Hello world

I’m going to write a blog post while watching Good News Week in an effort to stop eating. Good News Week is this show where they take comedians and musicians and the like and make the news headlines from all over the world into these funny little stories. They play games, like guess the headline, and they make up headlines and have them guess which one is correct. They also take the beats of popular songs and put news stories to them. It’s funny. It’s also an hour and a half long, and after it the Emmy’s are on. A day later than in the States, upsetting. Today I had to avoid my Yahoo News trying to tell me who won and who was upset they didn’t win. I could have read the complete list of winners, but no! I will wait until I can see it for myself here in australia dammit! While we’re on the subject of TV, there are also these two australian shows that are like all the rage here. They are called The Offspring, and Married Single Other. But apparently the latter or which is english. Let me tell you, australian TV is just not up to the standard I’m used to. Sure american TV sucks, but woah baby australian TV is awful. The actors are atrocious. It’s hard to watch. But they do have funny informative shows, such as Good News Week and Talkin’ Bout Your Generation. Funny funny. There is this guy who is probably in his twenties on Your Gen. If he were not a raging homosexual I would be in love with him. But alas. Also, australians love Modern Family. And I mean who can blame them? Modern Family is awesome, and apparently killed at the Emmy’s. Yahoo News could not spare me that. They now show it twice a week, Sunday nights and Tuesday. Best nights of the week. We get the channel called Go! Apparently it just launched like last year. They play the strangest mix of shows. They play old stuff like Bewitched, Hogans Heros, and MASH, and then they play the Hills, Wipe Out, and a whole bunch of other stuff. They play all these movies too. But good news! A commercial for the new season of Glee just came on and I will totally be able to watch it here in aussie land! There are also two long running soap operas. Neighbors and Home and Away. Apparently every australian actor and musician has been on them. Also very popular in australia is True Blood. Probably because it’s like soft core porn and australians really love to do the dirty.

In other news it’s Grand Final time. Which is for the AFL. Brisbane is out, but no one expected them to be in. We watched this guy, Ben Cousins, play his last game the other day. He was this really good footballer who then had a public struggle with drug addiction and was banned from the AFL for a little while. He was captain of the West Coast Eagles or something and had to step down. He went to rehab in LA and stuff and then came back. But then he relapsed for whatever and went back. Basically he is a disgraced footballer. But this team, Richmond Tigers picked him up for his last two years. But now he is retiring and it’s this whole big to-do. So we watched. It was sad. But for anyone that cares, Grand Final day is the 25th of September. I will be basking in the sun on the beach in the Whitsunday's at that time. What a tough life.

It’s almost September. Which is just outrageous. Can someone please tell me where August went? September looks like it will be a busy month over here. On tap is the Brisbane Festival, which hopefully we’ll get down to see this weekend. Then on the 8th Meaghan and I will be flying down to Melbourne until the 13th. I plan to do some serious shopping, apparently Melbourne is like shopping heaven. Then we’re leaving for the Whitsunday’s on the 22nd until the 29th. And then it’s October. And that’s the last month of classes. Oh Australia how I love thee.

Hey guys,

Sorry it’s been a while since my last update, it’s been relatively busy around here. I’ll start with last weekend.

Last Saturday the roommates and I went on this pub crawl for the rugby team. It was pretty fun, we went to four bars, Surfers Rowers, SinCity, The Beach House, and Cocktails and Dreams. We got these shirts that we had to wear to show that we were with the pub crawl, so we made them fashionable. I’ll tell you, the worst part about going out is trying to find something to wear, so it was a relief that we had to wear the shirts. We lost Simon at SinCity, he just kind of wondered off and we didn’t see him again until the next morning. No worries though, we’re pretty sure he went back home after SinCity. We lost Chris after the Beach House, so after Cocktails Kate, Meaghan and I got a taxi back to the apartment where we took some classy pictures and made a ruckus. Unfortunately for us, we all had to be up early the next morning for the AFL game.

So we took the train into Brisbane for the AFL game. Kate gets motion sickness so she took some drugs that make her go numb, needless to say it was a hilarious train ride. We walked to the game where we promptly entered the AFL store where I got an AFL ball so we could “have a kick with the footy” and a supporter scarf. It was exciting. We got to our seats, which were in the second row from the field, fabulous seats for a mere $17. It was hot. Very very hot. The sun was just beating down on us, there was no shade, it was relatively miserable for the first half. Fortunately we got some clouds for the second half. I stole a poweraed, by accident mind you. I had it under my arm when I went to get my meat pie (more on that later) and I just walked off with it. It was like $5.20 so that was pretty lucky. I also had my first meat pie. An australian staple. You put a little tomato sauce on it and it is absolutely delicious. Brisbane ended up loosing, no surprise there, we’re like the second from the bottom. But it was a close game. They played Adelaide. After the game we walked around South Bank. We got some dinner and headed home.

Tuesday was Kate’s 22nd birthday. She was all worried about turning 22 so we got a cake and put 18 candles on it. We’re so funny. We made tacos for dinner, which were delicious.

Thursday Meaghan and I went to the beach for a few hours. Delightful. Who would have thought this was their winter. For dinner we all went and got Indian, fabulous.

This weekend was a little more uneventful. On Saturday Meaghan, Chris, Simon and I went to this thing called the Q-Deck. It’s like the tallest building on the Gold Coast, also one of the 20 tallest buildings in the world. You can see like all up and down the coast, it was crazy beautiful. Then we got lunch in Surfers and walked around a little. An enjoyable afternoon.

I can’t even believe it’s almost September. Where did August go? Now that everyone is going back to Ithaca it’s weird to think I’m not going with them. Don’t forget about me! We still have so many things we want to do it seems like there just isn’t enough time! Even still, this has been the most amazing experience ever. It just feels like I’m on a five month vacation in paradise. Mom, I’m never coming home.

Love to you all

Another week, another weekend. This past Saturday was Race Day. We pay $50 to get free drinks for 5 hours and watch people race horses around a track while dressed in our Sunday best. $50 well spent. So I get up at around 9 o’clock, sit on the balcony, per usual and soak up some rays, then at around 10 o’clock I get dressed. Then people start to arrive at the apartment to start drinking because everyone knows you can’t show up to an event where alcohol is involved sober. Huge no no. So alas we all sit on the balcony, my new favorite spot, for a solid 3 hours drinking and chit chatting while we watch everyone else walk by and judge their outfits. There were some good looking kids. This girl that we watch in her room picked the dress we liked (she was showing her friend them one day and we were watching) and she had a rocking hat. Then at 1:30 we get ready to go, and we show up a fashionable 2 hours late. Let the drinking begin (sorry mom).

Race Day was just one huge sloppy mess. Some highlights include, but are not limited to: girl with toilet paper in her dress, then 2 minutes later it unravels and falls down her back, we spill so many drinks on the table the table cloth is dripping wet, meaghan’s drink falls from her hand and spills all over my leg, free delicious food, especially the rolls, a nice english boy.

After the races we get bused into Surfer’s where we eat Hungry Jack’s, Australia's version of burger king, and we lose Chris. Then we head back to the apartments and I’m passed out spinning in my bed by 10. Successful day.

This week we plan on heading to the beach called Broadbeach and I’m going to look into taking more surf lessons. I’ve decided that I want to buy a surfboard. Yeah mom, it’s happening. This Sunday my roommates and I are going to Brisbane to watch an AFL game, the brisbane lions vs. Adelaide. Apparently Brisbane sucks, but thats ok. We’re also planning on flying to Melbourne at the end of August/beginning of September. For spring break Meaghan and I are going to the Whitsunday Islands. We’re going to island hop for a week while getting as tan as possible.

Yesterday in philosophy when we were leaving we had to give the professor our names so he can start to put faces to names, and he pronounced my last name like they do in Germany, because he’s german. He was like Vagner? So I’m like yep that’s me! So now I feel that he may like me more because he’s german and I’m kinda german, we’re connected. The village has this thing called DC++, which is like a network where only people who live in the village can share movies, tv shows, and music, for free. Needless to say I’ve been a pretty happy girl downloading movies and music and tv. I’m taking full advantage of this. My nutrition tutorial starts this week, now I have 3 hours of class on Tuesday rather than my usual 1.

Other than that not much is going on here. It’s starting to warm up a little bit. Not getting as cold at night as usual. The sun here is very strong, sitting on the balcony for like 10 minutes will get you a tan line. The birds are as loud as ever and the couches are still shedding little black things all over.

Hey all,

It was another beautiful day here in australia. I had a pretty good weekend this past weekend. On Friday my roommates Meagan and Kate and I went into Harbour Town, which is like this big outdoor shopping center. It’s got a bunch of discount stores and such. I must say, aussie discount stores, not as good as american discount stores. Just a bunch of really cheap crap. There were some good finds though, the Levi store was having a buy one get one free sale on everything in the store, so of course I had to take advantage of that. We went into the Nike store and there were some wicked sweet 80’s jackets, like wind breakers. I wanted one so bad but they were like $90, and even with the exchange rate that is slightly out of my price range. Look mom, I resisted, be proud. But we decided that those jackets with some high tops would totally win at an 80’s party. We got ice cream there too. It was heavenly. The best ice cream I have ever had. I got white chocolate and creme brule. It was delicious.

After Harbour Town we went back to the apartment and hung out with Chris and Simon as they got ready for the Back to School party the Unibar was throwing. Unfortunately we were a little late on the whole getting tickets that we missed out. We were sitting on the balcony while Chris and Simon got nice and drunk and watched Chris draw all over himself in permanent marker. So we’re all sitting outside on the balcony, we’re listening to music, and the door to the apartment is open, and in walks this guy. He’s like, does someone want to tell me about the witches hats that were found in this apartment the other day. Ok 1, what the hell are witches hats. And 2, who the hell are you. So this guy came back with the boys after some party or whatever and had stolen 2 traffic cones and displayed them on the balcony. So the Village thought it would be totally Ok to walk into our apartment and just take them back. How did they know they weren’t actually ours? That’s what I want to know. Hello invasion of privacy! Luckily we just blamed it on the “non resident” and that strange and unfortunate looking man was on his way. But not before everyone in the village got a nice email saying that Village property belonging to the construction guys was stolen and that this was a very immature thing to do.

Saturday Meaghan and I went into Surfers and went out to dinner. The guy working there was so strange. We both got a drink and we weren’t carded! And this guy thinks that with one drink in me I’m feeling good enough to find him attractive. Wrong. So he’s like are you guys students here. So we tell him we’re exchange students from the States studying at Griffith. He asks what classes we’re taking, so we tell him we’re taking a creative writing class and then he precedes to give us a 10 minute lecture on what not to write. We left him no tip. But mostly because we felt that australians don’t tip. But whatever. Then we met up with these two girls from Norway that we met on the Byron trip and went to their friend’s house warming party. It was a four person house with someone from Estonia, France, Germany, and Sweden. Look at me being all global with all my friends. The girl from Sweden got so trashed she couldn’t even stand up without holding onto something. We also found one of our other friends from the Byron trip, Ryan from California. So we hung out there for a while, had some gross boxed wine, chit chatted. Then we were heading outside to leave and this guy comes up to us. He’s like, “whenever I talk to someone I have this problem of always talking about myself. It’s bad. I can’t help it though because I just talk about all the money in my accounts. I just want to go to a temple on some hilltop in a little village and think.” He asks my name, so I tell him and he says, “adina? that’s very Jerusaelem.” Ok what? Time to go.

Sunday was beautiful. We were all sitting on the balcony ready out books soaking up some rays. We’re so classy. Then all of us hopped in Kate’s car and headed into Surfers to get some ice cream. We parked on this beach called Main Beach and walked into Surfers. So we got some exercise before our calories. We’re so smart. On our way back we walked along the beach. The sand here is so soft its ridiculous. The water was colder here that in Byron, which is weird because Byron is farther south. But it was still pretty warm. Needless to say, that will be a regular occurrence.

I finally did laundry for the first time here. I thought I lost a sock, but it was just hiding in one of my shirts. Silly sock, I thought the dryer ate you. In other news, I desperately need to go food shopping. I have no bread, no milk, no meat. Only peanut butter, a limited number of ritz crackers, stale cereal, and some eggs. Mommy where are you when I need you?