The Final Days

Lots has happened here and back home in the last week. Here's the latest scoop!

Back home...

Tons of flooding going on. One of Sam's friends' house was washed off the side of a cliff. Can you believe that? I have a really close friend, Kristin, who lives in Iowa. I keep her and her family in my thoughts. Last we spoke she said her family and friends hadn't been hit by the flooding. The Grand Rapids area has been hit pretty bad, however. Here's a link with photos (unbelievable): http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/06/mississippi_floodwaters_in_iow.html

Sam may be going to Orlando to play in an Xbox tournament! It's hosted at a Disney resort, and Dad is working things out with the chaperones. I think it's pretty cool that my little brother has been scouted to go on a trip like that! Too bad it's the weekend before I get to Orlando for my internship, haha. Any way, he'll be fully sponsored and has a great chance to win some money and place!

Mom and I are 3 and 3 for our Nike+ Challenges! She just blew me away in our last challenge, First to 40 Miles. Congrats to her, though - she's a little powerhouse! I'm pretty sure we still have a challenge going for the Fastest 5K (it may have ended?). Last I checked, she was beating me there, too, by - get this - 11 seconds! My mother! She's pretty killer. This just in: new challenge from now until I get home. There are some other racers competing, too. We'll see what happens.

My good Purdue friends, Nick and Kelly (aka the Peelmans), are ENGAGED! Congratulations, you two lovebirds!

Adam has been doing well. He was on a training trip at Purdue for Crowe last week, so that was pretty fun for him. He has been keeping busy with work. I was sad to hear that he had to give up Krav Maga (membership fee of $150/month). He's been having fun with his Ultimate games, though. Overall, he's doing pretty good, and enjoying his summer. Karan and Ed have also been keeping busy with their lake house - they're all pretty excited about it!

Here...

Last Friday Inga's mom, Ingrid, got in from Norway. That evening Inga and I took her mom to Ouzeri! Mmm, it was so delicious (as always), and the service was superb. Ouzeri has definitely become the place that I made a friend at (Tony, the guy who always takes photos for me and whomever I dine there with) - I read in some Study Abroad materials that one should find a friend at a local diner/coffee shop to feel more connected with the area. It was pretty cool to become a bit of a VIP at Ouzeri. Tony said that if I ever needed anything, "you come ask for me," haha. He's so sweet!

So dinner was great. The company was amazing, and we all really enjoyed ourselves. We were there for 3 hours! I think that was the longest dinner I'd ever had. We had coffee/tea afterwards, too, that was pretty cool. I had English Tea with peppermint (first time having that) - really good. Some topics of discussion were scarfs, desserts, deserts, how animals "go" (i.e., a chicken clucks) and what they say (i.e., a chicken says "cockadoodledoo"), Ingrid ate the head of a squid (the platter we ordered gave us whole squids - they were like little alien octopus things - yuck!), I counted from 1-10 in Norwegian for Ingird (making Inga quite proud), and we reflected on how we missed the bus in Noosa, haha. It was a fun dinner! Plus we had the second bottle of wine that my grandma sent over with Adam. Inga and Ingrid really liked it! It was SO good!

After dinner Inga and I went to the Hardgrave house to say goodbye to everyone. Inga delivered her diplomas (little certificates she made for everyone in the house), and we had a nice farewell. We didn't stay long because Inga had an exam the next day.

On Saturday I laid out for a few hours, and then met up with Tamara who was visiting Brisbane. We went to Mt. Coot-tha and the Brisbane Lookout Point (where she could see Moreton Island and Kim, haha (don't forget "hard like a rock"). Then I showed her around South Bank. We went through the markets where I tried on a white scarf and looked like Santa Claus, haha. I did find a scarf that I fell in love with and had to have (black with multi-colored threads through it). Tamara and I split some churros, too - Mmm!! After that we went back to the flat and prepared to play Kings. While waiting for Inga to get back from dinner with her mom, Tamara and I made up the Kings rules. We got pretty creative (my favorite was Fuzzy Duck). We got to playing (Iain, Neil, Rudy, me, Inga, Tamara, Sara, Maija) and I ended up "winning" the Kings' cup (ugh - a combination of beer, Red Bull and vodka). At one point I told Tamara that something was really "modular" when I meant to say "tubular," haha!

Eventually we all met up with some other flat mates at The Family, down in Fortitude Valley. I did not care for the place; $20 entry, crappy drinks and even crappier techno was just not my thing. I did meet a nice Aussie fellow, Richard, at one point, though. We chatted about America for the most part - he was very interested in what college is like and "the real Cancun." I tried to give him a more accurate description of how things are in America, and in the end we agreed that TV doesn't portray America very well.

Any who, I ended up leaving The Family at 2a and crashed when I got back to my flat. Tamara and the others rolled in around 5a. Wild ones, I tell ya.

The next morning Tamara and I chatted about boys, leaving countries, China, friends, fringes and bangs, and how last night went. She left just after noon because she had tickets to the eviction show for Big Brother. It was really great to have her up for a visit. She's heaps of fun! Great news: she's visiting again on Friday to say goodbye. Awe... I don't want to think about it.

Aussie Slang:
*goss = gossip
*sus = suspect
*stickybeak = a nosey person

Aussie Difference: Aussies are quite a bit quieter than Americans. On occasion one may come by an Aussie who is considerably louder than a typical American.

I was killing some time on Facebook the other day, and I came across a couple of groups that caught my attention. These links should work if you are a member of and logged into Facebook:

Petition to Revoke the Independence of the USA
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2208523152&ref=share

Petition to Annex the UK as part of the USA
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2231433061

I just wanted to note that I think if I'd read that first one before going abroad, I think I'd be very upset and shaken by it. But, after having been exposed to the world outside of the US quite a bit (i.e., on occasion being harassed for being an American and speaking American English, etc.) in the last half year, I'm not really phased. Yes, some of the ideas brought up make me a little upset, and others make me feel sorry for fellow Americans and their ignorance, but here's what I think about this sort of thing (meaning these kinds of groups): different cultures live differently. I wonder what makes people so upset that they feel the need to bash others? Personally, I don't mind people living differently than I do; I think it makes life more interesting.

Link the new photos on Facebook (Adam's Visit - 1/5): http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2377757&l=2d827&id=13700420

By the way, after perusing some of my Study Abroad documents I came across the following, taken from a list titled, "You might see the following curiosities in a travel guide for people coming to North America:"

"US elections are too confusing to explain. They follow 50 sets of rules and schedules that are determined by each of the 50 states. The votes of the people who live in the capital city don't even get counted."

Ha. I'm not alone in my lack of comprehension for the US election process!

Continuing with the rest of my weekend, Sunday I went on a 5 mile run. I also began packing. I sorted out which clothes I'd need for the rest of my stay here, and packed the rest into my gigantic suitcase.

Monday was a really great day. I was up at 8a to Skype with Adam. It was so nice chatting with him. Oh, I miss him to death! My grandpa rang me over Skype; turns out the family was at his house to have a late birthday and Father's Day celebration since it didn't work out for them last weekend. It was also really nice to chat with the family. Mom and the girls are quite excited for the trip to Orlando this summer! It's going to be a lot of fun!

After Skyping I made a loop around the city. First stop was a pay-phone (I've run out of credit) to make a call for checking out with my landlord. I have to check out Friday morning, but I'll be crashing in Alice's room that night (yay, no couch business!). I also made a call to Qantas - I had to get some information on weight limitations and prices for additional checked items. I've since packed up pretty much all of my things, but I can't squeeze everything into my luggage. So, even though I'm okay weight-wise, I'm going to have to pay the bucks to have 3 checked items. Not too bad - I can't imagine what I would have done had Adam not helped me out with that extra suitcase.

Going on with yesterday, after the phone calls I picked up a requested deck of cards for Lauren (a little girl form Ohio that my mom used to babysit). I also picked up something for Sharon and Asheton (Lauren's mom and sister). I hope they like the gifts!

Next up was Target. I wanted some sockettes, and I got a great deal on some Cadbury Crunchie bars! I paid half the price I would have at Coles! Yippee! Target saved me $10!

That was the last stop in the city center. I made my way over to the Botanical Gardens and did a promised sketch for Kristin. I'll post the photos of what I sketched and the sketch itself to Facebook soon. Then I mosied into the sunshine for a nice nap in the gardens. Laura, you were right, napping there is just splendid! Despite it being such cold day, the sunshine was incredibly warm on my back as I drifted into the zzzs.

Monday evening Inga, Iain and I watched The Emperor's New Groove - so funny. Then Inga and I had a great chat... our last one... we also swapped photos. This morning she left for Sydney with her mom. I made it a short and sweet goodbye because if it hadn't been I would have been a mushy puddle from crying. I sure am going to miss that girl...

All right, I'm going to skip running and watch a movie instead. I'm being very bad, but I'm in a very odd, un-motivated mood. There's not much else to do around here. The flat is empty save for a handful of us. It's disturbingly quiet. I suppose that is a sign that it's truly time to go home.

-Amanda