28 October 2007

a day late, an hour short

so i woke up this morn, stretched out these crazy limbs of mine, and turned on the crapple. i leave the time on my laptop in chicago zonage so that i know the tiempo back home. i more or less have an idea of what time there equates to what time here. so after a while i look at the clock and i'm like hmm. something seems off. then i check my phone and it says the time is 102. what? i look at my room phone clock. same thing. a bit thrown off at this point, i call my friend and i'm like "what time is it?" because for whatever reason i couldn't believe that it was, in fact, 1 in the afternoon. she confirms the time and i run down to lunch because heaven forbid i miss a meal. everyone is there, apparently realising that day light savings time does exist in australia. so we've sprung ahead an hour, and i reckon the us falls back an hour in not so many days, which means the time will be 2 hours more apart than what we've used to been. that doesn't even make sense. i'm not even going to try to fathom it right now.

so now it doesn't start getting dark till an hour later, obvi, which i guess is another sign that spring is in the air. another sign of spring: flies. flies here are a BITCH. these suckas show no mercy. as soon as the weather gets nice they are all up in your face. and arms. and legs. and whatever part of your body is outside. or inside, if you leave your windows open. i went for a run today and after a km or so of swatting i just gave up. i think some kid laughed at me, called me the fly lady, until he realised that he was the same way. no, i'm making that up. seriously though, after a while. you're just kinda like, you win, flies. crawl all over me with your germy filthy legs, please.

so what was i doing waking up at noon (1) after doing so good the other day? this so called 'other day' i woke up at 10 in the morn to go to melb central with em. i guess i had motivation to get up, shopping and what not. the friday (day before) we had a pfa, which was fun, a lot of people have exams so it didn't go off like it usually did. that's another thing. i'm not used to this intense exam studying time. granted, i have 3 essays due friday i should be writing, but i can't find motivation to write when it's sunny and 25+ degrees out. but just wandering around college today everyone's doors are closed and music is low and it's all study study study. i could get on it but. the sun!

speaking of sun, let's talk about the utter lack of natural light that happens at casinos. we went to crown last night, to check it out, gamble our lives away, etc, and it's monstrous. a montrocity. we played the pokies for a while before that got old (slash/ kberb had to drag me away kicking and screaming "JUST ONE MORE GO!") and went up to the second level of more gambling and night clubs and bars. we wandered in and out trying to find the best dance floor/bar/live band/most old men who would creepily buy us drinks. we found a winner with this one bar that had a poppin' dance floor of old men in suits and overly tanned ladies strutting out their boobas and didn't hestitate to give us nasty stares when we took the dance floor. sorry, ladies, for stealing your men. you can have 'em.

tonight i'm about to leave for the icac battle of the bands. i reckon it's already went down but s&m's isn't on till 1040 so we have plenty of time to get down there. 'there' being wherever this place is happening at. should probably look into it. but won't.

bye!

24 October 2007

thankyou....

do yourselves a favour and go download the whitlams song 'thankyou' because it is pretty much fabulous. i'm having my friends make me aussie music cds because let's face it, britney spears just doesn't exist here. so my friend emma put this song on her cd and i am in love with it. seriously. we're getting married. i'm having its babies.

in other news, the reason i wanted to write today was because this morning was my best morning ever! and by best, i mean worst. so i woke up this morning after setting my alarm for 930am because i have a 1500 word essay due..soon. that i haven't started on it. so the plan was to work on it before uni, go to uni, eat lunch, then work on it some more. so i woke up because good ole roomz' was ridiculously loud, i look at my phone and it is 749. i pull the covers over my head and try to fall back asleep. i wake up again at 815, get up to go to the bathroom, and come back and try to fall asleep again. at 828 my room phone is ringing, so i answer it and try to sound like i've been awake this whole time. i hate answering the phone when i sound groggy, but usually people see through my bad acting skills. i think i might've fooled jenna though. so i'm talking to her but really i'm wondering why she is calling me at 830 in the morning. then i glance at the clock on my room phone and it's 1130am. turns out that when i updated my iphone yesterday it went back to chicago time, so that 828 was really pm, yesterday. i jump in the shower and make it to my tutorial right on time.

so i'm sitting in the tute and every so often i catch someone glancing at me. i know i'm ridiculously hot and all but after one too many glances i look down at myself to see just what is so enticing..and i realize that my shirt has unbuttoned all the way down and my boobas are hanging out. good onme. so i slyly button it up and am a bit frazzled because my lecturer had definitely stolen a few not-so-discrete glances. maybe it'll earn me an h1 on this next essay!

so i get through the last tutorial and am making my way back to mary's and trip up a small set of stairs outside of a building, and of course a class just got out and i am in the middle of a huge group of people. i make a small courtesy and chuck right out of there.

and it's not even 2pm yet. well, it is, back in the usa. stupid apple! now, on to work choices. dammit! i was supposed to ask people at lunch about it. ahh, well. it's just gonna be a pile of bs anyway.

booya! (now you say grandma)

19 October 2007

shut the muck up.

i really like how the australians use the word muck. it's not quite a curse, it's more of a synonym for mess, ie, i really mucked up that one. we just had our college photo (which was postponed from ages ago because newman wouldn't less use their bleacher stands, the bastards) and after the one of us all in our red & blue jumpers and accys we had a muck up photo. basically everyone dresses like an idiot. i was in a toga bedsheet. NAKED! no. get your mind of the gutter.

also, how mucked up are my feet. they have blisters, popped and unpopped, from the marathon, blisters from my thongs, a blood blister from when i decided it would be better to walk home from birra bella shoeless, blisters on the bottom of my toes, raggedy toe nails because my toe nails don't grow because of running.. basically, if i was snow white and prince charming slipped a glass slipper on my foot, it wouldn't matter if it fit or not.

so we have valete dinner tonight, which is basically a good bye valedictorary dinner for all the 3rd years. everyone gets up super formal and there are speeches made, awards given etc. apparently its very emotional as well. don't be surprised if the ole leeshy-leesh drips a few tears from these aqueducts i have for eyes. after dinner we have a paradise island themed turn in the jcr, i reckon me and jenna are going to end up going as jellyfish. although in my paradise i wouldn't have jellyfish, unless they were made of actual jelly. sugar free. obviously.

yesterday ella stopped by my room before we went out for jenna's birthday and she gave me a gift bag from north 2.. they got a bunch of classic aussie food favourites and a jar of vegemite, including a how-to guide to eat this spread. i admit. i haven't really given the stuff a chance, only that one time back in the states when i spread it on way to thick. apparently the key is to spread it thin on toast with butter. i told them if they made it for me i'd eat it, but clearly i am incompetent. AND it also had the COOLEST tshirt ever.. courtesy of the australian government.. a gorgeous black off centered oddly large 'don't lose your standards' tee. nice. i will never take it off.

OH NEWS FLASH! guess where i am going to be. okay stop guessing you'll never get it. CENTRE COURT for the australian open also known as rod laver arena.. now. calm down. breathe. i know you're jealous. let's be honest, melbourne is a cool city but the original reason for coming here was always for the aussie open. now once i realized that it wasn't possible no matter what semester i came here, in the end i decided melbourne would be a nicer place to live for 6 months than sydney (hello, world's most liveable city!). but that doesn't mean everytime i go to the mcg and see rod laver i don't get a little bit excited (if you know what i mean..) so me and karri are doing a tour of the arena and all the courts and stuff.. we get to go into the locker rooms.. the press rooms.. the tunnel that the players walk through on their way to grand final.. EXCITEMENT!

alright, phone's ringing, that's my CUE to exit! going to saver's to try to find a tropical jelly fish themed outfit for tonight..

peace out cub scout

16 October 2007

what do you call a clingy boyfriend?

sticky date. pudding. okay. that was lame, but that's not my joke, i'm just the messenger. don't shoot the messenger. mmm. let's talk about my love for sticky date pudding. we had it after tea tonight and the slices were unusually large.. like, this was not your baby sister's sticky date pudding. this was the incredible hulk of sticky date pudding, covered in caramel sauce and a heap of ice cream. ooooh. so good, it made up for the shite dinner of overcooked roast and mash.

so i still haven't written about brizzy and at this point it's unlikely. but maybe you'll get lucky and i'll deliver the occasional spring break story. like right now!

so me and monica did a great barrier reef tour with this company we found online. it ended up being a really good tour, got to see everything we wanted and do what we wanted to do. the only thing that sucked was it left from brisbane, and the reef doesn't hit till about 6-700k up the coast, so the ride up was a bit of a bitch. but! another day, another story!

so we were supposed to be camping under the stars, on the beach, in the glorious australian wildlife. no. that did not happen. it would've been fine with me, the outdoorsy loving person i am. except for the possums. random fact: if you leave food by your window and you live over the veranda here, don't be surprised if possums get into your room. anyways, something was going on with the town council, fists were pulled out, punches were thrown, possums were burned, and long story short we ended up staying at the hostel in town. side note - this town was called "the town of 1770" not because that is the population (which i originally thought) but because that's when it was founded. although if it did have a population of 1770 i would be shocked, because where did all those people hide?

so there were about 25 of us on the tour and the hostel wasn't expecting us so they had to divide us up between multiple rooms. me and monica totally got shafted, and by me and monica, i mean mostly me, although monica ended up suffering too. so we ended up getting seperated because this uptight, unfashionable finnish chick on the tour wanted to stay in an all-girls room which just wasn't possible. so i got put in a room with her and the tour guide and his family, who lovingly decided to come on this very tour with him. the tour guide was cool enough, went by the name of elvis, although i wouldn't be surprised if that was his real name. so i put my stuff in the room, put the pillows and blankets on my bed and went over to monica's. we had bbq for dinner and talked to some of the other backpackers there, people who weren't on the tour with us. we met some really cool kids from england and germany in particular and decided to go the local townie pub, which was "just around the corner, up the hill, and when you see a big victoria bitter sign lighting up the sky, you've found it." so off we go.

we get there and it seems the whole town of 1770 has shown up. i guess if you were to picture a stereotypical drunk aussie pub, this would be it, complete with breakdancing wastoids and classy broads in mid driff shirts. my idea of a good time, obvi. it was a really cool night, had some beers and got to know the other backpackers. we left around 1am or so, not stumbling drunk but it was pretty close. so i go back to my room and everyone is asleep, so i tiptoe around with the lights off trying to figure out how i am supposed to get to the top bunk in my drunk state. i changed into my pj's and am about to crawl into my bed when i notice two long tubes taking up the whole entire bed. wtf, mate? what am i supposed to do about that? i didn't know if they were heavy or not (they looked pretty heavy to me) so i decided the best idea would be to just go share a bed with monica. so off i went, next door, told monica my dilemma, and spent a comfy night with 2 people on a twin bunk bed.

the next morning we went down to brekkie and the mom/wife lady may have given us a look or two but didn't say anything. that day was spent snorkeling and swimming on the reef, really awesome, hard to explain how great it is in words so i'll just let the pictures explain. when i get them developed.

so we head back to the hostel later that night and i go into my room and realize that my bed is made up and someone else's stuff is on it. i ask the wife/mom tour guide lady what was going on, and she says that she thought it was just an empty bed because no one slept there last night. i tell her no, it was my bed, and i couldn't sleep in it last night because there were the 2 long tubes on it.

"two tubes? what - oh, those. those were just the didgeridoos."

duh.

i quickly left the room and proceeded to break out in laughter. maybe you had to be there.

08 October 2007

run hard, don't worry, you'll pass out before you die

wow so i've been ignoring this thing for a while now. i have good reason, though, i swear. see mainly i take the uni's wireless as opposed to plugging into to the college's ethernet and the uni wireless doesn't like loading facebook and blogger for whatever reason so i can only get onto those when i am plugged into the college. and that doesn't happen very often because internet is expensive here and yeah. so. on we go.

first of all, i just ran a frickin marathon. i just FINISHED a marathon. i am the happiest clam in the world. my body is ridiculously sore but i finished and i am so happy about it. unfortunately though i came down really hard on my heel at some point near the beginning, it didn't bother me at first but as soon as i hit 21k i was like.. ow. and i had to run/shuffle/walk the rest of the way. right now i can't even walk without a huge limp, which makes me wonder how i even finished yesterday.. the first half of it went really well, i think i had about 2:10 split at the half. but my finishing time was 4:49.51 and i wanted under 5 so wooo! i'm not just saying this either, but if it weren't for my heel i think i would've done better, my legs and lungs were okay for the majority, but everytime i stepped my heel would ache. it got to the point where i would walk and it'd hurt, and running on it would hurt, so i was kind of just like screw this, if it's gonna hurt either way i might as well run. it was weird running it with only 3000 competitors, as opposed to chicago which has like 45000. the marathon's cut off time for road closures and that was 5 hours so i was determined not to be shut down on and clearly i just made it!

along the way they had drink stations obvoiusly but the coolest part was that they weren't cups, they were in this plastic sachets that you would tear open with your teeth and then you could keep running while you drank it, you didn't need to stop like you would for a cup because you didn't have to worry about it getting all over you. the only thing that sucked was that since i had a lower time so close to cut off, most of the other runners were all trained and good and fast, so while there were still people behind me there definitely weren't the numbers that would be in chicago. at that point though i didn't care, i just wanted to finish. people passed out snakes and lollies and icypoles while you ran, so that was nice, because the actual marathon people only gave out water and occasionally powerade. i guess for such a small marathon it's nothing new?

but running onto the MCG for the finish was one of the coolest things, you're in the middle of this 100,000 person stadium, it left me in awe as i hobbled my way to the finish. along the way i met an essendon footy player who was clearly injured as well trying to run the 200m to the finish. at about 100m left i called my sister and told her i was about to finish and she was like "we're running with you! vito is running with you too!" and i got to cross the finish line with her (on the phone). so any pictures that pop up of me finishing i will be on the phone. as i run a marathon. i was definitely overcome with happiness and i started sobbing, the best part was though was that my friends were able to get onto the field and as soon as i crossed the finish and got my medal they were there around me hugging me and congratulating me and it was great to have people there to take care of me after. seriously. one of the great experiences of my life.

and then as soon as it was over i honestly could not walk. i had to have andrew and siobhan basically carry me through to get fruit and water and my clothes again after.. we had to take a taxi home because i couldn't even walk to the tram. which makes me wonder how i was able to run 13 miles on this foot, because even today i can't step on it. that upsets me because if it seriously weren't for this foot i would be achey and sore but at least i could walk. now i just look like an invalid. anyways.

after taking a well needed and deserved shower at siobhan's we headed to max brenner's and we FINALLY got the chocolate pizza which was orgasmic and delicious and i would run another marathon for it in a heartbeat. which if you would've asked me around 25k if that were true, i would have swore you off and cursed you out. amanda called at some point and i was like "i am never doing this again. i hate the world." and now after i'm like "let's do that again!" stupid marathons. so addicting. luckily i won't have to wait long because it's only 97 days till disney!

so my roommate has a bunch of fruit on her desk from the dining room and i definitely just took off an apple. it's just sitting there and she didn't come home last night, so, fair game. i took a banana earlier. i'm injured, people! i can barely walk! i can't make it to the lunch room! watch her walk in right.....now.

okay. so yeah. marathon was awesome, i am pretty happy with my first-marathon-no-training 4:49:51 time, no so happy with my foot, but happy that i get a well-deserved rest day because i don't have uni at all. although i am going to have to find something to do about this foot for the remainder of its pain-length.

oh, boy. i still have to write about spring break! well, seeing as how today will most be spent stretching and in bed, hopefully i'll be well enough and inspired enough for an update later.

as for now, peace!

oh, yeah. me and kristen and leah made shirts the other day too: on the front, they say "team america 2007" and the back "kickin' assphalt on 2 continents!" be jealous, i guess.

02 October 2007

watch your head, chinaman!

oh my.

i am home. alive. and ready to start up with kickass uni again! woo! classes! wooooo! yeah... no.

starting up uni again will be one of the hardest things i'll ever have to do. i guess an update is in order, no? spring break 3.0 was amazing. it was a mongolian clusterfuck of buses and beaches and hostels and beer, but its nice to be home again, if only for a comfortable, familiar bed. which i just woke up from. at 4 in the afternoon.

how do i put into words what has happened to me?