Don't wake me; I plan on sleeping in.

Song: "Sleeping In" by The Postal Service

May 17th

I did all sorts of sleeping in today. I got up crazy late. I then decided to go to Chatswood Mall and get some retail therapy in. I went to Borders and got When Harry Met Sally on Aussie DVD. Worth it, even though I can't take it home. I also bought the Dark Was The Night compilation, The Wedding Singer soundtrack and Kings of Leon's Aha Shake Heartbreak (definitely worth it). I also bought a pack of Australian sour patch straws and my tongue went completely numb eating them. Anything to procrastinate the lab report...

I'm also pretty sure I came home and watched When Harry Met Sally that night. Great stuff.

Take these broken wings and learn to fly...

Song: "Blackbird" by The Beatles

April 7th

Physics class in the morning was fun. I was late again (really sorry about that).
We got to my favorite slide on the notes so far:

From Shots around Macquarie

I love how the Sinatra song is cited. Michael Steel, you will be missed in our 301 classroom.

Oh, yeah. I may not have mentioned this but in both my physics classes we lose our lecturers halfway through and get new ones. Shaheen tried to explain why this is to me, but I got confused. I think it's so that lecturers with specific interests or expertise in certain topics can teach them or something. Anyway, at the end of this week I won't have Mike or Alex teaching my physics and optics lectures, respectively. I'll miss them both. They were really good teachers and they actually seemed to care if I was learning or not.

Anyway, we had our last tutorial with Mike and after the class looked around puzzlingly for a few minutes, I let him know that we didn't have the Tutorial 4 handout. I'm not sure why none of us mentioned this to him last week, when we also didn't have the handout throughout class, but it might have been because it was raining. I felt bad, but yet again I left tutorial feeling like I knew a lot more than when I came in.

I went to the store to grab a few things. Namely, Easter candy. I figured the stores on Easter weekend would either be closed or open at inconvenient hours so I got all my post-Lent sweets today. Good decision. Also, I feel like Australians are obsessed with chocolate. This may be due to my current Lent stipulations, but still, everywhere I go there is a giant display or full aisle in the store devoted to chocolate.

Here are some examples of the Easter setups:

From Shots around Macquarie

I got myself one Kinder egg because those toys are so damn fun to put together. No Kinder bunny for me. Also, the Kinder commercials here have the world's worst jingle. I can't find it on YouTube, but I am not a fan. The bunnies reminded me of

Here's another aisle of the store:

From Shots around Macquarie

So...much...chocolate...

I had aesthetics class, where I thought we were going to go over the material I was doing my midterm paper on, but instead we reviewed all the old boring topics involving Kant that were really easy to write papers on. I spent my tutorial attempting to outline my paper. Our entire aesthetics class was bonding over the frenetic paper writing we had to do over the next few days. I was intending on doing my midterm online quiz right after lecture, and when I asked how much longer the quiz would be open, Robert (the lecturer, who is super awesome) looked at me and chuckled a little and then informed me that it closed before class. My roommate Sean and I had both planned on doing it afterward, and Robert, as always, was really cool about the whole thing and said he'd open it up for us again. I felt like an idiot, but these things happen. Also, in Australia when you're reviewing the topics in class it's called a "revision exercise" instead of "review exercise." It took me awhile to catch on to this.

After class, Tara told me she had exciting news and pictures from last Thursday so she came over and we chatted about things for awhile. Girl talk, love it. I also remembered about my tendency to chuckle and say "laughter" out loud while laughing. It's ridiculous, and similar to when I say "sad face" in response to bad news. I had kind of forgotten about it since I don't use it too often in public. :)

I took my aesthetics quiz (I got a 9/10 on the quiz. Not too shabby.) and worked more on one of those physics labs I had due Thursday, then called it a night. Sleep is great stuff.

Overexposed, commercialized, handle me with care...

Song: "Handle with Care" by Traveling Wilburys

March 24th

This morning was physics. I really enjoy this class for some reason. I made it to class and we talked more about electric fields and magnetic fields. Then we had tutorial, which I really enjoy because it's just doing problems without the stress of having to get them correct (although it feels really good when you do).

After class, I needed to hit up the grocery store. Typically I go on Wednesday with Justin, but I was intending on attending an optics seminar smack in the middle of my break Wednesday, so I shifted to Tuesday instead. On the way over, I got some free energy drink juice. I enjoyed their label:

From Shots around Macquarie

"Drinking this smashes fatigue in the guts so you can rock out."

I also remembered to bring some coupons I had to the center and use them before they expired. For lunch, I got this Chicken Laska dish which reminded me of the Vietnamese phở I've eaten at home, except it was crazy spicy. It's a noodle soup, with chicken, that is incredibly spicy and delicious. I have no idea how I ever finished a bowl of soup this large at home; even the smalls are massive. The reason I got the dish was because it came with a free drink for my coupon. My free drink: fruit cocktail with shaved ice. It sounded much more appetizing when I ordered it. Anyway, I couldn't physically eat it all so I took a picture of my leftovers.

From Shots around Macquarie

I got my shopping done and trekked home. Then on to philosophy where we spent an interesting hour talking about "the sublime" and another interesting hour talking about "purposiveness without purpose." After that, I had a desire to find our campus radio station, so I did. I peeked in and didn't stay. I saw this pretty flower though in the courtyard.

From Shots around Macquarie

I made my way back home where no one was doing anything particularly interesting. I also met up with the girls I'm going on spring (ahem, autumn) break with to plan our trip. I brought my cool maps.

A seven nation army couldn't hold me back...

Song: "Seven Nation Army" (White Stripes cover) by Nostalgia 77 feat. Alice Russell (I think this is it on YouTube, not completely sure though)

March 18th

After the evening the night before, staying awake for Wednesday morning class was a little difficult, but I made it. I went to do my grocery shopping at Macquarie Center, grabbed some guacamole and chips and Justin found me. We went shopping together again.

I also needed to get postcard stamps, so I went to the post office in the basement of the center and got some. I feel like something else happened but I can't remember it.

Justin and I walked home and I dropped off my groceries. I had lab later and we finally got to do a different lab after working forever on the Noise one.

I had told my new Australian friend Shadé that I would come to her meditation session today and I was really excited about it. After the gym, I rushed home and got ready to go.

I hopped in her car (first ride in a personal Australian vehicle) and me and three others went back to her house for this meditation session. It was really peaceful and there were beautiful readings while we relaxed which made me thing of Wesley Foundation back home. I miss those guys.

Pretty candles!

From Shots around Macquarie

I met a bunch of really interesting people, all with different stories. I met Shadé's mom and brother, who were both really fun, and everyone I met just seemed really chill and down to earth. It might have had something to do with the meditation session before. Shadé's grandmother made baba ghanoush on bread and there were all sorts of other delicious foods afterward.

Shadé made me try a sausage roll, which are fairly big here I believe. I'm not sure how to describe it. Kind of like a pig in a blanket, but instead of "a blanket," it's a full sleeping bag and instead of "a pig", it's finely ground sausage meat. Apparently it's best with tomato sauce, which is Australian for ketchup.

Shadé was playing some awesome music while we were eating and one of the coolest ones was a jazzed up version of "Seven Nation Army." Too cool.

I had a great time, and I made it back and got some work done, and watched the end of Lost. It was a lovely evening.

We sit and grow our roots into the floor but what are we waiting for?

Song: "Believe" by The Bravery

March 8th

After Mardi Gras, I actually got enough sleep. Shocker. I woke up with a list of things to accomplish. This list consisted mainly of "laundry" and "lab report."

I started doing laundry and ran into Alex and Lindsey at the laundry hut and Lindsey said a few of them were going grocery shopping and asked if I wanted to tag along. I said I would, and found them before they left. Unfortunately, someone had taken my clothes out of one dryer before they had finished and completely stopped the others, so my clothes weren't quite dry. Since I was so miffed about my laundry being moved, I just decided to be a horrible person and just leave my laundry in the dryer while we went to the shopping center.

I tried a burrito from Mad Mex, the Chipotle imitation chain in the mall that just opened up. I've had worse, but it's just not the same as home. After we ate, we hit up Woolworth's and got some groceries. I had one of those moments where I really missed stupid things from home, which I still get even a month into this trip. This moment involved stupid trips to Shoppers (Food Warehouse) with my roommate.

We had a handful of girls who wanted to ride the bus back with their groceries, and then Cam and I, who brought backpacks along, decided to walk back to the Village, taking our chances with the cloudy, ominous skies. We beat the rain (and the girls who took the bus) back to the apartments. However, while taking my clothes back from the laundry, it started pouring. The clothes and I made it back dry enough.

Somewhere in here we decided to go to get free sausages at the admin building. We ran into Greg in line and Colton cooking sausages. Colton had the worst sunburn I had ever seen. Greg and I walked back in the rain, and once home, I tried to work on my lab report the best I could.

Inconveniently, my roommates were having the world's coolest jam session outside my door and despite most of my efforts to be a diligent student, I kept wanting to go play guitar/sing with them. I caved and spent an hour doing just that. Eventually the group died down and I got to work. Seriously though, my roommate Sean and Jon are both incredibly good at guitar. Having a guitar in the house makes me so happy.

I'm going faster, you're going backwards...

Song: "Faster" by Rachael Yamagata

March 6th

Today started out well. I had optics at 10, then a short break where I ran home for lunch, physics at 12, and then not much of anything. In my short break, my roommate Bethany let me know that a group of folks were going shopping at Macquarie Centre for Mardi Gras accessories and outfits and I told her I'd call her when I got out of class to meet up.

I found the girls (Cam and Andy had split off from the group. Probably too much estrogen for them) and we went around all over the place looking at all sorts of excellent pieces of ridiculous clothing. Erin got the greatest pants ever which were shiny and gold. They were bold. I know that I'm incredibly picky when it comes to buying things, so I mainly just window shopped while the rest of the group bought things. I did get a mask kit at the craft store with everyone else, but I waited until the end of the day to grab all the clothes I wanted. I eventually ended up getting a blue dress, orange ribbon, and a pink headband and $5 leggings to go under the dress. I was incredibly proud of myself.

The rest of the girls were gluing their masks together at the same time my class at the gym was, so I decided I'd put mine together afterward. Unfortunately, they ran out of glue, but I got resourceful and got some tack at the grocery store, which I think worked out even better. I figured I could use the rest of it to hang posters in my room, which is currently barren minus my 30 Rock calendar. At my grocery store trip, I also invested in my own bottle of sweet chili sauce. It will be the death of me.

I got home and ended up at a BBQ at Becca's apartment. I was a bit late, so I missed out on the food, but I had a good time regardless. I played guitar with Dan and Christian, and hung out with Hilde, Vilde, and a bunch more people outside. Suddenly, I looked up and half the house had left, and Bernie told me that everyone was shifting to her place, so I walked with her and Ben over to her apartment, and continued to have a good time. I like living on the east side of the village because everyone who lives here is great and we can just walk to the next person's house and it's never far.

I stayed up until I can't quite remember when, and had just enough wine to know that I was done for the night, and ambled home a few doors down. East side. So convenient. Note: The Australian slang word for cheap boxed wine is Goon. Also, my circle of friends jokingly refers to wine as "wines." As in, "I have to get me some more wines from the store" or "can I get you a glass of wines?" I think Bernie started this, but I like it.

When I got home five seconds later, I was feeling mildly homesick so I wrote on a ton of people's Facebook walls. Then I went to bed and slept incredibly well.

Reaching forward, not looking back...

Song: "Falling Without Knowing" by Tilly and the Wall

March 4th

Wednesdays are great. They are packed with physics, but I enjoy them. I had class at 10am and then a three hour break before lab at 2pm which I decided to fill with general errand running at Macquarie Centre. I got a few shirts at this store called SES (which I'm not sure if it's playing on socio-economic status or not, but everything in it is cheap and I love it). I also got a smaller bag for my stuff when I go out, which I seem to be doing more regularly now. I, of course, got necessary things like groceries too. It was a productive trip.

Lab was fun. Shaheen and I laughed the entire time while everything went wrong like it always does.

"We should be getting a straight line."
"haha, not even close. It's exponential."
"Well, if you draw the regression line just right..."

In short, we're still not sure if we're measuring Vrms or Vrms^2. We hope to find out next week, or at least alter the graph until we get something that looks right. Science!

After lab I went to the gym, and when I got back we were having our block party for our cluster of units in the Village. We're called the numbats. I caught the end of the party, but grabbed some food and helped clean up. Jawaan from next door was a bit tipsy and shared summaries of his favorite episodes of Roseanne with me. He calls me Becky Connor. I find this funny. After cleaning up, I went back to my apartment and cleaned up there from the block party cooking that I missed out on helping with.

My heart's in overdrive and you're behind the steering wheel...

Song: "I Believe In A Thing Called Love" by The Darkness

February 25th
Ash Wednesday

First of all, I decided to give up sweets for Lent, excepting one biscuit at mid-lab tea time at each lab each week. So I get two butter cookies a week.

I am not even going to try to express the longing I have for every ice cream bar, bag of Tim Tam cookies, and giant chocolate Easter egg that seems to fill aisle after aisle at the grocery store.

I'm trying something different to see if I can do it, so why not try it here, where almost everything is something different?

On another note, the song was stuck in my head from the night before at Scruffy Murphy's. I could not get it out of my head all day.

Anyway, today started off with more Physics, which was more review (again, I cannot thank you enough professor). I had a fairly large break in between class and my first Physics lab, so I decided to go to Macquarie Centre to get school supplies and hair ties. (I remembered this shopping list because it rhymed.) On my way, I ran into Justin, one of my new friends here, and we went shopping for quite a while looking for a fan of any kind. We never found it, but we had fun on the way. We explored The Rejects Shop (kind of like an expensive dollar store) and it was definitely full of rejects. We tried Big W (the Australian Wal-Mart), Myer (the Australian Sears), and Target (the Australian Target), all with no luck. Stupid Australian stores don't restock quite as fast as America. Anyway, Justin and I ate lunch, then headed back. Along the way we met a girl who was lost and looking for the Village, which was conveniently where we were headed. She was very nice, and since I had to go to the Administration building anyway, I walked with her.

I'm not sure how I went shopping for two hours, but regardless I got to lab on time, and met my lab partner Shaheen. She was so helpful. I have no idea how physics labs work here and she really cleared up some of the muddy spots for me. We were on the noise lab and were playing with EM noise in a circuit system. Pretty fun. Luckily the lab reports for this class are due every three weeks instead of every week like optics.

After lab, I went to the gym, and after the gym, I went to do laundry, where I ran into Justin again. Turns out I didn't have quite enough change, so I went to the Trafalgar Square store (the local convenience store) to get some change. I may not have mentioned this by now, but I was carrying my laundry around in my suitcase, and the lady at the store asked me if I was moving out. I laughed. I am looking into a better system for transporting dirty clothes to the laundry as we speak. Over the course of the laundry evening I ran into Julie, Lauren and Lindsay, and a few other people I didn't know at the laundry place. It was a very productive night.

You say it's your birthday. It's my birthday too, yeah.

Song: "Birthday" by The Beatles

February 18th

One of the marvelous things about birthdays while studying abroad in Australia is that you can milk them for about 16 hours more than they should be. I turned 21 today, sort of, and therefore proceeded to party like it.

hahahaha, I went to the shopping center by myself and bought a fan.

I also bought myself two CDs (Ladyhawke and a two-disc Bushfire Aid compilation, if you're curious) but the fan was crucial. I hauled that thing back from the store in incredibly hot weather and it was completely worth it.

When I got back, Matt was on the radio and asked me for a birthday request. "Sex on Fire" was my request because it has been so prominent in my life here recently. While listening, I danced like a fool in my room. It might have been my favorite part of the day. He also played a Ladyhawke song for me too. Seriously Matt, thanks a lot.

After all this, I went to the gym. I am a party animal.

When I returned, I showered and then quickly rushed off to The Ranch, which is officially my least favorite bar we've been to since I've been here. Again, "Sex on Fire" was played, this time being slowed down to an unbearable tempo. Good grief.

I ran into half of surf camp which was fun, and Sean bought me a drink, along with Tara and Liz. They tried really hard to make it a fun night for me and I really appreciated it. We left in this shuttle back to the Village which was way too full, but I also appreciated not having to walk, although the fresh air might have been nice. Orientation was the next morning so I went to bed as soon as I got back.

"They say it's your birthday, We're gonna have a good time"

Uneventful Entry #1

February 16th

I was going to go to the Taronga Zoo today but I overslept. I'm still upset about it.

A bunch of people, myself included, went to get gym memberships and then met up with a bunch of people from the AustraLearn crew at the mall, where we proceeded to buy many things. I brought a backpack and felt very smart for doing so.

Not much else happened today.

I did go to the gym and at their fitness area with the running machines I watched an entire episode of How I Met Your Mother on mute. Sarah Chalke from Scrubs was guest starring, and I think there was a wedding that was supposed to go on which didn't. I realized a few days later that you can watch it with sound if you bring headphones. Silly me.