monday my dodo internet arrived. i was VERY excited because it was a day early :-D i called to get it activated which would take 15min-24hrs (quite a range!) i tried it though out the day, but it didn't work. when i woke up on tuesday, it still wasn't working so i called their tech support. i spent several hrs on the phone (my phone actually ran out of money...they charge cell phones by $ and then charge you accordingly to the different phone calls you make...sucks). i recharged my phone and then called on the house phone the next day. again i spent several hours on the phone with an overly friendly tech support guy (he kept saying creepy things like, you have a nice accent, where are you from, what did you do this weekend, where do you go to school, just really inappropriate). after 2hrs he suggested i take my computer to a computer store and have them help me. which told me that he couldn't do anything else to fix the problem. it was either an issue with my computer, or the modem. he said if i had an other computer i could just use that one...like i've got a spare computer! that's buddy, real helpful. he said he wanted to make sure the problem had been fixed and wanted to call me later. but after the creepy comments he'd been making i said i didn't want him to. on thursday i brought my computer to IT services @ school. it was free, and i figured they would be more understanding. after 2.5hrs of trying to get the service to work, i gave up. i gave it until 2:30pm and if it wasn't working by then, it wasn't worth the hassle, and i didn't want to give a bad company my money. i would just return it and get my money back...or so i thought. went i called them on friday to demand a refund they said they would have to check the modem first to make sure it was a problem w/my computer, ie. not their fault. and they could only refund me for the modem, not the delivery fee, and not my monthly service charge, and if there was no problem w/the modem i could only get partly refunded. i was furious!! i had not used a second of their service and i saw NO reason why i shouldn't get a full refund! i was VERY short with the woman on the phone who then said "we can go around in circles like this all day but you'll just have to accept that there is nothing we can do. you'll just have to send the modem back and maybe we can give you a little money" !!ahh!! (there weren't words for how i was feeling...or at least no appropriate ones). i mailed it back today, but who knows if i'll ever see any of the money again.

other random updates:
on wednesday my class took a trip to the fish market. one of our assignments in my conservation biology class we are to pick a marine organism sold at the sydney fish market and write about how the fishing industry has affected it (positively or negatively). we were supposed to meet des @ the front gate @ 8am. since the fish market is downtown and i have never been there before i made plans to meet ashley so that she could help me get there. i woke up at 6am so that i could meet her for the 7:10am bus and then we'd walk to the market. unfortunately i was ahead (ahem...please note i was ON TIME) and got on the bus before ashely. i did meet up w/her and jess later on after i got off the bus. from the bus stop we walked for 15-20mins to the fish market after briefly getting lost. we arrived @ the fish market around 9:30am. luckily we had des' phone number so we were able to meet with him. the fish market wasn't really anything i had never seen before, having been to quite a few in my day. we walked around taking pictures mostly and then des was nice enough to buy us some delicious prawns and "french sticks" (aussie for baguette...or maybe just des speak). it wasn't the most amazing thing i've done since i've been here, but i thought it was worth mentioning.

friday night shannon had rounded up hailey, christine and myself for a little "girls' night out". chris was out of town and she thought it would be fun to all go out to dinner. we met up at five o's which is in coogee and serves great food for very cheap. while at dinner hailey's 2 french friends julian and (guy whose name i don't remember...) sat with us for a few drinks, then we all went over to shannon's new apartment (which is beautiful might i add. hard wood floors and an AMAZING view of coogee beach...i'm VERY jealous). we sat around having a few more drinks (eventually frank came to join us. he mentioned that steve was "scared" because of what had happened last weekend and frank told him my bf was in the special forces. hehehe) and for at least an hour i tried to explain to 2 canadians, 2 frenchmen, and one irishman every detail of greek life @ CNU and why on earth you'd ever want to be part of a sorority. i felt like i was back @ recruitment! i really didn't mind, but it was a very difficult concept to explain to people who had never seen greek life before. when we discovered it was already 12am we hushed out the door to head for town so we didn't miss all the fun for the night. the next bus didn't leave until 12:56am and we didn't want to miss another hour of excitement so we bid adieu to the 2 frenchies (who didn't bring any ID's with them) and headed for argyle (a cool bar downtown) via cab. when we arrived and were next to enter, i realized that I had forgotten my ID too!! :'( the bouncers were VERY strict and would NOT let us in :'( i was worried i had ruined the whole night! we devised a plan for me to use hailey's birth certificate and old school ID to try to get in to the next bar (btw...i look nothing like hailey so this plan was very shaky). the next bar did not require ID but they were also closing in a few mins. a few phone calls were made and we then had plans to meet up with dave and paddy (2 of hailey's irish friends...i know...an irish guy named paddy...but it's really his name!) who had also forgotten their ID's. shannon really felt like having a crazy evening and wanted to go to king's cross (remember...that is where my 1st hotel was) to some of the strip clubs or gay bars or drag bars or any crazy bar. next thing i knew we were on our way to the gaff bar. when we walked in (again they didn't check our ID's) there was LOUD techno music playing and almost everyone was in a crazy costume! i vowed that i was NOT going to let anyone kiss me that night, and actually had to dodge a guy giving out cheek kisses @ the door. it was quite the experience. after trying to enjoy dancing w/out being on drugs (it appeared that was only way these people could have been having fun) we eventually ended up just standing around watching a man dressed in a puppy costume "dance" on the bar. shannon made the comment that "you go out thinking you'll miss the single life, but after seeing how crazy it is you can't wait to go back to your boyfriend". i couldn't have agreed more. shannon and christine said that i should go dance on the bar because i was a cheerleader and had the experience of dancing in front of a crowd. THEN a guy (we assumed he was a bouncer) grabs my hand and starts leading me toward the bar! the girls swore they didn't say anything to him but i was sure they had suggested he get me to dance up there. i was so embarrassed but was up for the challenge. suddenly, i look over and the guy (obviously NOT a bouncer) was NOT leading me on stage but was trying to lead my had toward the "puppy's" crotch!!!!! i pulled back and ran away to my friends. they were just as shocked as i was! (well shocked and laughing hysterically...i didn't know what to do). we thought that seemed like a good cue to leave, so we walked up the street to the next gay bar. it was getting really late by then and there weren't many people around, but we continued to drink and socialize. around 4am we realized that the bar sucked and was bad, gay bar or not and christine, shannon, frank and i headed for home. we had the cab driver take shannon home but drop christine, frank and i off @ a "petrol" (aussie for gas) station so she could get some chocolate. they were closed...even though they were supposed to be open 24hrs (we suspected the guy on duty was sleeping somewhere), and frank and christine walked me home. i tried to warn them about the large hills involved, but like good friends they didn't mind :) i attempted a little bit of homework on saturday night, but the library closed @ 6pm leaving me to sit outside in the cold and work until my fingers were too frozen to type well anymore. i watched a few movies on tv with my french roommate sophie (she's become a GREAT tv buddy) and went to bed.

today (monday) i met with ashely to do the outline for our conservation project (we ended up w/the possum trapping gig), and look for suitable internet. it's looking like iiNet will be my best choice, which sophie agreed to share with me. now i have to do is find a modem/router cheaper than the ones they are offering @ $200...there's gotta be something better!

ps. i have also, finally, added my pictures! there were too many to add to my old photo page (which still had pics from the summer/before) so i have a new one. i'll be adding them as often as i can :) ENJOY!

Cold and Rainy :(

**thanks for all the comments on my posts. i hope i'll be able to live up to the standards i've created for myself. i had no idea my fan base like my story telling so much lol :) enjoy!**



:( i know i laughed when people said i'd need a scarf in sydney, but it IS cold. yesterday and today have been freezing, rainy, and windy...and it sucks. this weekend was nice though. friday morning i moved into my new apartment. it was pouring outside and it took me forever to catch a cab so my bags and i were soaking wet. i had a small bag with food in it, but the milk carton i had got a hole in it, so i also got milk all over everything. when i arrived no one was there except the cleaning lady, dell. she comes once a week on friday mornings. i was actually surprised how everything fit into my small wardrobe, especially because it weighed so much. (i promise the pics are coming as soon as i get internet in my house). i then trecked over to campus to attend a part time work seminar. i think 98% of the other students there were asian...i felt a little out of place. it's actually like that everywhere. i can to australia to be around aussies, but there are more asian people than i've ever seen! i am DEFINITELY the minority. speaking of which, it's kinda weird to not have any black people here...makes me kinda miss home more oddly enough. so the seminar was a waste of time...maybe if i'd been a freshman who'd never worked a day in my life i would have gotten more out of it. the speaker (also asian) said "so obviously everyone here speaks another language, which is good. that gives you an advantage over those ausustralians who don't"...great. now i'm feeling even more outta place :( i did see chris there and he agreed that the seminar was the same info we'd heard over and over again. there was going to be a big uni sponsored pub crawl down town later that night and we were all going to go, but we decided it would really suck to do it all in the rain. i ran a few errands, got lunch, and then went home. i was still trying to get used to my new place and getting my room just the way i wanted most of the early evening. i took a shower and gave chris and shannon a call. shannon had been to a business department meeting and had met a few friends there, they all decided that we would just call someone on the pub crawl and meet up with them when we were ready. chris was still in coogee (near me) so we decided to meet up and take the bus to campus together. it was still kinda rainy outside, but i hadn't been out to the city yet so i HAD to go. the bus near me was being really slow so i walked up the street to meet with chris. then the next bus was being slow...poor shannon kept calling us to find out where we were. i can imagine all her friends saying "where are they? can we go yet? i thought they were on their way?" yuck, what an awful situation to be in. eventually chris and i made it to the unibar, where shannon and her friends (2 german guys toby and dennis, a swedish guy matteis, and a columbian girl maria) were waiting. the unibar had closed early that night (7pm!) because there was a "big" concert playing next door. they said they heard the band warming up and the were terrible (glad i didn't get tickets!) we hopped on the bus toward circular quay (downtown) and decided once we were in town we'd get some quick food then head to the pub crawl. when we got downtown all the cheap eats were either packed full or closed. so we ended up going to a pizza place, when i walked in we though we were getting a good deal, but then the menu showed $20 for a small pepperoni pizza!!! yikes! i really did have a ton of $ with me so i had water and a pear and goat cheese salad, it was good, but obviously as a growin girl ;) i was still hungry. we then called up our connection and went to jacksons on george. it was a 4 layer bar with sports on the 1st floor, dancing on the 2nd, and pool on the 3rd (i never actually saw a 4th floor, but it was advertised on the front of the building..?) the 1st floor wasn't really the scene we were looking for so we went to the 2nd...which was REALLY loud. it seemed we all needed to "feel out" the night a little more and kinda ease into it, so we went up to the 3rd floor to drink and talk for a while. didn't really have anything eventful happen while we were talking but i DID meet a crazy/drunk scottish guy @ the bar. we starting chatting and he made me PROMISE i'd go to scotland someday. he was really hilarious. we then decided we were ready for some dancing and went back to the 2nd floor. but since we didn't really know each other all that well we didn't exactly jump right onto the dance floor...it was more of us just standing around watching everyone else and being wall flowers. there was this one guy out there, the red shirt guy, he was great. he wasn't from UNSW, you could tell, but he was out there having the time of his life. dancing all over, not a care in the world. he was pretty good too. i was really enjoying watching him, but then he noticed me. he came over and said "you're not allowed to laugh at me when you're not even out here dancing!" i tried to explain to him that i was just enjoying watching him and that i didn't think i could keep up with his excellent dance moves, but i don't know if he believed me and made me come dance with him. i did my best, and he claimed he "couldn't keep up with me", but i'm not sure if that was true. he said he and his friends were visiting from the gold coast (north of new south wales) and were about to go to a "real bar" and wanted me to phone my friends later to tell them i was alright. they said that they were worried why chris, (or mr incredible, as they called him) kept watching me. i told them if i went anywhere i'd have to bring them along. then as he went to leave he went of the kiss. i thought i was a kiss on the cheek so i turned, then he looked upset, grabbed both sides of my head and went right for my lips!! eww. i quickly pulled away and said "no no no no no" and many times as it took for him to move away. that was a close one!! apparently here if you dance with a guy he can kiss you...not very subtle. then shannon and i had some fun dancing with the nerdy group of guys from UNSW, but most of them had no idea why we were over there and made no attempt to dance back. later, a guy from england came over and tried to offer me a drink, but i was having fun dancing with shannon and politely refused and then HE went for the kiss! he again grabbed both sides of my head and went for it! since i had just practiced my kissing refusal act i was quite shocked i had to use it again so soon! (i'd just like to say for the record that NO random guy in a bar/club at home has EVER tried to kiss me...EVER). i was 2/2 for the night and that was enough for me. chris, shannon and i decided it was time to leave. saturday morning, still no sign of my roommates, i woke up and go ready to go to the central train station. des cooper, the head of my conservation bio program was having a bbq at the "cowan field station", which i assumed was in cowan. i got on the bus, to the station, bought a train ticket (such a city girl i'm becoming...lol...not really) and waiting on platform 9. the train didn't leave for another 45mins so i called christine to tell her i'd be late. BUT when i talked to her she said the bbq wasn't until SUNDAY...not today!! luckily they let me return my ticket. and i'm just glad i hadn't gotten on the train yet! since i was already downtown and i didn't really get to sight see the night before i decided to do some touristy stuff. i walked all over the city and saw some great buildings (again pics as soon as i get my internet) and even went to the "mall". prices on things here are quite insane, but i did manage to get a bargain on a $30 pair of jeans. now i'm sure you're thinking...trystan, doesn't she have a million pairs of jeans? well it's true i do have quite a few pairs, BUT i've managed to rip holes in 2 pairs since i've been here. :( one pair is still wearable, but i def needed a new pair. i walked to the water and took tons of pictures of the opera house (be patient...they'll get here soon enough. you can use your imagination for now), the harbor bridge and the street performers. when i started getting dark i headed home and finally met my roommates! sophie, french, is working for a lawyer downtown and ioana (pronounced eeohnah), romanian, is getting her phD in ecomonics. they both seem nice, quite, and apparently they aren't home much. which is fine with me, because i'm so close to lots of great things, as well as my new friends :) sunday i finally made it to the bbq (after going to the wrong train station...i went one too far and had to get back on the train and turn around!). it was out in the middle of nowhere and beautiful. it's a field research station with TONS of kangaroos and wallabies they use for studies. we were all super excited to see them, because as americans, macropods (the scientific term for kangaroos and wallabies) are very new :) for lunch we ate kangaroo and emu (VERY delicious, but a little funny that we were just excited to see the kangaroos and then we ate them!) here in australia kangaroos are like deer and to help control the populations people are allowed to hunt them. they taste very similar to venison meat, but it was kinda hard to tell exactly what the taste was because of the delicious marinade. we sat around talking about everything and anything...freezing. NO one expected it to get that cold while we were gone, and NO one expected to be out until 5pm! (our bbq started around 12pm). i still hadn't gone grocery shopping since i moved into my new place and peanut butter toast was getting a little old. it had started raining while we were on the train so it was even more of a chore to get some food, but...it's kinda important. i ran into the cole's near my house and just got 2 cans of soup and some milk. the aussies are very "green" so everyone carries around little cloth bags for their groceries and NO one has plastic. i decided i'd give in the the "green" movement (damn hippies...lol jk) and buy one. i got the bus back to my house and enjoyed my "warm" evening of soup and tv (private practice and lipstick jungle...pp was pretty good, but i don't know how i feel about lp...sex and the city is way better). yesterday i finally had my meeting with des about my research project. instead of electives i've decided to do a mini-thesis project which i would do with a partner. ashley (from fargo) still didn't have a project either so des suggested we work it out together. he gave us a few ideas:



a) trap brush tailed possums and put tracking collars on them. (cool, but they are pretty vicious so i hear)

b) help some lady named kathy take blood samples from the tammar wallaby. (she's studying the transfer of kennal cough from dogs to wallabies...my personal fav so far)

c) watch/monitor the behaviour of the grey kangaroos (cool, but it's usualy pretty boring to just watching the animals and write down what they're doing every 5 mins. i did that @ the zoo with the kiwi and it was pretty much like this: 0700-sleeping 0705-sleeping 0710-sleeping 0715-sleeping...you get the idea. the whole 3 months i did that project i saw the stupid kiwi move twice. let's just say i'm not thrilled about doing the same thing with kangaroos.)



des said we had a few weeks to finalize our decisions, but i hope it works out :) after our meeting it was pouring...again. so des, ashely and i went for hot chocolate, which des paid for (does that count as a guy buying me a drink? lol) he's really funny, and a nice old man who kinda gets lost when he's talking. he's teaching all of my lectures, so let's hope he can stay on track for a few hours in class :) i decided rain or not i HAD to go shopping for some real food. des offered to give ashley and i a ride where ever we were going (so nice :)!!) and he dropped me off at the royal randwick shops. don't let the name fool you. it's basically a few trashy discount stores with a market. i was hoping it would be a cheap grocery store, but it wasn't. it was expensive organic produce, but since i was there i bought a few things anyway. i still didn't have much food and it had kinda stopped raining so i went across the street to the trusty cole's. bought a few more things, but since i was going to have to walk a few blocks and it was cold/rainy i didn't want to get too much. when i got home i fixed myself a pork chop, peas, and pasta. but i guess i was really hungry because that still didn't fill me up. i thought i would be a good idea to make some hard boiled eggs to snack on now and in the future....looking back, it wasn't the best investment. i think i must have missed the hard boiled egg lesson in home ec. because after waiting for my water to boil and slowly lowering in my 4 eggs, all but 1 of them cracked. :( i figured i'd just eat them all that night and it wouldn't be a big loss. after 5 mins (i seemed to remember something about an egg timer being all they time you needed, but to be safe i waited a little longer) i poured out my water and cracked open an egg. (if anyone out there likes soft boiled eggs i'm sorry for wasting a good meal) let's just say i wasn't going to eat it...so i got some more water put my eggs back in the pot and let them sit while the water got warm (maybe they're supposed to get 3 mins AFTER the water boils...i'm not sure). so i waited until the water boiled, pulled out a test egg and it seemed alright. got out the other 2 of cool and started eating...but the inside was still a little runny (grrr) so i put the last 2 eggs back in the water to hopefully cook a little more. after what seemed like a hour of boiling eggs i said forget it, i'm eating them no matter what. they were fine...but i STILL feel a little funny after eating them. it rained all last night, and this morning, but now it's okay. but i'm not trusting it. i had to buy an umbrella at cole's last night and i'm caring it with me @ all times, just in case. i haven't been very productive today, but i did buy internet for my room. i was going to go the cheap pc card route, but that company doesn't have coverage in my neighbourhood. one street over does...but not me. i'm so lucky!! >:- i went with a company called dodo and i had to buy a brand new modem for almost $200 and then pay an extra $25 for them to mail it to me. i could have saved if i want to go pick it up...in melborne!! maybe i can try to sell it on ebay to a new student when i move out, because i don't even think i can use in while i'm in new zealand :( so i promise as soon as i get it, which they say should be aug 5th i will figure out how to use it and upload my pictures...as long as it doesn't take up all my...whatever they call it. here in australia they do their internet by loading and downloading. so everything you surf the web and download a song or a video they add it up and you have to pay depending on how much you USE the internet, not by how fast you want it to go. i've decided that over all...they just like to take your money any way they can....and we though that home was bad!

A PLACE TO CALL HOME!! :-D

so...i've been in sydney since saturday, and i finally have somewhere to live. but before i get to that let me recap a little of what i've been up to.



saturday, july 19:


i arrived in sydney after a 6 hr layover in LAX (now the 2nd time i've had huge problems w/that airport! avoid it if you can). the flight over was fine and i only freaked out once. about 4hrs into the flight i started panicking about having to sit next to the same people in the same seat (middle seat...again) for so long, but after a few deep breaths and a quick walk to the bathroom i was fine for the rest of the trip. i watch 2 movies, "the other boleyn girl" (good...pretty dramatic, but worth watching) and "definitely, maybe" (still good...didn't cry this time, but if you haven't seen it you should). i also watched a few episodes of "House" and "CSI", while i colored an octopus in my newest coloring book :) when i arrived in sydney airport i collected my bags after going through customs, and really the only problem i had with them was trying to get around w/2 giant suitcases and mobs of people. i checked into the UNSW desk and bought a bus ticket, but then after i thought about it, the bus would be too crazy w/my bags to i returned the ticket and got a cab to king's cross where my hotel was. when i arrived there, i unpacked in my little double bed room with the view of the brick wall outside and walked to cole's, the locale grocery store. i wasn't too blown away by prices or really notice anything significantly different about it, i walked about to my hotel and passed about 4 strip clubs on the way. apparently i was in the "glue sniffer" part of town, as someone later told me, and i was NOT to go out at night. it was a nice day...about early fall weather i'd say, but everyone here was talking about "how cold!" it was. i tried to relax most of the rest of the day, unpacked a little, walked around the block, found an Internet cafe, and took a nap.



sunday, july 20:

after figuring out how to get to see an apartment i was going to look at i woke up early (7am) to shower and walk to the bus stop. unfortunately, the pope was in town so the bus i was waiting for never showed up. i thought i was in the wrong spot but as it turned out the street i needed to go down was closed due to the sunday mass at randwick racecourse (just to the north of campus). i again took a cab to the roundabout nearby and walked. the apartment was beautiful, and right near "uni". it had a double bed, mirrored wardrobe, built in shelves, desk, chair, and balcony looking over the park. it was perfect...however i did NOT know HOW amazing it was when i saw it because it was my 1st survey, and i think i could have brown-nosed a little bit more so that she'd pick me as her new "flattie". here in sydney the housing market is SO tough that you really have to suck-up to whom ever is showing the place so they don't just give it to someone else. she told me that she'd let me know what she had decided in the morning and that it would be a hard decision because there were so many good people applying. that was really my 1st clue that she prob wouldn't pick me. since i was so close to campus i decided to walk around and get the lay of the land before it was crazy with students all over. it was again another nice day and i could hear the pope's mass on the loud speakers in the distance. i walked up and down anzac parade (the main street by campus that was closed due to the pope) and again waited for 2hrs for the bus. this time the bus DID show up, but it didn't take me to where i needed to go. it dropped me off at hyde park which didn't look that far from my hotel on the map, but ended up being a 20 min walk up hill (and i'd also like to add that i did NOT wear good walking shoes and had HUGE blisters on my heels by this time). when i got home, i was so tired and overwhelmed by the day that i just hung out in my room for the rest of the evening. i did go out to make a phone call though. i called flo, who was living in sydney near campus and said she would rent me her room for 2 weeks while she was "on holiday" so i could apartment search, however when i called her, her boyfriend told me "they weren't going on holiday anymore, it was too expensive, i couldn't stay there...good luck". AWESOME. i was checking out of my hotel tuesday morning and i now had nowhere to go...



monday, july 21:
now with the panic of being homeless in sydney i headed over to campus as early as i could. they had housing accommodation assistance from 8am-5pm in the international student services (iss) lounge, and i needed their help! i called a few hostels in coogee (near the beach and campus) and booked a room. however they did not having any single rooms for tuesday night so i'd have to stay in a dorm style room (2 sets of bunk beds and a tv). at this point in time really didn't care so i booked the dorm for one night and then the single room til saturday morning. how that i had somewhere to "live" until saturday i was now able to focus on the larger picture of finding somewhere permanent to live! there were lots of listing at the campus and on the internet, and now that i was in sydney and had a free phone to use i was going to call EVERYONE! however, it turned out that most people in sydney don't like to answer the phone. i DID get a hold of 3 people with rooms and i made appointments with for that day. the 1st place was a 5min walk from campus in a very residential neighborhood and looked nice. i pretty much fell in love with the area as soon as i saw 5 wild rainbow lorrekeets feeding in a tree! however, when i walked inside the late 30 year old south american woman's apartment (i'd describe her as spicy, and she was always calling me darling...) was not what i was looking for. it was decorated in lots of dark red, purple, and leopard print (i'm sure nathan would have LOVED it). her son had just moved out to joining the army and her 2nd bedroom had a large built in wardrobe, a twin mattress on the floor, a small desk in a dark corner, and a dirty carpet. there WAS an amazing view of the city from the roof of the building and i kicked myself for letting my camera battery die. i told her i'd call her that evening about if i wanted the room or not, but i really hoped i'd find something better...MUCH better. the second place i went was the apartment of a late 40year old asian woman named dewie. she had a cute balcony with lots of plants, and a small yappy poodle. the living room was a nice size...but there was a bed there. turns out she lived with her 21 year old daughter in this 2 bedroom apartment and she was living in the living room and renting ME a bedroom! it was too weird. the rent was really cheap, but it was just too strange to have my landlord sleeping in the living room...so i excused myself. i had one last place to look before the long day was over (i'd been walking all over town...but in better shoes :) i learned!!). it was a house literally right behind the racecourse. a girl in her mid3o's named tara-leigh lived here with another mid30's guy named conner and a black and white car named wilson. as soon as i walked in i was in love! it was unbelievable. after the 2 horrible places i'd just been it was heaven! it was decorated just the way i would want MY house to be decorated and she was friendly, there was a back yard with pet birds, and free internet. i was sold...but like someone stupidly optimistic, i told her i had a one other place to look the next day and would call her back. i was holding out for people closer to my age and i was hoping that the place i was going to visit tomorrow would be just as nice and with students and it wouldn't be a mistake.





tuesday, july 22:

again, i woke up early. i had charged my camera and needed to take a few pics of king's cross to remember the nice parts of the area (i'll load them later). i made a few phone calls home before i checked out of my hotel (apparently you can't use regular calling cards from pay phones, so the hotel was nice enough to let me call the US from their phone)...but no one answered!! by my calculations it should have been 12am in VA, and i don't know where anyone was...but i didn't get to talk to anyone :( i packed up my bags, got a cab and headed to coogee. let me tell you...it's BEAUTIFUL! the street my hostel is on is at the top of a hill which leads right to the beach. it was like a breath of fresh air after being in "glue sniffer territory". i checked into my room and headed back to campus to do a few little things (ie. call a few other places about renting, and sign my loan checks!!) i had a meeting with franco at 2pm so i started walking towards centennial park (pretty much the same area that tara-leigh's place was...i actually passed it on the way). it was a nice enough place...but something just didn't feel right. he rushed me through the survey, and none of the roommates were there for me to meet, and i just didn't feel like home. he gave me a ride back to my hostle and i got ready to go back to campus after getting few things i'd need to open my bank account. however, there were no more buses back to campus so i just spent the evening getting acquainted with austrailan tv. so far, not too different but they are very aware of what's going on in the news in other areas (they had a whole hour of just US news...i felt kinda back that we never hear about aussie news in the US...), and their nighttime shows are like soap operas (cheaply made with a new episode every night). they do have a lot of US shows there too, which gave me a little break from the accent for a while. my roommate that night would be a guy...it was the only room they had, so i figured i could survived one night. i had not seen/met him by the time i decided to go to bed at 10pm, so i figured he wasn't coming home that night (who knows what kinda guy he is...). i had been asleep for about 30mins when the door opened and the lights came on. i sat up as quickly as i could from my deep sleep and introduced myself. he was a chinesse student named pan who appologized for turning on the lights. i really couldn't be too mad because he had no way of knowing i was there!





wednesday, july 23:

i was going to be moving to another room, to myself, in the hostel that morning so i tired not to unpack too much to get ready for my shower. the hostel has a large bathroom for everyone to share. there are 3 toilet stalls and 3 shower stalls and one sink. i did not think i would be staying in a hostel so i didn't bring any shower shoes, but when i went grocery shopping the day before i picked up a pair so i didn't pick up any athletes foot...but, i don't think that would have been a problem. taking a shower in that hostel is like showering with a power washer. usually people complain about not having enough water pressure...this was quite the opposite! i think every speck of dirt and soap was BLASTED from my body. since it was also very painful, i washed as quickly as i could. i was also running late to catch the bus to go to campus. i needed to attend my 1st orientation session "arriving and surviving". it was all pretty basic orientation stuff and it wasn't anything that wasn't covered in the arrival packet. i did meet a couple of canadians who were sitting behind me, shannon and chris, they'll come back into the story later. while louise was going over UNSW info she came to the topic of drugs. she said that all drugs are illegal here, but there are testing stations at most bars. she recommended that we get our drugs tested for laced whatever so that we stayed safe. this seemed quite odd to me considering she had just said these drugs were ILLEGAL. i asked her so clarify and she rudely responded "it's for safety". i felt like she was saying "duh, don't you test your drugs?!" shannon and chris didn't get it either (we talked about it later). louise also wanted to make it very clear that yes means yes, positive and no means no, negative (i'd like to know who speaks english and DOESN'T get this concept!?) AND that just because you are dating an austrailan, does NOT mean they will want to have sex with you...she must have heard some crazy stories to make this such a significant point in her UNSW intro. after the talk shannon, chris and i chuckled about how strange some to the topics were and said we'd meet up later at the vice-chancellor's talk so we could all get the bus back to coogee. (louise also made a good point of telling us that there had been THREE muggings in the last week...let me repeat THREE MUGGINS!! :-\ and that they were all guys and that one was done by a group of 14year old girls!) by this time i was getting tired of not being able to communicate with people sans a cell phone so i walked up the street to buy myself an optus prepayed phone. it's really tiny and has no inside keyboard :( (i miss my phone) but i pay $40 for $80 worth of talk time. also went to the national austrial bank (nab) to open my student account and despoited the $210 i had left into it. i hadn't eaten lunch yet so i went back to campus, grabbed a bite and met up with christine at 3. christine is another conservation biology student who planned a coffee get together. she's from canada and has long curly brown hair. joining us were jess b, from new zealand; kate, who used to live in the ballston area!; ashley, from fargo north dakoda; and jo, from new zealand. i had planned getting my "mobile" perfectly because now i had 5 new friends to add to my empty contact list :) we sat around talking while the sunset and the weather started getting REALLY cold. to warm up we took a campus tour which ended with a free barbque (oddly not called a barbie once). we sat under a heater and talked more before heading to the vice-chancellor's talk. i then parted with them to sit with chris and shannon. we again laughed about how boring the chancellor was and about how he told us the same stuff we'd heard earlier that day. after the talk they served wine (red and white) and beer! for free! no limit! it was great!! we stood around talking/waiting for the rain to stop and shannon and i enjoyed 2 glasses of wine while chris had 3 beers...3 free beers! :-D we then realized it was getting late and the buses would stop soon so we hopped on the 370 via coogee bay rd back to the beach. they hadn't eaten dinner yet so we decided to go out. there was a place they knew about which on wednesday nights, when you ordered a $4 beer, soda, or wine gave you a FREE STEAK...FREE STEAK! it was an amazing night for freebies! however, they waitress said they were out of steaks because earlier there had been 600+ people there for the free food. so we walked over to the famous coogee beach hotel (known for closing down around 6am!) but it was unusually dead and their kitchen was closed. so try number 3 took us to the FiveO's resturant. they had great deals for $5 (including a 300g rump steak, and a baby octopus salad) they also good deals for $9 and $11 (if you wanted to slurge!) we ordered and sat ourself away from the noisy bar and talked about the culture differences, weather, up coming classes, housing problems, and the army...? i don't know how we got on the topic but shannon and i talked for a good while about her sister's boyfriend, charlie, who is also in the army and deployed in afganistan. i won't bore you with all the little details, but i think i have more new friends :) we all walked home...in the freezing rain...and i went straight to bed.

TODAY! thursday, july 24:

::deep breath...writting all that is exhausting:: so...earlier this week i talked to a woman w/a room name trasie. she told me to "ring" her thrusday around 8:30am...so that's what i did when i got up. on my brand new phone :) she told me to come by as soon as i was ready for the day. it was still cold...and raining...so i really bundled up. however it one spat for the 1st 5 mins i was out. i walked up a HUGE hill (it had stairs it was so big) and down a few cute streets to 27 meymott st, randwick. she showed me around the house (3 bedrooms, 2 international students, bathroom with shower and tub, back patio, washer...people in sydney don't use dryers, living room w/cable tv, dvd player, and phone) my room which is really a make-shift room has a lofted bed from idea with a desk and chair under. i didn't really love the idea of having a lofted bed...but at this point i didn't care. i told her i wanted it and we started the paperwork!! she said she wanted the rent and bond (security deposit of $600) then so that i could move in later today. when i pulled out my check book, she said she only took cash...yuck. now i needed to find a way to get $795 in cash! she took my passport to copy (which worried me because she said she'd give it back later...i hope she doesn't steal it...) and we signed the contract and i left for the bank. i realized that i didn't have $795 in my savings accounts so i had to go an internet cafe to transfer the money. then i had to go back up the street to the atm and take out sets of $200 from 2 different accounts (atms having limits has never been such a problem!!) i then went back to my hostel to talk to them about checking out early...but they have a strict no refund policy...so that's either thursday, and friday night rent down the tube or thrusday, and friday night hostel pay down the tube...either way i'm out a few bucks :( BUT don't loose sight of the fact that i have somewhere to live!!!! i'll be taking tons of pictures as soon as i really move in (i'll prob stay tonight in the hostel and move in tomorrow) so that everyone can see my new digs. keep in mind this is the 2nd place room in all of sydney (well all that i saw. when i called tara-leigh back yesterday after the dissappointment with franco she said the room had gone just a few hours ago, c'est la vie) so any negative comments will not be tolerrated. now that i've got somewhere to stay, i've spend the rest of today writting all this, and it's now about 2:30pm and i haven't had any lunch, so i'll have to update on the rest of my day later...ie after it happens :)