I'm going to Honduras

yep thats right. I AM GOING TO HONDURAS!!!!

risa just asked me today if I would like to accompany her family to Honduras this august.

no brainer. of course i want to go.

we are going to build a church the first five days then off to explore the mayan ruins and what not.

how lucky am i?

i cant stop smiling I am so happy

i'm broke, but hey grandma reads my blog so its all good

grandma informed me she enjoys reading my blog. she followed that up with saying, lay of the whiskey. so i know she reads all of the posts :)

i lost my room key again today. it is like a hotel key and think i must have dropped it when getting my smart rider card out for the train. so i have to keep a shoe jammed in my door until i can go get another one. it will probably cost me $10. grrrrrr

rachel leaves for melbourne tonight. yesterday i met her after work to go back to her parents house for one last dinner. i almost cried on the train thinking about rachel being gone. she on the other hand is so excited to get out of perth. at least i will be able to visit her in melbourne now on my way back to honolulu. but the weather there is 15 degrees C and is expected to get colder (its australia the seasons are backwards, they are heading into winter). but dinner was lovely, her mom made a roast which for me is a treat because meat has now become a luxury in my diet. Russell came for dinner as well as Brad and Lauren.  Lauren and I made plans to go ride scooters in Fremantle and go watch Brad play some country footy. She said i get to be her new sister since rachel is leaving. ok with me.

got some concerts coming up which is pretty exciting. i am going to have to find some new ways of sneaking alcohol into these venues because i cant afford to drink

Saturday: Grafton Primary 

Tuesday: Okkervil River

May 17th: Ratatat

basically my life is as dad always used to say: "same old shit different day"

i am adding something to that, "but look at the bright side, at least you're shitting, you could be constipated" (hope dad reads that, i told him i am working on my optimism)

currently reading: Porno By: Irvine Welsh

currently listening to: Phoenix 

rusty wombat cruiser

i found out that in australia when you get paid from work it gets directly deposited into your bank account. they don't cut checks here. so i had to go get a bank account and i still cant get my pay yet because i have to wait for the ATM card to come in. oh well it was a learning experience and now i cant spend my money yet. 

steve fixed up his bike and is going to let me use it. now i dont have to catch the bus and train just to get to work. it is about a 30 min bike ride and its all uphill on the way back, but it will be good exercise. i have named the bike the rusty wombat cruiser. its funny because i havent really rode a bike in over 10 years so my vagina region was very sore after the first few bike rides.

yesterday i went on a bike ride with steve and claire. we started at claire's house and rode to Scarborough. it was pretty far and took us an hour each way. but it was along the beach so it was really pretty. we had lunch and rode back. we spotted a lizard and it was huge. at least over a foot long. not like the little geckos i am used to back home. steve chased me with it and i was so scared i almost peed my pants.

last night i didnt go out and party like normal college kids. i worked for six hours straight on my web design assignment. we had to have 6 separate HTML pages and 2 CSS pages all linked. i figured it out, but it wasnt easy. 

now i have sunday to kind of relax before another hectic week.

currently reading: Einstein's Dreams

currently listening to: broken social scene

too many diet cokes

on my desk next to my lap top i have four empty diet coke cans. this might seem problematic, but it really isnt. diet coke is my fuel :)

it is a friday night. i am home by 7 pm. back from a long day of work and class. i had a bagel for dinner. i dont really have any other food. i have no plans. i have no energy to try and make friends/plans. 

so this friday i will throughly enjoy the pity party with myself.  be happy for me

currently reading: Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman

currently listening to: mates of state

got a case of the sundays

i have concluded that sundays are my least favorite days. they always have been my entire life and now that i am in australia i feel even more dislike for the 7th day of the week. although it is the weekend sunday is a day of restlessness. monday is right around the corner and that means a hectic week as well. i never really have plans on sunday so i usually waste the day feeling bored and i never seem to accomplish anything.

however, i have started going on really long runs on sunday evenings. i usually get lost, but this allows me to see more of the mount lawley area. and sundays are rubbish day so it is so interesting seeing what people are getting rid of. i have decided next sunday i am taking my camera with me to document the quaint neighborhoods. 

today russell took me to watch his cricket team in the finals. after asking him a million questions (probably really annoying him) i kind of got a good idea of the game and enjoyed the three hours of the game we watched. its no water polo of course but i had been so closed minded and thought it was an old man game, but it is actually pretty fun to watch.

i went out on friday to this club in the city. the place was really scenester and they actually have a dress code that wont allow guys in who are dressed metrosexual. aka no t-shirts that look like jerseys (with numbers on them), nothing ambercrombie would make. ahhaa. it was funny.

i just paid $2.50 for a box of nerds.

i need to start eating healthier. and maybe laying off the beer.

working 17 hours at gloria jeans this week, so that will keep me a little busy and i have an easy on the woman who fought for birth control in the US due.

currently reading: Autobiographies of American Women (for the essay)

currently listening to: Of Montreal 

love from france

i got a postcard from jennifer. it seriously made my day. and now i have an awesome bookmark and dont have to dog ear my pages.

once again the weekend was a blur. i really need to start doing some homework. its so hard to stay on top of things because you only have three assignments a semester. so different from the US. i will just do it the night before. hahaa it has work for the past five semesters at chapman. 

on saturday i went to go see a play called "Between the devil and the deep blue sea". it was such a great play and i was lucky i got tickets because we saw it the last night it was playing in Perth. It was a british satire play from the 1927s and it incorporated silent movie clips with mimes acting in front of it. It was absolutely like nothing i had seen before.

on sunday i went to Cottesloe beach. It was the first time i have been to the beach since arriving in Perth, and boy did i pick a great first beach to go to. apparently this is the favorite beach of the late heath ledger. but we just so happened to go during the sculpture festival, so there were tons of different sculptures all along the beach. my friend dano and i shared a bottle of whiskey :( and we went back to joondalap because they had a music festival going on and Kings of Leon were playing. so we sat on the hill right outside of the fence and got to hear kings perfectly and for free. the stars were out, the whiskey had caught up to me and i was lucky enough to get to yak in the bushes while hearing the kings play "use somebody". i really am a lucky lady

so random but one day i met rachel after work in the city. rachel has a real grown up job helping process aid for victims of the victoria bush fires. so we went to this real swanky bar called the george. i was the last to order and i asked the man for a guinness, which just so happens to be one of my favorite beers. he made such a big deal about it. he was laughing and shaking his head. i asked him what was so funny because he was embarrassing me. he said he has never had a woman order one before. i started to feel a little trashy. so i was drinking my beer and a few guys came up to me and made comments about how impressed they were that i was drinking guinness. two guys even clanked glasses with me and cheers me. i tanked it and learned not to order guinness in perth.

i had my first shift at gloria jeans. its a pretty standard coffee shop. i get confused sometimes because the money is different and they dont have pennys. they just round up or down. its the weirdest thing but they dont sell just plain drip coffee. you can only get latte/espresso like drinks. so weird. and they dont have half and half.

currently reading: still Lolita

currently listening to: islands

a legit aussie sunburn

this past monday was australia's labor day weekend. it was crazy. i only went back to my apartment to reapply my makeup and change clothes.

i went to soundwave music festival. it was fun because it was a lot of emo bands that i was really into from high school. so i got relive the glory days of being in the emo brigade. i saw: saves the day, hellogoodbye, underoath, anberlin, bloodhound gang, nine inch nails, minus the bear, jacks mannequin, and say anything. say anything was by far my favorite. i went and saw them with evan a fellow american, but from the other campus. it was awesome because the guitarist was wearing a portland blazers jersey and it make me homesick, missing my seester. i also got a really bad sunburn at soundwave. its been four days and i am still bright red. slowly browning. i am so embarrassed by it that i have been wearing sweatshirts and sweating everyday. there is no ozone layer above australia so the sun is extra intense. lesson learned

my friend dano is also from hawaii, lanai to be exact, be he goes to uni in montana now. they wouldnt give him a wrist to drink at the festival because they thought his hawaii id was fake. but i got in fine. its because of the movie superbad and mclovin. i had some trouble with my id once i turned 21 in the states but here i guess i look over 18. so we went and finally got him a wrist band after showing them my id. but they wouldnt let him into the drink tent. but luckily i had made friends with one of the guards so we made sure to go to him each time we went to drink. but when he got to register to actually buy his drink they id him again and wouldnt sell to him. the chick said yeah right you can buy those on the internet. so i had to go up and buy all his drinks. i felt like a sugar momma. but its funny what one movie has done to the people who have hawaii drivers licenses.

claire and steve took me out to get mexican food. i was craving a chick quesadilla and they didnt have it. apparently mexican isnt popular in oz. and it was super expensive, $22 for a burrito. not like socal at all. i was grateful for the taste of gac and sour cream though!

i had my trail shift at gloria jeans today. i was only there two hours and i basically learned everything. i was on the register and it was difficult trying to decipher the customers thick accents and confusing coffee orders. they also have different names for the drinks so i had to think in my head when i was making them. it picked it up so easily though that i got the job. so i am excited to start working.

school is going good. its nice having only one class a day. its easy to pay attention and be excited that way.

on sunday i am going to the beach with some american kids from the joondalap campus. i cant believe i have been here for a month and havent seen the ocean yet. but i am fixing that, dont worry.

currently reading: lolita

currently listening to: the shins (sea legs- its a great song, have a listen)

in the words of phil collins I CAN'T DANCE

my flatmate bryon forced me to go out with him and his friends last night. it was kind of funny because there were two americans, one girl from sweden, one girl from germany, and bryon our lone aussie. we went to northbridge which is known as the club district. we went to a club and ended up on the latino floor. there was salsa music blasting all night. after finishing a few jugs we hit the floor. i can't dance. let alone salsa dance. therefore with some encouragement from josephine, the swed, we busted out some funny moves. you know the grave digger, q-tip, and fax machine. you get the idea.

had class early this morning. i was ok though. it was my digital photomedia lab. for the first time in my life i used photoshop. it was difficult and i was one of the last students done with the assignment (we had to make a face out of vegetables). But i feel it is a very practical class and its about time i learn how to use photoshop.

had an interview at gloria jeans coffee shop. their coffee sucks but i need a job and the owners seemed to like me. they had me make them lattes. i was so nervous. i went behind the counter in my dress and stockings. i go back next week for a trial shift. i think thats a good thing?

going to claire's mum's house for dinner tonight. then going out to the city for the first time.

tomorrow is mischa's birthday bbq. he requested that i teach them how to play beer pong. he even has a white board to make it a tournament. legit. i might not be the best teacher but i am happy to share the american past time.

currently reading: Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

currently listening to: TV on the radio

sending you GOOD VIBES

 today was my first day of school.

 yesterday was the Good Vibes music festival.

Good Vibes was soooo much fun. it was really cool to have the chance to experience festival life in Perth. Australians, especially in Perth love their music and their festivals.  They go all out and party hard.

The day started for us with about 1oo degree weather where I got to see Chromeo for the second time (first was two years ago at the Neighborhood Music Festival). Then in a good size tent, Yelle provided some excellent dance tunes. the french dance/pop kept everyone dancing.  The crowd for the australian band, and personal favorite of mine, The Presets was insane. There were so many people. I was really glad the first time I was able to see The Presets was in Australia. So fitting. The headliner and night act was mr. Fatboy Slim. As always the old man provided some nice remixes, mashups, beats, and dancing music. this set was a little different than the last time i saw him. I loved the seven nation army and arcade fire no cars go remixes.

ok school. i had only one class today. it is publishing on the World Wide Web. it is hardcode starting from scratch coding with xhtml and CSS. whoo this should be fun. My lecturer is this old dude who could totally be a south park character. but my tutor for the lab portion is this hot aussie who just graduated a few years ago ;) when he came over to help me and i spoke he laughed and said, "u canadian?" what could i do but smile!!!!!

more classes to come.....

still job hunting....

currently reading: still Brief Interviews With Hideous Men

currently listening to: Arcade Fire

no napkins

I saw death cab in concert on thursday. it was amazing seeing them again with rachel and steve (we saw them together at sasquatch during our road trip last summer).  It was in Fremantle which is an older part of Perth and is simply beautiful.

Perth continues to be hit with hot weather.  Everyday is at least 90-100 degrees and sometimes hotter. my skin has returned to the nice brown that it was when I was still in Hawaii. I havent been tan for about three years so its very nice, but also makes me a bit homesick.

we finally start school on Monday and I am excited to be busy again. I have been out of school for so long I hope I haven't forgotten what its like to be a student :)

still job hunting...

I have been noticing some interesting things about australians:

1. they dont really use napkins. they aren't given or on display and you have to ask if you want any

2. they dont say bless you when you sneeze

3. they are barefoot all the time

4. they dont sell dr.pepper. i found one at a speciality store and splurged (one 12 oz can was $4)

currently reading: still Brief Interviews With Hideous Men

currently listening to: menomena

so australia is expensive

finally got internet in my room today. it comes after over a week of having to go to campus and sit in the computer lab.  it took a south african dude one hour to configure my mac to the wireless. i told him how excited i was that i can now skype. he laughed and said i would have to pay for the ethernet internet. i have no idea what he is talking about but it will cost me $75 a month :(

tried to go to the gym on campus. found out it costs $12 a day or $100 month. so i will be running around town from now on.

although australians do speak english i am constantly trying to keep up with their conversations. they have their own word for just about every word. its funny because of my hawaiian accent everyone thinks i am canadian. i get asked it all the time. must be all the 'yeahs' i throw into my sentences. 

so far the highlight of my week has been going to the pub with brinn, steve, and booza at 3 pm. it was a really cool pub, until they played the entire hanson cd. i mean entire cd! it was kinda fun reliving the mmmmbop days though

currently reading: Brief Interviews With Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace

currently listening to: Le Tigre