The last week of classes

The interhall talent show was held on Sunday night and there were TONS of people there. I was really nervous all day and needed to take a nap in the afternoon. Unfortunately that caused me to miss dinner because I slept through my alarm. Sue-Lin knocked on my door which woke me up. We walked over to B&G for the talent show and I not so patiently waited for my turn to perform. I couldn't believe how much talent there is at ANU. Eventually it was my turn. I performed to the best of my ability and despite losing my make-do shoe in the middle of the dance, I thought I did pretty well. Ursies wasn't immediately after me but their representative for non-musical acts performed magic tricks. I LOVE magic and was really impressed with what he did. He was the act that I lost to. I placed second in the non-musical category :)

Burgmann placed second for Arts Shield and third for Sports Shield. Of course Johns won sports but surprisingly Fenner won arts. I wish Burgmann good luck next year for the arts and sports shields.

Monday was the start of the last week of classes. I went to social animals and we watched the weirdest film called The Future is Wild. After class I went back to college and worked on my essay. I managed to reach my goal of 700 words a night. Then I talked to Sho and we came up with the brilliant idea that we should meet up in the states since he was planning on going next year. He said that he and Kit were going to LA, LV, and NY for his 21st birthday. Since Skidmore is in NY he said he'd give me a heads up and we would try to meet up. In theory the idea is that they would go to Hawaii for New Years cuz everyone knows that's where it's at for New Years! Then they'd go to all the places they wanna go in LA and LV and then I'd meet up with them while I was at school. More than likely I'll have a Northwoods house so I'll be able to house them. It'd be so awesome if it actually worked but a year is a long time from now.

Today:
I was extremely unproductive today!! I was planning on getting my essay done tonight because I was feeling motivated. I checked my facebook and it wasn't working well because it kept giving me that weird message saying that an error occured and I had no notificaitons and no friends online and no events even though it said there was an event invitation. Not sure what is going on with that but I left it up regardless. Then my ex IM's me and we get to talking and fighting (no surprise there). I end up talking to him for a few hours and get nothing on my essay done. It probably doesn't help that I have a full season of CSI on my computer at the moment. *sigh* I guess I'll have to focus really hard when I get back from dinner. I HAVE to finish this essay by tonight so that my dad can help me edit it. I can almost feel my essay being done but it's one of those glass ceiling type deals where I can't reach the top but I can see it. Oh well there's nothing I can do but do the work it's self. Check in later for more stories!! Cheers :)

A weekend of dance

OK I know I said I'd update you on Thursday but I forgot to. Rachel's 21st was on Thursday and it started at 8. So Sarah and I convinced Stephen to go and he suggested we drive. I had not planned on going out that night. I wanted to spend the night in but it was Oktober Fest and Rachel's 21st so I went to make an appearance at her birthday. I had a lot of interesting conversations with Adam. He's such an easy person to talk to. I had only planned on staying out for an hour but I ended up staying for about an hour and a half. Then we got back to college and realized that we had missed Tim Tam night. But we saw Zemma walking back at 9:45 and asked her if she had missed Tim Tam night too. It was funny because she mildly freaked and we got an hour late Tim Tam night anyways haha. It was essentially only 10 of us but we made SOOOO much noise. We had a few 1H and 3H ressies at our Tim Tam night and had an entire conversation about betrayers. It was awkward... especially when Frank made it awkward. But it was funny after a while. I ended up going to bed at 11.

Friday I woke up and went to lecutre as usual. I got cat called on my way back to college by construction workers that I always see on my way back. Usually they just say hi but this time they called me sweety and said that I was looking good. I wasn't even wearing anything nice! I was in a t-shirt, jeans, and slippers/flip-flops/thongs. It was so ridiculous!! By the time I got back to college it was time for lunch. Because Valete was at night, they had a bbq. The steak was pretty good for Burgmann food. I finished fairly quickly and worked on choreographing a dance for interhall talent show. Then I went and got ready for Valete. I put on my brown dress and heels and made my hair look semi elegant. I wasn't planning on drinking wine or champagne before dinner because I was hungry and that would make me get drunk really quickly. I went out onto the lawn with Sarah and we socialized with people. I mostly talked to Xinyu who was being such a great friend. I think he's one of the guys I'm going to miss the most when I leave. He always finds a way to make me smile without trying too hard. After about 30 mins of random mingling it was time for dinner. I ended up on a pretty random table because none of us signed up for a table. None-the-less it was fun. The food was good and the wine wasn't bad. I got drunk off of two glasses of wine: 1.5 of white and half a glass of red. Ben was being a pretty entertaining seating partner. JD and a bunch of his "bro's" shifted over to the end of the table where I was sitting. Then we all started shouting and getting a little out of hand. I think it's safe to say that we were tipsy at that point. Then Dr. Phil announced that the bar was open and there was a bar tap. So EVERYONE made their way to the bar really quickly. I had a wonderful night of dancing and talking with people. I even met more new people that I became friends with instantly. I can't believe I'm going to be leaving in less than a month and I'm still meeting new people! Crazy!!

This morning I woke up at 9ish and went down to breakfast. The Valete tables were still out. After eating a light breakfast I went to work on my dance for the talent show. I managed to finish it but whether I can do it will be an entirely different issue. I have to stretch really well for this dance because it's got a lot of extensions and leaps. After about an hour of dancing I went to my room to collect my things and watch some CSI. Sarah came into my room and of course we started talking. Before I knew it, it was lunch time. Lunch was crap so I ate chips with gravy and a chocolate-peanut butter toastie :) After that I went to the computer room to do some work on my essay. I managed to find some info that would be helpful to writing my essay but actually getting to writing my essay will be a completely different story. Tomorrow I have talent show so I HAVE TO get this essay at least started. At 6 Alex drove Sarah and I over to Tuggeranong for Adam's KultureBreak Dance Expo 2009. They were so good! It was mostly hip hop with a little contemp. The little kids who break dance are ADORABLE!! If I could stay here forever I would joing their company. I pretty much had a whole weekend of dancing.... man I miss these :/

Tomorrow night is Interhall Talent Show and I can't wait until that comes around. I'll be nervous all day tomorrow but I'll work through it and keep dancing. Right now I have a smile but deep down I can feel my heart slowly breaking piece by piece as I count down the hours until I leave Australia. I thought it was hard to leave New York my freshman year but now I see that Australia is where my heart will always be. All Aussies need to prepare for me turning into a waterfall. This is going to be a messy end of semester :P Until then I plan on partying hard, having fun, and making memories. xx

Roller Coaster of Emotions

Last I left off I believe was Monday in the Social Animals Tut. So here's a recap of my day on Tuesday...

I woke up really early because I was really hungry. I went to get breakfast around 7:30/8 and then hung around until it was time to go to Blue Planet. I'll admit I was afraid to go to lecture because I was afraid that some people were mad at me. I'm pretty sure that they're still mad at me but I just stay out of their way and hopefully I won't cause any more trouble. I sat alone in lecture on Tuesday. I was also pretty nervous about Burg Concert being that night. You know me... wake up nervous and feeling I'm going to throw up. And those feelings don't go away until I'm either disappointed from a horrible performance or really excited because it's finally over. So I felt sick throughout the entire lecture and the added stress of people being mad at me made me feel like I was going to die: room spinning, heart pounding, sweat threatening to drown me. After a VERY long lecture I hauled ass out of there so there wouldn't be any awkward confrontation which might have actually made me puke. I went to Marine Paleontology even though it was canceled because I needed to put my presentation on the computer. I hung out there for about 15 minutes and then left. I spent the rest of the afternoon getting ready for the performance. I also had dinner that night with Teri, Swigman, Rachel, and Joanna. It took me about 3 and a half hours to finish getting ready. Then I went to dinner where Swigman, Rachel, and I waited for 40 minutes because there was some mix up at Teri's hotel. I scarfed down dinner and ran off to my performance.

The concert was amazing! I love listening to all the musical talent at Burgmann. My favorite was probably the serious opera pieces by Peter and Josh. I love their voices!! Finally it was my turn to perform. I got up on stage, quickly analyzed my space, and took a deep breath. John got up and set up the sound system for me so that I could hear the music. This performance was the first time I had done that dance full out all the way through. It was also the first time in 15 years that I had a performance where I didn't make a single mistake. I was very sore afterwards and I'm pretty sure I agitated my ankles again (you know how my ankles were sprained and I never stayed off them so they just never healed). But the feeling that I got from that performance was just INCREDIBLE!! I went to sleep that night feeling better than I had since I got back from semester break.

This morning I woke up still ridiculously sore. I rolled out of bed and got dressed ready to smash my presentation. I put on this sexy blue dress that I absolutely love and threw an interview top on over so that I just had the skirt of the dress showing. I put on my favorite heals and walked out to breakfast. I was happy to still be getting compliments about the performance but I was starting to get nervous for my presentation. I went to Blue Planet lecture like I always do and sat in the spot that I always sit at. Only this time someone sat next to me. I'm pretty sure she doesn't know what's going on but other people sat next to her and that made me really uncomfortable because they were the ones who I think might be mad at me. After lecture I went to the most boring two hours of my life (no offense presenters but it was really boring). When it was my turn to give my presentation everyone was just about ready to go to sleep. I was still really nervous but it wasn't that bad once I had started my speech. I stumbled on a few words but who doesn't? Then it was over and I got feedback. Apparently I'm actually a really good speaker when I have confidence. When I don't have confidence I put people to sleep (his words not mine). So my mark is going to be in the mid Distinction range for the speaking portion. Of course that doesn't really make much of a difference if it's only 7.5% of my overall grade. After the longest three hours of my life were over I headed off to Violence and Terror. I haven't been to lecture in a really long time but this was technically our last lecture so I figured I'd go for the hell of it. I mean I was already on campus. It wasn't that bad of a lecture but I zoned out for part of it and was completely lost when I tuned back in.

I headed back to Burgmann for dinner and learned that I had won the talent show for Burgmann!! This means that I get to perform again on Sunday for the Interhall Talent Show. I'm not really sure what dance I'm going to be doing yet but I'm sure I'll think of something. I was really happy to hear that the Interhall Talent Show was on Sunday because for a while I was debating not performing so that I could go to Adam's dance expo on Saturday. The BRA calender says that the talent show is on Saturday at the same time the expo is. But apparently the calender is wrong and I'm able to do it all!! I'm so excited to be performing again.

Tomorrow is Blue Planet Prac and I'm a little nervous about that because I have a feeling there is going to be some awkwardness. Although I'm clearing up the air a little with our Prof in the morning so hopefully that won't make the atmosphere too thick with tension. I'm gone in four/five weeks anyway so it's not that big of a deal if they don't talk to me for the rest of the week because this is technically our last week of classes. Next week is kind of a joke in terms of lectures... it's all prep for exams kinda stuff. If anything I'll just update them about the situation and then go back to my I don't exist state of being in class. I've lost friends before... and the fact that I'm losing friends who I'd lose to distance anyway really isn't bothering me that much. I know it's bad to say but I've always had friendship issues and anyone from Hawaii or Skidmore will agree with that. If I may never see you again I'll burn bridges to make it less of a sad good bye. It's the way I've always been.

Tomorrow I'll update you on my roller coaster of emotions... more than likely i'll be upset and sad and pretty much everything negative because I'm predicting a pretty shit day. I may be frowning but at least I'm doing handstands so it looks like a smile. Laters!

forgotten story

Yesterday in Social Animals we were talking about animal ethics. We somehow got on to the topic of genetic modification. The jist is that in nature there are no naturally white animals. We breed them for our aesthetic purposes. But the genetic modification causes some loose wiring in the brain. This is why dalmatians are supposedly really stupid. With all the white animals we threw out, our professor was able to say whether they were smart or not based on their skin color. For example: "What about polar bears? They're not particularly stupid." Response: "Polar bears aren't white. Their skin is black and they're fur is technically clear."

After a few minutes of debating this I asked "So is this how we get the stereotype of dumb Blondes??" Can I just say that half my class is blonde?? and my hair is practically blonde because of all the coloring I do. FML :P

Conflicts left and right

This morning I woke up at 10am which means that I missed breakfast. I had class at 11am so I left for that after getting ready. Class went from 11am-2pm which means that I missed lunch. Luckily we got out of tutorial early so I walked back to college and caught up with some work. My head was pounding because I hadn't eaten all day. I drank a half a Nalgene of water and read from one of my text books but fell asleep. It must have been around dinner time because when I woke up it was 7:15pm. Yea I slept through dinner. Today has been a fail day for food. I went down to the dining hall to get an orange so that I would at least have something in my stomach. Then I decided it would be a good idea to get a head start on my Blue Planet prac. I managed to finish the tasks that it presented but haven't answered the questions yet. I'll work on that tomorrow.

As I walked down my block's stairs this evening I passed two of my friends. Both of which are incredibly attractive! I seriously felt the temperature in the stairway go up about 10 degrees. One of them has a girlfriend but that doesn't mean I can't look :P especialy since he lives on my floor haha. The other one I never really realized how much of an attraction to him I had. I don't really know him that well but I'm only here for 4 more weeks ;)

A little while ago it hit me that I was performing tomorrow night at Burg Concert. Should I qualify for the Interhall Talent Show, I would perform on Saturday night. PROBLEM!! I said I would go to my dance teacher's dance expo to watch him perform. If I have to perform Saturday I won't be able to go to the expo. But if I tell him that I can't go but don't make the talent show then I'll feel aweful for not going. What am I supposed to do? I've ALWAYS honored my committments to dance. I never thought this would happen but then the statistics of it happening grew the more I committed myself. I guess I'll have to deal this one out on my own. This sucks. It's not like I don't already have enough stress from school work and making stupid mistakes. Rule #16: Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.

I need to cut this short since I have to work on my Social Animals essay. Send your prayers to me! XOXO

Starting week 12

So last night I worked on my Marine Paleontology presentation and almost finished researching it. I had gotten so bored with working that I decided to write all my notes with my left hand. I got pretty good at writing with my left hand. Then I got tired and went to sleep at 11 (I know sleeping early on a Saturday night. But hey I had a big Friday night). This morning when I woke up after having an EXTREMELY strange dream I was really hungry. I woke up around 8:30/9:00 and went down to get breakfast. After just one piece of toast however, I was full. Weird!! I usually eat two pieces of toast and cereal. I knew I'd get hungry if I didn't eat more so I forced myself to eat my usual load. Then I went back to my room and worked on the report some more. By the time it was 12:30 aka lunch time, I had finished two pages of the report and was feeling pretty productive. I went down to lunch where I learned that road relay was at 2pm. I reluctantly said I would go since I had to finish my report as well as practice for Burg Concert. It turned out to be an AMAZING race. We started out strong with Katie and James and just continued to gain leads over the other colleges throughout the next 6 people. By the time Vrinda ran (half way through) we were at a 4 minute lead. When it was Murray's turn to run, because he was the last we all concluded that even if the John's runner ran the 3K in 8 minutes, he still would only semi tie with Murray. My favorite quote of the day: "so basically Murray needs to be hit with a car for John's to have a chance..." The response to that was: "I wouldn't put it past them."

After a victorious relay I returned to my room to prepare for my own practice. I spent an hour and a half in the Chapel dancing my butt off to get back in shape for Tuesday. I wouldn't be surprised if I was dead tired and sore tomorrow. Thankfully I only have my favorite class for three hours tomorrow. I have almost completed my report on Sand Dollars (which I had an exciting talk with Rachel about) and I'm about to start my powerpoint. Luckily, I am only allowed 6 slides plus a title slide and a references slide. So there's really not much work left to be done on that.

I calculated my projected grades and realized that I have neither progressed nor regressed in terms of my usual grades. I'm still stuck in the B range just as I always have since high school. Last semester I had almost all A-/A's so I was hoping I would be able to keep that up. Of course when you're in a new country, have no idea how the professors mark, and are partying it up... I wouldn't really expect to have great marks. Although I am proud of myself for keeping up the B range grades even with all the partying I've been doing. I've learned to give myself a little slack.

This semester is wrapping up so quickly and everything seems to be jumping at me from all directions. I need to learn to manage my time better but you know me... taking on too much at one time. I'm getting antsy for next semester because I know I'll end up doing the same thing. 17/18 credits, equestrian team, break-beats (most probably), and hopefully working so that I can save some money for the summer. I can't wait...

OH! I almost forgot :) I managed to get my right split back again! For 11 months I've been struggling to gain my flexibility back from my injuries. Today when I was dancing I actually sat in a full split. It was painful but my butt was on the ground!! I was so excited. Hopefully that isn't a psych out and I'll be able to do the same on a regular basis. I knew all those painful stretching techniques would get me back to normal again. When I can once again kick my head without pain in my legs I will be the happiest girl alive! Until then, I may need to chill since I can already feel the pain from dancing hard kicking in. Man I'm out of shape. When I go home for Christmas I'm gonna get back in shape: for dance AND equestrian. Keep yea posted!! Laters

Big night out

Friday:

Yesterday was an interesting day. I went to my lectures in the morning and then went back to college for lunch. After lunch I decided I was gonna do work (my presentation for Marine Paleontology). I ended up turning on Beauty and the Beast and falling asleep. Yea REAL productive! I woke up at 5:30 (just in time for dinner) not wanting to open my eyes, let alone get out of bed. But I needed to eat dinner because I was going to Symposium later that night.

Symposium is an ancient Greek drinking festival where men gathered together to make toasts to the God, Dionysus. It can be as academic or as pleasurable as the symposiarchs (leaders) make it out to be.

In Burgmann's case, it was a celebration of the year and the first-year's accomplishments. There were really good speeches (most of which I didn't follow because I didn't know all of the stories behind all of the jokes) and fun drinking games. The whips (first year arts and sports reps) served us Sangria throughout the night. I had only two glasses before I was drunk. Did I mention that we were supposed to wear TOGA's for the event? Yea I don't know how to make a toga out of a bed sheet so I had quite the adventure getting dressed as well as staying dressed because my sheet kept falling down. Wardrobe malfunctions aside, it wasn't too bad of a night (even though I felt COMPLETELY ridiculous and self-conscious the entire time). After the organized part was over I socialized a little with a group of people and then we all headed up to Beth's room to hang out a little longer before going out.

It was 11:00 before we FINALLY decided to go out. I was already sober by that point so I wasn't really keen on going out but I did anyway because Beth suggested Transit Bar which I had never been to (I'm always up for trying new places out). We gather everyone together, poor Alex was probably waiting in the car for an hour at this point, and realize that we don't have enough space in the car for everyone. So Ben, Jeremy, and I volunteer to walk (you know me, love to exercise) but we didn't know where it was. So we get into civic and follow the directions we received from a drunk Beth. We managed to find them and get to Transit with minimal problems. Transit was gross. I really didn't enjoy it at all. Ben spilled beer down the pants of my leg and it looked like I peed myself. He was pretty drunk so I just let it go. Needless to say, I did not have a good time at Transit.

After about two hours at Transit (after a half hour there I was ready to go) Beth, LJ, Jess, Jeremy, Pheobe, Sarah, Ben, Jeremy, and I headed off to upstairs Moose (again this is the first time I had gone to upstairs moose so I went even though I was tired, sober, and grouchy). Pheobe decided it would be a great idea to shout at a bunch of random guys that I was miss Hawaiian and could dance and flip and twirl. I was so embarrassed (keep in mind I have not had a single drink since I sobered up at college). She continued to scream to get guys to turn their attention to us. Beth and LJ were trying to see how many drinks they could get from guys at the bars we went to. I'm pretty sure they got quite a few because they were both VERY drunk. It looked like they had quite the band of followers to get them drinks. I guess it was a good night for them because they got heaps of free drinks. I rather like upstairs moose because it wasn't as sketchy as their basement, plus it's more club-like. Jeremy and I went upstairs to the cocktail looking area because we had been dancing for a while and needed water. We talked for a little while and then headed back down to the dance floor. Our whole group was pretty spread out and I was more than ready to go. I messaged Sarah and said that I was heading back to college with Jeremy. And just for the record, NOTHING HAPPENED. He made a move a couple times but I didn't accept because I was too tired and no offense but he's just not my type. I felt bad for teasing him though (yea I haven't changed I'm still a tease). By the time I brushed my teeth and got changed or bed it was 3am. I'm pretty sure I was asleep before my head even hit the pillow!

Saturday:

I vaguely remember waking up and seeing the sky lighten but I can't be certain what time it was. Then I woke up at 10 and tried to force myself out of bed to get breakfast but it just wasn't happening. So I went back to sleep and actually woke up at 11. That was the latest I had EVER slept in here and I just couldn't believe how much of the day I had wasted. But I got some work done. I hit a rock though because the species of sand dollar that I'm working with is no where to be found on the internet either. I have a common sand dollar fossil, which I was able to get a page and a half of information on, but the other one I just can't find. This is due on Wednesday so I really need to get cracking on it. Then I need to start working on my essay for Social Animals. I don't really know what I'm going to do for my topic on that one either. I'm so screwed but I'm not stressed.... WEIRD!! I also have Burg Concert to prepare for. That's on Tuesday and I'm so excited for it!! Wish me luck on this last term!! xoxo

I feel like flying

Today has been an overall good day. It started out with a not so great Violence and Terror tutorial. I got my exam grade back and lets just say P's make Degrees :/ I looked up the US equivalent and it's a C... not even a C+!! All you who are my friends know my saying that I for some reason live by: if it's not an A it's a fail. Well you can all imagine how mad I was at seeing that.... Anyway moving on. So I went to the botanic gardens in Canberra for my Blue Planet prac. It rained the entire two hours. My worksheet that we have to turn in next week is now completely drenched! But I got all of the answers and I now know more about plants which I never ever in my life thought I would know. Well I still don't know a lot but I could answer the questions on the prac really easily and accurately (according to the one of the tutors). By the time we were all ready to head back to campus we were FREEZING and wet. For some reason though I couldn't stop smiling. My hands were numb, my ears hurt from the cold, I could barely talk without slurring words, but I kept laughing and smiling while I talked to some guys that I didn't know in my prac. OK well I know them just not their names. It happens a lot.

After I returned from the botanic gardens I walked to college not wanting to go to lecture (so I didn't). I logged onto webCT and copied the notes from the powerpoint and realized that I really needed to get started on my essays. But of course that's not gonna happen at least until next week... I mean it's THE WEEKEND for crying out loud. I'm gonna work on my Marine Paleontology presentation this week and then be ready to kill it by tuesday (I hope).

Last night I had dance practice. I choreographed and worked on my dance for Burg Concert. I am SO out of shape. My body this morning felt like bricks. Every millimeter of movement took so much effort! But throughout the day my body got progressively less sore. I'm still mad that I missed tim tam night though :( 2H ALWAYS has tim tam nights on Wednesday nights when I have dance practice. Not like I expect them to schedule nights around my schedule but it would be nice if they changed it up a little. Like have tim tam night on Tuesday....?? Oh well. I'll deal. There's only two weeks left of Uni anyway. And then exams. Man-o-man!! That's so soon! It's like a month and a little bit left of time in Oz. I'm not ready to go home yet! NOOOOOOOOO.

OK i'm good i'm chilled out. Sorry about that minor freak out just now. haha. Alright since that's all that really happened today, I'm off to work/play. Byeeeeee! :D

Is it the weekend yet?

Rule #20: When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.
Rule #26: Frame every so-called disaster with these words, 'in five years, will this matter?'
Rule #43: No matter how you feel get up, dress up, and show up.

These were the rules I desperately needed to live by today.

I was woken up by the workers drilling holes in the rooms of my neighbors. You can only imagine how thrilled I was by that. I tried to go back to sleep but a half hour later my alarm went off and I HAD to get up. I went through my normal routine of brushing my teeth and getting changed. Then I read my email. I had one from SourceDance (the company hosting the competition I had entered three months ago) saying that they've decided to CANCEL the workshop and competition. The workshop I could deal with losing out on because it was only four classes anyway. The competition on the other hand was what I had been training for, for the last three months. I was pissed that my hard work was wasted in just a matter of minutes. I didn't want to go to Blue Planet lecture this morning because aside from the fact that this week's lecturer is ridiculously boring, I was really upset. But I read the 45 rules of life on my door as I usually do and was reminded of rule #26. In five years will I care that I was unable to compete in Canberra? Probably not. I don't even care that five years ago I couldn't compete in NY, even though at the time I made a big deal out of it. Then something else sparked in my mind. I'm entering in the Burgmann talent competition. I can full-heartedly into that now, hence rule #20. I really want to compete and I love to perform. More importantly I love to make people smile with my dancing. So I won't take no for an answer because I'm still competing (technically) in the Burgmann talent show. So I took the advice of rule #43 and got dressed in a nice skirt and lace spaghetti strap top with my Juicy sweater and left for lecture.

An hour later I got out of lecture and went to the computer lab to work on my report. I managed to finish everything except the abstract. Then I went to Marine Paleontology and sat through an informative lecture. We learned about sand dollars which is what my presentation is on. That lecture and prac was the most useful of all my time here in Australia (OK slight exaggeration but you get the point). After the prac I left to go back to college because I wanted to work on my report a little more. I started working on it and realized that I had completely missed my Violence and Terror lecture (way to start the new term: missed the first lecture back). But at that point I didn't care because I had FINISHED my Blue Planet report!! YAY!! Two assignments down (Marine Paleontology report and Blue Planet report) only one presentation, two essays, and three exams to go.... OK it seemed a little better than that when it wasn't in writing. Regardless, my time here in Oz is wrapping up really quickly and I just can't believe that it's almost over!! Soon I'll be home working and putting the partying on hold until I'm 21. Even then I won't be partying much because all my friends turn 21 after me. So much for a big 21st. Which follows the trends of a forgotten 16th and having graduation on the 18th. I'm not playing the Chelc Pity Party game I swear! *sarcasm* Rule #26.... It might actually matter to me in five years... but I won't know for sure until the time comes. No big.

Tomorrow is Thursday which means it's the weekend. I wanna go out but it's been raining lately and I don't want to go out in the rain. Especially since we walk into civic. We'll see... Until then follow Rule #22: Over prepare, then go with the flow. See yea!

The approach of hell day

Today is Tuesday which means tomorrow is Wednesday... AKA my longest day of the week. For you SkidKidz do you remember when I had to create themed Thursdays because my day went non stop from 9am to 10pm? Well I managed to do the same thing to myself agian only on Wednesdays instead of Thursdays. I start at 10am for Blue Planet lecture (which I technically don't NEED to go to), then I have an hour break until Marine Paleontology which I have lecture and then prac immediately after (up to 4 hours in a row), then I have Violence and Terror (yes that's my actual class title). Soon after that I go to dance class until 10pm (well sometimes we finish at 9:30). So basically Monday and Tuesday are my only days to do work for the week because I only have three hours of class on Monday and two hours of class on Tuesday. So I was fairly productive yesterday and finished a large portion of my Blue Planet report. However, today.... UGH!! I completely killed my brain with this Blue Planet report. I finished a third of the discussions part and then Alex came into the computer lab along with John and they took a copy of Ross's report. Then John left to go work at the library (smart man, run while you can). Alex decided to stay since the computer room was empty and I said I would help him. But then other people filtered in and Alex found the Omphalos on his USB. Well you can just imagine how much work we got done at that point. A half hour of looking through the Omphalos and I finally snapped out of it going back to my computer to work. I'm still in the computer room (you tell how productive I'm being since I'm typing on my blog right now :P) and Alex and Matt are still looking at the Omphalos. I got through a little bit more of the report but I'm working a lot slower than I was before Alex came into the computer lab... Yes, I'm blaming Alex for my lack of concentration right now. I also blame Matt for distracting me. Oh well. it happens. Tomorrow I won't be able to work on it for long because I don't have that much time and Thursday I'm definitely not getting any work done. Since this is due one Friday I'm pretty much stuck with having to finish this by tonight. Did I mention that Spartos is tonight at 6 which means I have less than an hour to finish the report, get dressed, and go have fun. Aw man who am I kidding?! I can't do that. Not even close! I guess i'm pulling an all nighter either tonight or tomorrow night... Speaking of all nighters...

Last night I got caught online by Angus. He's super cool but I can't remember meeting him in person. So I started talking to him and he and I can carry on LONG conversations! It was past 2 am before I realized what time it was. Idk what possessed me to stay awake that long. I could've been doing my report! I could've been getting something done. I think that may be what I'll end up doing tonight after Spartos. And then I'll be working on it EVERY chance I get tomorrow and Thursday. The timing just sucks. I have to prepare for two performances as well.

Oh and today I was supposed to turn in my Marine Paleontology report. I walked out of the class forgetting that I had it in my bag. Two hours later I panicked and ran back to class to turn it into my prof's mailbox. Man-o-man I hope he doesn't take points off for forgetting to turn it in during class. Crap! I have to finish researching and creating my presentation for this class. Damn... Looks like this is going to be a busy weekend of work for me :( And you all know how I get when I stress out. Expect to see lots of complaining on this blog over the next few days. Now it's off to work and shortly after Spartos!! Hope you're keeping your head on your shoulders better than I am!!

The start of term, the end of sanity

Today was the first day of term 4 and I've already lost it. But other than that it was a great day! It started by me having a weird dream... as usual and no I won't explain it on here because it was a waste of time. So I woke up and went to breakfast where there were HASH BROWNS!! Yea all Burgies know it's a gonna be a good day when there's hash browns at breakfast. After I ate I went upstairs to get ready for class. But of course the construction workers are drilling holes into everyone's wall for the sprinkler system. As soon as I start to change there's a knock on my door so I have to pull my clothes on really quickly and answer the door before they let themselves in. About 10 annoying minutes later they leave and I finish getting ready for class. I was walking to class freezing because I decided I didn't need a long sleeve shirt on (dumb idea) when I smell the rain. Hawaii people know that the rain has a distinct smell and for some reason it's one of my favorite smells. So that put a huge smile on my face. Then I get to class thinking I'm late because it's already 11:05 and class starts at 11 usually. But when I walked in there were only 4 people sitting down and my professor was no where to be found. So i sat down and literally 1 minute later my teacher walks in saying OK! Let's begin. PHEW I was in before the prof so I wasn't disruptive or anything. Then we started talking about whales and the whole Japanese situation on whaling. Somewhat boring in lecture format but in the tutorial I was SO ready to participate... Don't know why. We had our two presentations which admittedly were pretty good. Throughout the whole two hours I didn't once feel like I needed to slap myself to wake up. I was active and opinionated about the topic this week which gave me a good weekly tute mark. Then I came back to college and actually did work!! I felt so productive. I finished my Marine Paleontology field report, started my Blue Planet field report, picked a topic to write on for my 3500 word essay due 30 Oct, AND picked a topic for my 2500 word essay due 9 Nov. I felt so accomplished after that. Dinner came and went and I continued to work on my Blue Planet field report which everyone agrees is such a vague assignment that it's so hard to figure out. While I was working on my report with Maddie, Sue-Lin came and asked me if I was interested in being in the Burg Concert next tuesday. I had been trying to get in touch with Lucy about that for three days now!! But to have another person in charge asking me to be in it was just such a compliment (or at least I thought so). She had that look for shock when I said I would do it and then she said 'Great! And you wouldn't happen to be interested in entering the talent competition as well would you?' UHHH HELL YEA I'LL ENTER THE TALENT COMPETITION!! For one, I love talent shows, for another I live to compete!! I'm so psyched about this! One tiny little detail... I still have to choreograph the piece as well as find something to wear. But those are minor and I'll get it done no problem. Today has been a pretty good day... Hope all your days are as good as mine! Peace.

Back to reality

Yesterday was Sunday and that's typically the day of studying. I have a presentation on Sand dollars on Wednesday of next week. So I decided I should start researching it. I went to the Chiefly library with Sarah. Let me just say that I HATE libraries. I've had a fear of them for a while now. Regardless, I went to the library to find books on Sand dollars. I entered the term sand dollars in the search box for ANU libraries. Absolutely NO books were found, so I searched the term echinoderms. A few books showed up and I looked at where I had to find them... HANCOCK LIBRARY!! Damn so now I have to go to another library and this time I would be going alone because Sarah had her own stuff to do at Chiefly. So I went over to Hancock and looked at the signs that said where all the books were. The books were only on two levels: level 1 and basement. Can I just remind everyone that I am ridiculously afraid of basements. Anyways... I look to see where my books would be found and of course with my luck they're downstairs in the basement. So not only am I in a library, which is scary, I'm in the library basement!!! Can you just imagine all the horrible images in my mind as I walk down the long hall into my nightmares. Once I got down to the basement and searched through all the books they had on echinoderms-- about three shelves worth of books-- I was feeling a little better about having to deal with the whole situation. But then I realized that even with three shelves worth of books there were absolutely ZERO books mentioning sand dollars. It's like they don't even exist!! So I walked back to Chiefly empty handed. After a while of sitting in the library with Sarah we decided to walk back to Burgmann. At dinner Peter decided to headbutt me while I was drinking water. I spilled my water and retaliated by splashing him back. He declared war against me and tickled me multiple times throughout dinner. I spaz when I get tickled so I hate getting tickled. I dumped about a quarter of a cup of water on him and of course he got me back about 15 mins later when I had my guard down. But he got me back with a full cup of CHILLED water. I screamed and everyone in the dining hall laughed and asked me why I got water dumped on me. I was a bit chilly the rest of the night. I spent a total of an hour an a half in the dining hall and had way too much fun haha.

Today is the first day of classes after break and I'm not looking forward to it at all. Hopefully I get more work done today than I've been getting done in the last three weeks. I have so many assignments to start and so much studying to catch up on. I can't wait until my essays are done. Those are what's worrying me the most but hey... That's college! Check back later and I'll probably have more stories to tell for some good laughs :) Laters!

Stressed and Worried. But Procrastinating

It's only been a day since I've been back at College and I'm already finding that I'm starting to sweat exams in three weeks. OK so I do have other assessments that are due the coming week as well as other assessments in the week following this one. But still, two field reports and a presentation is a lot to deal with when you don't know how to do them. I know that writing this blog isn't helping me any but I'm just dreading starting it because once I start it, I'll just sit there feeling hopeless. I don't know what I was thinking taking science courses. I love science and used to be good at it but then something in my brain decided to switch into the off position and switched on the part of my brain that only allows me to do mediocre in social sciences. It does't really help that I've been sitting on facebook all morning trying to upload all these pictures from semester break. Does anyone else have problems uploading photos using the full uploader?! I have to upload all my pictures 5-by-5 because the full uploader keeps saying upload failed. It's so frustrating when you have just under 350 pictures to upload. But whatever, it's helping me to procrastinate (not that I really need to). If I were smart I would have brought my work to do in the computer room while I uploaded the photos. But of course I didn't do that. I really just don't want to do any work at all. I'm in denial that I'm back to the world of studying so soon from break. This is pretty much how I'll be come January. I love all my Skidmore friends but I really just don't want to go back.... at least not yet. I'm having too much fun in Australia and I'm sad that this had to end. I keep saying that I'll be back to Australia, but really when I do come back, how many of my friends here at Burgmann will be around the areas I'll be traveling to? My guess, not many. I still have yet to travel to WA, NT, and Tas. I anticipate traveling to Melbourne during finals since I really don't have anything to study for and even if I do, I can study on the plane ride. My finals are fairly easy to study for. It's the essays that I have due before my exams that I'm screwed for. They're around 3500 words each (I have two of them) and they're one topics that I really don't even know how to go about researching. This semester is going by WAY too fast :(. I'd like to think that I'm making life long friends here but really only Sarah is a possible life long friend since she's from the states and we're planning on visiting each other and Oz again. It's so depressing to think about but hey that's reality. That's the problem with making so many friends while being abroad: you never know when you'll actually see them again. I guess facebook and emails make it possible for you to keep in touch but how long before that gets out of date or you get bored of it and get rid of it? Then what happens to those friends that you ONLY kept in touch with because that was essentially your only form of communication? Technology is great but it can only provide so much for you. Oh well. I guess I'll have to leave it up to fate to bring those wonderful people back to me. But until then I should probably start my work and update you all later. If you need to frown, smile and stand on your head; it's easier than you think :)

Semester break in Australia

So I started this blog because I have a lot of stories that I need to share with people being abroad and all. But there are too many people and too many stories to keep repeating them one-by-one. I was never really good with keeping a diary or anything like that. Even xanga eventually fell off my list of things to keep track of. So here goes nothing.... Enjoy!

My two week semester break was a very well needed one. JD, Sarah, and I had a plan to half-ass backpack our way up the east coast of Australia. We started at Sydney, went to Gold Coast, ventured up to Cairns, and finished off at Brisbane. Our adventure began in Sydney because really, who goes to Australia and doesn't visit Sydney at least for a little while right? Well our lack of planning on finding a place to stay caught us in an awkward situation. We booked a room in a hostel in Kings Cross... I know... WHAT WERE WE THINKING?! right? As soon as we got there and saw the disgusting room we would be staying in we bailed. We called our friend Alex and Simon to see if one of them could put us up for a few nights. Luckily we were able to crash at Alex's house even though he wasn't arriving until the next day. Sydney was pretty chill. I shopped a lot there :P.
Then we were off to Gold Coast. We were hoping our hostel there wouldn't be as bad. At the very least we wouldn't have a roommate who smoked... YUCK! But we were staying at a YHA so we trusted them a little more. We really didn't have much of a plan except beach it. So we did that on the first day there. Then we saw this thing called Plan B: 1 hell of a night. It was basically a club crawl where you pay $50, get into 5 clubs/pubs/bars via VIP entrance, one free drink at every venue, and no cover charge. There were about 100 people there and everyone was pretty cool. We had so much fun that night. Then we hung out at the beach again because really what else is there to do? I taught Sarah how to surf (sort of) and JD attempted to stay on the surf board long enough to paddle a few feet out. Then we went out at night again. We were given VIP passes to CD's and SinCity. The VIP passes included not only free entry before 11pm but free drinks as well. CD's offered three drinks for the whole night (but we were only there for an hour) and SinCity offered two free drinks. Since we had to catch the bus back to the hostel we left around 11 having had out 5 free drinks in two hours. I was pretty drunk because I only had basic spirits all night.
In the morning we were on a plane headed up to Cairns. This is where the 'REAL' adventure began. This is where we spent the most amount of money because we took a cruise on a locally owned boat called Passions of Paradise. It was the best experience of my life! The crew was friendly and they took really good care of me while I learned to SCUBA dive and they taught me about the wild life of the GBR. I had an absolute blast on that boat. Cairns is also where Sarah reached her goal of cuddling a Koala. I too held the Koala and we all had out pictures taken with it. I also held a croc. it was kinda creepy but still SO COOL! Then we went to the butterfly sanctuary (you all know how much I LOVE butterflies). That was just the best day ever. Did I mention that at the hostel we were staying at we got free dinners every night? It was amazing. Our roommate was super cool too. She was an exchange student at JCU Townsville from Germany. On our last night there was a power hour at Rhinobar. Power hour means that we pay $6 entry charge and drink all you can drink in an hour for free. Yea we had a lot of free drinks on our trip. Thankfully none of us got sick.
Our last stop was Brisbane. We stayed at a friend's house and had a lot of fun just chillin' in the city. Once again we had no real plan. The highlight of that trip was probably meeting Sarah's friend from F&M, Victoria. She was so bubbly and fun to hang out with. And she gave us places to go for a fun night out. We ended up going to UJ's and getting pretty wasted. There were these drink cards that you could buy that allowed you to basically get drinks for $3. I could only handle three drinks because at that point I was already pretty trashed. Sarah managed 7 or 8 and JD had 13. All within the span of about 3 hours. These guys from WA talked to us and bought Sarah and I shots of what we think was Bailey's and Kalua. I couldn't take it because I was already way drunk and didn't want to get sick. JD took my shot for me. But still it was nice to have someone buy me a drink when they really didn't need to. It was also hilarious to see two girls with six guys hanging around them. In any case we were done for the night and left.
Our two week break was such an amazing one that I doubt I'll ever top it. Although it was exhausting I still enjoyed myself. It was a huge success considering we hadn't really planned anything to do at each location, we just went with the flow. It's times like these when I really realize how lucky I am to have met people like JD and Sarah who are willing to just hop on a plane and say 'Let's party!!' You guys are awesome! Thanks so much for giving me a vacation worth remembering!
As for the rest of you, hope you enjoyed reading about my semester break adventure in Australia! Cheers :D