Short and sweet update: Tasmania was amazing! I'm really glad I went! Lots of awesome photos and stories to come after I return from Fraser Island, which I am leaving for in just a few moments! I love you all and miss you very much!
-Amanda
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Friday, March 21, 2008
Easter Break Destinations: Tasmania & Fraser Island
Hokay - I know I'm a week behind in posting about my adventures (I'm working on it but photos are proving to be quite an obstacle).
I just wanted to post that I am leaving for Tasmania today! Me and 4 of my flatmates are going there until Thursday, then Friday morning we're taking a weekend trip to Fraser Island! I'm excited about it all!
Since I'm the only one of us with a valid driving license and over 21-years-old, I will be the one hiring and driving in Tasmania! I'm a bit nervous but I think I'll figure it out, driving on the other side of the road, haha! Fun stuff!
Oh, I've uploaded tons of photos to Facebook. Some stuff from Australia and some from before I left. Check it out - links coming soon for those not on Facebook.
Love you guys!
I just wanted to post that I am leaving for Tasmania today! Me and 4 of my flatmates are going there until Thursday, then Friday morning we're taking a weekend trip to Fraser Island! I'm excited about it all!
Since I'm the only one of us with a valid driving license and over 21-years-old, I will be the one hiring and driving in Tasmania! I'm a bit nervous but I think I'll figure it out, driving on the other side of the road, haha! Fun stuff!
Oh, I've uploaded tons of photos to Facebook. Some stuff from Australia and some from before I left. Check it out - links coming soon for those not on Facebook.
Love you guys!
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Flight to FIJI!
Yesterday was a good day. Happiest moment: purchasing my flight ticket to FIJI!!! The ticket will be ready for pick up early next week! Oh, I can't wait for Adam to visit! I just can't even tell you how excited I am about it!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <-- me
I tried a new coffee house: Merlo; the QUT Garden's Point campus coffee house. It's got an okay atmosphere; nothing like Vienna (oh, I miss that quaint little shop). Merlo's got paninis which are, again, okay, and they have hot chocolate with marshmallows. It was just slightly above what I would consider mediocre. I learned how to play a new card came. It has a horrible name (shit head - you know a guy dubbed it), but, all the same, it's quite fun. The guys in my Core Project Management - aka CPM because that's so much easier to type - group taught me how to play. The highlight of the day, second to chatting with Adam, was when the fire alarm went off during the last hour of German class. Normally I wouldn't consider that a highlight but after 4 classes strewn across 10 hours I was ready to go home. So class letting out half an hour early was nice.
Today, after my CPM tutorial (aka tute) I took the shuttle bus to Kelvin Grove for my first Creative Writing lecture! I'm such a dork for looking forward to lecture, haha! The instructor is great! He has a wonderful sense of humor - it's just right and works in well with the subject. He's responsive and challenges our minds. I really like him! In today's class he opened up the hour with a couple raps - yes, raps. We listened to Kris Kros' "Jump," haha, I know! And watched the video to Kanye West's "Touch the Sky." Certainly a classic of my generation, "Jump" isn't much of a song lyrically if you ask me, although we were able to apply it to poetry. I really liked "Touch the Sky!" Kanye West is very talented in my opinion, despite his songs typically having strong political themes. Any way, the point of the rap songs was for us to see that rap is a modern take/application of poetry; in other words, rap is poetry to modern music. Pretty cool. There are more aspects that we covered with regards to rap and poetry, but that was the gist of it. The rest of lecture was well enjoyed and I'm excited for next week's class already!
Since I only just added my Creative Writing course at the end of last week, I had some catching up to do. My first assignment was to write my own "ars poetica." An ars poetica is any sort of response to the question "what is poetry?" Here are my thoughts:
Poetry is beautiful. It's beauty lies in entirely in the eyes of the beholder. It is deep and meaningful, yet light and concise. Poetry is expressive and thought through, yet conjured abruptly. Poetry is defining; shaping. It is literary history, marking eras through its words.
The ars poetica is designed to help us gauge how far we've come as creative writers when we look back on our response later in the semester. Even after just one day of lesson I've revised my ars poetica in my mind.
After lecture I decided to tan, read and study. On the way to my unknown tanning location I noticed that the Kelvin Grove campus seems to have housing options close-by for students so they don't have to commute like everyone does at Garden's Point. Their dorms are pretty modern-looking:
Just down the Victoria Park Road was a golf course named Victoria Park (I know, how fitting!). Across the greens was a nice, quiet little lawn in a bit of a valley. I decided it worthy as a tanning location and dubbed it The Greens Valley. Here is my happy self settling down for a couple hours of sunbathing and studying/reading:
Speaking of reading, I finished Wicked. Great book - I absolutely loved Maguire's ingenuity to entwine the Wicked Witch of the West's story with Baum's well-known tale of Dorothy's adventure in Oz. It was a great book and I look forward to opportunity of seeing the musical. So now I've started reading Picnic at Hanging Rock. I'm not sure about this book. There was a movie based off it, and it had great reviews. Before I left the US for this trip it had been recommended to me that I watch the film to give me a taste of Australia culture. I didn't have the chance to watch the movie so when I was in the library and saw the novel I decided to read it. Well, on Facebook's Books iRead application the novel didn't have such hot reviews. In fact they were quite disappointing. But! I'm going to give the book a go any way. Because maybe I'll have a different take on the story, and maybe I'll just happen to like it. Who knows?!
I had my Creative Writing tute at 4.30p. I'm not decided on what I think of the tute leader. She's a bit too energetic in that I'm kind of overwhelmed. Enthusiasm is good, but too much energy is too much, I guess? Any way, she's nice but kind of snappy, too. I dunno - just not sure what to make of her yet. Aside from her, she does know her stuff mostly (and I say mostly because I lost count of how many vocabulary words she couldn't think of - not impressive, lady). But, like I said, she knows her stuff - when it comes to analyzing poetry. I really enjoyed the poems we went through. We went through a sonnet written by Seamus Heaney; he was one of the translators of Beowulf - the first old-English poem). The piece of Heaney that we went through was called "Sonnet IV," and here is my favorite bit:
[...] small ripples shook
Silently across our drinking water
(as they are shaking now across my heart)
And vanished into where they seemed to start.
After tute and on the way to the shuttle bus back to Garden's Point I saw the moon shining brightly at me through the buildings. I decided to take a photo of our friendly, stellar pearl. I tried and tried to upload the photo but it refused to work. = /
On the way home from being dropped off at Garden's Point I picked up my copy of Mx. Top News According to Amanda: there will be 8 Harry Potter films because they've decided to split the 7th book into 2 movies. Cool - can't wait to see the 6th film, haha.
Tomorrow Inga and I are heading off to Noosa until Sunday evening. We're gone!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <-- me
I tried a new coffee house: Merlo; the QUT Garden's Point campus coffee house. It's got an okay atmosphere; nothing like Vienna (oh, I miss that quaint little shop). Merlo's got paninis which are, again, okay, and they have hot chocolate with marshmallows. It was just slightly above what I would consider mediocre. I learned how to play a new card came. It has a horrible name (shit head - you know a guy dubbed it), but, all the same, it's quite fun. The guys in my Core Project Management - aka CPM because that's so much easier to type - group taught me how to play. The highlight of the day, second to chatting with Adam, was when the fire alarm went off during the last hour of German class. Normally I wouldn't consider that a highlight but after 4 classes strewn across 10 hours I was ready to go home. So class letting out half an hour early was nice.
Today, after my CPM tutorial (aka tute) I took the shuttle bus to Kelvin Grove for my first Creative Writing lecture! I'm such a dork for looking forward to lecture, haha! The instructor is great! He has a wonderful sense of humor - it's just right and works in well with the subject. He's responsive and challenges our minds. I really like him! In today's class he opened up the hour with a couple raps - yes, raps. We listened to Kris Kros' "Jump," haha, I know! And watched the video to Kanye West's "Touch the Sky." Certainly a classic of my generation, "Jump" isn't much of a song lyrically if you ask me, although we were able to apply it to poetry. I really liked "Touch the Sky!" Kanye West is very talented in my opinion, despite his songs typically having strong political themes. Any way, the point of the rap songs was for us to see that rap is a modern take/application of poetry; in other words, rap is poetry to modern music. Pretty cool. There are more aspects that we covered with regards to rap and poetry, but that was the gist of it. The rest of lecture was well enjoyed and I'm excited for next week's class already!
Since I only just added my Creative Writing course at the end of last week, I had some catching up to do. My first assignment was to write my own "ars poetica." An ars poetica is any sort of response to the question "what is poetry?" Here are my thoughts:
Poetry is beautiful. It's beauty lies in entirely in the eyes of the beholder. It is deep and meaningful, yet light and concise. Poetry is expressive and thought through, yet conjured abruptly. Poetry is defining; shaping. It is literary history, marking eras through its words.
The ars poetica is designed to help us gauge how far we've come as creative writers when we look back on our response later in the semester. Even after just one day of lesson I've revised my ars poetica in my mind.
After lecture I decided to tan, read and study. On the way to my unknown tanning location I noticed that the Kelvin Grove campus seems to have housing options close-by for students so they don't have to commute like everyone does at Garden's Point. Their dorms are pretty modern-looking:
Just down the Victoria Park Road was a golf course named Victoria Park (I know, how fitting!). Across the greens was a nice, quiet little lawn in a bit of a valley. I decided it worthy as a tanning location and dubbed it The Greens Valley. Here is my happy self settling down for a couple hours of sunbathing and studying/reading:
Speaking of reading, I finished Wicked. Great book - I absolutely loved Maguire's ingenuity to entwine the Wicked Witch of the West's story with Baum's well-known tale of Dorothy's adventure in Oz. It was a great book and I look forward to opportunity of seeing the musical. So now I've started reading Picnic at Hanging Rock. I'm not sure about this book. There was a movie based off it, and it had great reviews. Before I left the US for this trip it had been recommended to me that I watch the film to give me a taste of Australia culture. I didn't have the chance to watch the movie so when I was in the library and saw the novel I decided to read it. Well, on Facebook's Books iRead application the novel didn't have such hot reviews. In fact they were quite disappointing. But! I'm going to give the book a go any way. Because maybe I'll have a different take on the story, and maybe I'll just happen to like it. Who knows?!
I had my Creative Writing tute at 4.30p. I'm not decided on what I think of the tute leader. She's a bit too energetic in that I'm kind of overwhelmed. Enthusiasm is good, but too much energy is too much, I guess? Any way, she's nice but kind of snappy, too. I dunno - just not sure what to make of her yet. Aside from her, she does know her stuff mostly (and I say mostly because I lost count of how many vocabulary words she couldn't think of - not impressive, lady). But, like I said, she knows her stuff - when it comes to analyzing poetry. I really enjoyed the poems we went through. We went through a sonnet written by Seamus Heaney; he was one of the translators of Beowulf - the first old-English poem). The piece of Heaney that we went through was called "Sonnet IV," and here is my favorite bit:
[...] small ripples shook
Silently across our drinking water
(as they are shaking now across my heart)
And vanished into where they seemed to start.
After tute and on the way to the shuttle bus back to Garden's Point I saw the moon shining brightly at me through the buildings. I decided to take a photo of our friendly, stellar pearl. I tried and tried to upload the photo but it refused to work. = /
On the way home from being dropped off at Garden's Point I picked up my copy of Mx. Top News According to Amanda: there will be 8 Harry Potter films because they've decided to split the 7th book into 2 movies. Cool - can't wait to see the 6th film, haha.
Tomorrow Inga and I are heading off to Noosa until Sunday evening. We're gone!
Saturday, March 8, 2008
My March 9th Week
Sunday I had planned to go outside to tan and study at the Parklands. Weather decided against me and pulled a little number: it was bright, sunny with some clouds. The problem was that those few clouds were rain clouds, so even though it was sunny, it was rainy, too. So, I stayed inside and was pretty darn productive any way, minus the tanning part. Oh, well. It was still a nice day; nothing too exciting, though.
Monday was nice. Got up and chatted with Adam for a bit - highlight of the day! Afterwards I rolled out of the apartment and got some books from the Brisbane Square Library so I could start research on my Australian Society & Culture paper. I'm working to get it done and out of the way. My paper will be on the culture differences and similarities of the various Australian capitals. Should be interesting stuff.
After the library I checked out a nice little coffee shop called Shingle Inn. I had some salad, a chicken chili mango sandwich (really good stuff), and a butterfly dessert cupcake thing. I enjoyed the cafe. Here is the old-English sign:
The comfy inside portion of the cafe:
The outdoor portion of the cafe:
Next I did some hunting for some unique Australian wine charms as a souvenir for my Grandma. I'm having a tough time tracking some down as they are items specific to Christmastime around here. = / I've got my eyes open just in case, and I'm looking online, too. = )
After that I replaced my broken head phones. They were good while they lasted. Now I have some really great Phillips ones. Eh, they're still basic and not that fancy, but they get the job done. I can't survive without my iPod.
And then it was time for German lecture. Afterwards I studied and reviewed notes for class, painted my nails (they look fabulous), had some Cadbury peppermint ice cream and chocolates!
Guess what, everyone! I have a new second cousin! Lillian Kate was born into the lovely Brady Travis family! She weighed in at 7lbs-12 oz.H ere are a couple of photos my momma sent me!
Here's my momma and Baby Lillian:
My cousin Brady and his new baby girl!
Tuesday I was able to get some good sun. I'm finally getting some bronze tones! Yay! Studied and read while I was out inthe sun, came back and showered, then it was time to go! Sara, Inga and I dined at the authentic Indian Punjabi Palace - GREAT food! It was my first time having Indian cuisine and I really liked it - especially the Naan bread! Mmm!
The Phanton of the Opera show was great! The music was "phant-astic!" Haha! And the performance was spectacular! I'm not sure who the company was, but they were splendid! I recommend this musical! Photos!
Don't we look beautiful, all pertied up for the dinner and musical tonight:
Here we are during intermission - we're so excited and are just loving the show!
Today is covered in classes. That's all I have to say about it, haha. Again, the highlight of the day has been chatting with Adam. He always brightens my days! Later today I'm hoping to catch the madre and padre. = )
Tomorrow I have my Core Project Management tutorial (eh), then I got to Kelvin Grove (another QUT campus) for my first lecture and tutorial of my Creative Writing class. I'm excited!
Friday Inga and Sara (maybe?) and I are going to Noosa for the weekend. We're going to check out the Noosa National Park and hit the beaches in the area! I'm excited for some good hiking and some great photography!
Sunday we'll return, wind down and get ready for another week in Brissi!
Sam was featured as the Co-Wrestler of the Year! I'm so proud of him! Here's a link to the photo: Click here!
Here are a couple of photos of the inter-building walkways around the QUT Garden's Point campus:
And now for some Aussie slang:
*till = point of sale/cash register station
*dockette = receipt
Okay, folks! I gotta get to class! Cheers!
-Amanda
Monday was nice. Got up and chatted with Adam for a bit - highlight of the day! Afterwards I rolled out of the apartment and got some books from the Brisbane Square Library so I could start research on my Australian Society & Culture paper. I'm working to get it done and out of the way. My paper will be on the culture differences and similarities of the various Australian capitals. Should be interesting stuff.
After the library I checked out a nice little coffee shop called Shingle Inn. I had some salad, a chicken chili mango sandwich (really good stuff), and a butterfly dessert cupcake thing. I enjoyed the cafe. Here is the old-English sign:
The comfy inside portion of the cafe:
The outdoor portion of the cafe:
Next I did some hunting for some unique Australian wine charms as a souvenir for my Grandma. I'm having a tough time tracking some down as they are items specific to Christmastime around here. = / I've got my eyes open just in case, and I'm looking online, too. = )
After that I replaced my broken head phones. They were good while they lasted. Now I have some really great Phillips ones. Eh, they're still basic and not that fancy, but they get the job done. I can't survive without my iPod.
And then it was time for German lecture. Afterwards I studied and reviewed notes for class, painted my nails (they look fabulous), had some Cadbury peppermint ice cream and chocolates!
Guess what, everyone! I have a new second cousin! Lillian Kate was born into the lovely Brady Travis family! She weighed in at 7lbs-12 oz.H ere are a couple of photos my momma sent me!
Here's my momma and Baby Lillian:
My cousin Brady and his new baby girl!
Tuesday I was able to get some good sun. I'm finally getting some bronze tones! Yay! Studied and read while I was out inthe sun, came back and showered, then it was time to go! Sara, Inga and I dined at the authentic Indian Punjabi Palace - GREAT food! It was my first time having Indian cuisine and I really liked it - especially the Naan bread! Mmm!
The Phanton of the Opera show was great! The music was "phant-astic!" Haha! And the performance was spectacular! I'm not sure who the company was, but they were splendid! I recommend this musical! Photos!
Don't we look beautiful, all pertied up for the dinner and musical tonight:
Here we are during intermission - we're so excited and are just loving the show!
Today is covered in classes. That's all I have to say about it, haha. Again, the highlight of the day has been chatting with Adam. He always brightens my days! Later today I'm hoping to catch the madre and padre. = )
Tomorrow I have my Core Project Management tutorial (eh), then I got to Kelvin Grove (another QUT campus) for my first lecture and tutorial of my Creative Writing class. I'm excited!
Friday Inga and Sara (maybe?) and I are going to Noosa for the weekend. We're going to check out the Noosa National Park and hit the beaches in the area! I'm excited for some good hiking and some great photography!
Sunday we'll return, wind down and get ready for another week in Brissi!
Sam was featured as the Co-Wrestler of the Year! I'm so proud of him! Here's a link to the photo: Click here!
Here are a couple of photos of the inter-building walkways around the QUT Garden's Point campus:
And now for some Aussie slang:
*till = point of sale/cash register station
*dockette = receipt
Okay, folks! I gotta get to class! Cheers!
-Amanda
Sunny Days, Norsk Pub Crawl, First Barbie
Photos are up in this entry now! = )
Hello, hello! Biggest & bestest news first: ADAM has his flight ticket to visit me in May!!! I simply cannot express my excitement for May 9th to come around! Adam will be here in Brisbane from Friday, May 9 until Friday, May 23. On the 23rd we're both flying to Fiji; there until Tuesday, May 27th, then I fly back to Brissie and he to the US. An exciting itinerary is in the works: Wicked Campers trip to Uluru (click here), Whitsunday Islands sail
boating (click here), and then Nadi, Fiji (click here)!!! Oh, I get so giddy thinking about it all! I just can't wait to see him!
This week I've been going about uni (university aka school) and working on my tan. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Friday I made it to the South Street Parklands - a nice grassy area for sunbathers, near the man-made beach. This is the view of one spot where I like to lay out:
I love it! I pack up a snack, my ipod and novel, and some study materials and have a very nice, warm, sunny afternoon. I'm planning to go again tomorrow. Sunday I might go up to Noosa heads to hit up the National Park there - last time I tried I was rained out. I'd like to get some good photography of the park and some hiking in! I'm lagging in the exercise area (eek!).
Through the week a lot has gone on: met up with Inga for lunch at a pizza cafe. We had some really great smoothies, too! After class on Thursday I browsed Elizabeth Street: got my 18+ card so I don't have to have my Passport to get into night clubs and such, checked out an Australian Borders (they didn't have Brave New World by Aldous Huxley), checked out a Christian bookstore (kind of foreign to me in that there was a lot of Catholic stuff sold there - just different style of Christian bookstore to me, I guess), checked out an American bookstore (bought a German/English dictionary and The Great Gatsby (ONLY $5!). I'm obsessed with books, I tell you! I bought Bridget Jones's Diary the other day, and got 3 for $15 (quite a steal) at a bargain book store (The Hades Factor, Red Dragon, and a Mary HIggins Clark mystery). I also browsed a chic boutique that sold fisherman's pants - I'm going back with Inga sometime soon - I'll post more on fisherman's pants later, haha!
The Norsk Pub Crawl was a lot of fun! Iain, Richard and I met up with the crawlers around 11p; we were out until 2a. So, not a crazy 8 hours of partying for me like some of the flatmates! Some folks started pre-gaming at 5p and kicked until 4a! Insane! Any way, we met up at The Beach House, mosied over to The Brewhouse (my favorite stop of the night), then capped things off briefly at The Down Under Bar (aka the "Dunda Bar").
Me, Inga, Rudy & Neil at The Beach House:
They forced me to wear that hat, haha. Once they all got drunk enough I was able to "leave it somewhere by accident," haha!
Me & Rudy
This is the week of the summer babies; the March born flatmates! Inga turned 22 on Tuesday, Sara 21 on Thursday, Rudy 22 on Friday and Tom turns 22 on Sunday! Crazy partying for those folks, haha! I got Inga a card, some chocolate and a really cool bookmark in the shape of an "I" for Inga, since we share a love of reading. That evening everyone went out to The Fox to celebrate Inga's 22nd.
Alice, Sara & I
The group
Inga & James Boag (haha, I love this photo!)
Me & the Birthday Girl!
Toby, Sara & I
It happened! We had a barbie tonight (well, Friday night) in celebration of all the birthdays. It was my first Aussie barbie ever!
Views of the barbie folks from the upstairs balcony
Sara & I
Me about to try kangaroo meat! It was really good!
Here's me at the BARBIE!
Tom wanted in the picture so we had to take another one, haha!
Inga, Toby, Judith & I having a great time!
Random bit: Aussies advertise in a few different ways than what the US does. For example, they have people ride around the streets of Brissie on motorbikes with little trailer-hitched ads. Thought it was interesting:
I've been adding to my wall's photo collection. I printed off a bunch of photos of group fun I've had with the flatmates. I'm planning to fill an entire wall with photos, haha!
Here are my cards from the Going Away Party along with an Andy Warhol/GOMA poster/calendar that I thought was neato:
]
Classes are going well. Two weeks down, eleven to go. German is proving to be quite a handful. I'm sure it's beneficial that I've been working with it a little every day. Australian Society & Culture is a lot of fun - a great way to learn about Australia. Core Project Management is pretty basic; it kind of shocked me how easy it will be. I think I'll have to teach myself how to use MS Project since I don't think it's a requirement that we learn in this course here at QUT. Any way, I like my group and I think it'll be a fun project. I had to add one course here in order to remain a full-time student back at Purdue (I was ONE itty bitty credit short, haha, go figure!). So I looked into both a photo-media course and a creative writing course. I ended up adding the latter - I enjoy both photography and writing but I feel like with the rest of my class load and the way the schedules would have worked out - the creative writing worked best for me. Updated schedule:
Okay, Aussie slang time!
-dead horse = sauce
-earbash = non-stop chatter
-fair dinkum = good, honest, truthful
-similar terms: ankle-biter, bail out, betcha, bozo, cabbie, chuck something, cop out, couch potato, croc, crook (also means ill/sick), cuppa (tea), deadbeat
In other Australian news: A teenage girl has delivered triplets. Again. "A 16-year-old Argentine girl has given birth to a second set of female triplets. The girl, named only as Pamela, had her first triplets at age 15, after having a son at 14. Authorities donated a house when the first triplets were born. The case has sparked national debate about making contraception advice more effective." Yeah, I know: wow.
Last thing: another photo album is up! Power boxes: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2332609&l=25ba8&id=13700420
Ah - I lied - last thing: tonight (Saturday night, technically) I taught most of the flat mates how to play MAFIA! It was a big hit and tons of fun! Turns out Iain has a knack for narrating, haha! Inga and I rocked as the mobsters during out last game, hehe! Rasmus was just like Uncle David when he said "You want to kill me? I'm just a towns person. I work from 9-4 every day and this is what I get in return?" Haha! "The pilla of the communi-tee!" It was a lot of fun!
News of loved ones back home: Adam and his team won their Ultimate Frisbee game last night! I'm so happy for them! Great job, baby! Chucky is off to Colorado for a Habitat for Humanity project! Have a blast, Chuggy!
Okay, gotsta get some rest! I have a full day of tanning and studying ahead of me, hehe! Check back for the rest of the photos soon!
-Amanda
Hello, hello! Biggest & bestest news first: ADAM has his flight ticket to visit me in May!!! I simply cannot express my excitement for May 9th to come around! Adam will be here in Brisbane from Friday, May 9 until Friday, May 23. On the 23rd we're both flying to Fiji; there until Tuesday, May 27th, then I fly back to Brissie and he to the US. An exciting itinerary is in the works: Wicked Campers trip to Uluru (click here), Whitsunday Islands sail
boating (click here), and then Nadi, Fiji (click here)!!! Oh, I get so giddy thinking about it all! I just can't wait to see him!
This week I've been going about uni (university aka school) and working on my tan. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Friday I made it to the South Street Parklands - a nice grassy area for sunbathers, near the man-made beach. This is the view of one spot where I like to lay out:
I love it! I pack up a snack, my ipod and novel, and some study materials and have a very nice, warm, sunny afternoon. I'm planning to go again tomorrow. Sunday I might go up to Noosa heads to hit up the National Park there - last time I tried I was rained out. I'd like to get some good photography of the park and some hiking in! I'm lagging in the exercise area (eek!).
Through the week a lot has gone on: met up with Inga for lunch at a pizza cafe. We had some really great smoothies, too! After class on Thursday I browsed Elizabeth Street: got my 18+ card so I don't have to have my Passport to get into night clubs and such, checked out an Australian Borders (they didn't have Brave New World by Aldous Huxley), checked out a Christian bookstore (kind of foreign to me in that there was a lot of Catholic stuff sold there - just different style of Christian bookstore to me, I guess), checked out an American bookstore (bought a German/English dictionary and The Great Gatsby (ONLY $5!). I'm obsessed with books, I tell you! I bought Bridget Jones's Diary the other day, and got 3 for $15 (quite a steal) at a bargain book store (The Hades Factor, Red Dragon, and a Mary HIggins Clark mystery). I also browsed a chic boutique that sold fisherman's pants - I'm going back with Inga sometime soon - I'll post more on fisherman's pants later, haha!
The Norsk Pub Crawl was a lot of fun! Iain, Richard and I met up with the crawlers around 11p; we were out until 2a. So, not a crazy 8 hours of partying for me like some of the flatmates! Some folks started pre-gaming at 5p and kicked until 4a! Insane! Any way, we met up at The Beach House, mosied over to The Brewhouse (my favorite stop of the night), then capped things off briefly at The Down Under Bar (aka the "Dunda Bar").
Me, Inga, Rudy & Neil at The Beach House:
They forced me to wear that hat, haha. Once they all got drunk enough I was able to "leave it somewhere by accident," haha!
Me & Rudy
This is the week of the summer babies; the March born flatmates! Inga turned 22 on Tuesday, Sara 21 on Thursday, Rudy 22 on Friday and Tom turns 22 on Sunday! Crazy partying for those folks, haha! I got Inga a card, some chocolate and a really cool bookmark in the shape of an "I" for Inga, since we share a love of reading. That evening everyone went out to The Fox to celebrate Inga's 22nd.
Alice, Sara & I
The group
Inga & James Boag (haha, I love this photo!)
Me & the Birthday Girl!
Toby, Sara & I
It happened! We had a barbie tonight (well, Friday night) in celebration of all the birthdays. It was my first Aussie barbie ever!
Views of the barbie folks from the upstairs balcony
Sara & I
Me about to try kangaroo meat! It was really good!
Here's me at the BARBIE!
Tom wanted in the picture so we had to take another one, haha!
Inga, Toby, Judith & I having a great time!
Random bit: Aussies advertise in a few different ways than what the US does. For example, they have people ride around the streets of Brissie on motorbikes with little trailer-hitched ads. Thought it was interesting:
I've been adding to my wall's photo collection. I printed off a bunch of photos of group fun I've had with the flatmates. I'm planning to fill an entire wall with photos, haha!
Here are my cards from the Going Away Party along with an Andy Warhol/GOMA poster/calendar that I thought was neato:
]Classes are going well. Two weeks down, eleven to go. German is proving to be quite a handful. I'm sure it's beneficial that I've been working with it a little every day. Australian Society & Culture is a lot of fun - a great way to learn about Australia. Core Project Management is pretty basic; it kind of shocked me how easy it will be. I think I'll have to teach myself how to use MS Project since I don't think it's a requirement that we learn in this course here at QUT. Any way, I like my group and I think it'll be a fun project. I had to add one course here in order to remain a full-time student back at Purdue (I was ONE itty bitty credit short, haha, go figure!). So I looked into both a photo-media course and a creative writing course. I ended up adding the latter - I enjoy both photography and writing but I feel like with the rest of my class load and the way the schedules would have worked out - the creative writing worked best for me. Updated schedule:
Okay, Aussie slang time!
-dead horse = sauce
-earbash = non-stop chatter
-fair dinkum = good, honest, truthful
-similar terms: ankle-biter, bail out, betcha, bozo, cabbie, chuck something, cop out, couch potato, croc, crook (also means ill/sick), cuppa (tea), deadbeat
In other Australian news: A teenage girl has delivered triplets. Again. "A 16-year-old Argentine girl has given birth to a second set of female triplets. The girl, named only as Pamela, had her first triplets at age 15, after having a son at 14. Authorities donated a house when the first triplets were born. The case has sparked national debate about making contraception advice more effective." Yeah, I know: wow.
Last thing: another photo album is up! Power boxes: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2332609&l=25ba8&id=13700420
Ah - I lied - last thing: tonight (Saturday night, technically) I taught most of the flat mates how to play MAFIA! It was a big hit and tons of fun! Turns out Iain has a knack for narrating, haha! Inga and I rocked as the mobsters during out last game, hehe! Rasmus was just like Uncle David when he said "You want to kill me? I'm just a towns person. I work from 9-4 every day and this is what I get in return?" Haha! "The pilla of the communi-tee!" It was a lot of fun!
News of loved ones back home: Adam and his team won their Ultimate Frisbee game last night! I'm so happy for them! Great job, baby! Chucky is off to Colorado for a Habitat for Humanity project! Have a blast, Chuggy!
Okay, gotsta get some rest! I have a full day of tanning and studying ahead of me, hehe! Check back for the rest of the photos soon!
-Amanda
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
New Photo Album Up
Post entry coming soon! Tonight or tomorrow! For now, here are some photos for you to see:
Maroochydore & Miscellaneous: http://purdue.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2332082&l=dfbfa&id=13700420
Mooloolaba & Inga's 22nd Birthday: http://purdue.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2332085&l=368be&id=13700420
-Amanda
Maroochydore & Miscellaneous: http://purdue.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2332082&l=dfbfa&id=13700420
Mooloolaba & Inga's 22nd Birthday: http://purdue.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2332085&l=368be&id=13700420
-Amanda
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
