Home and Safe

After my easy flight from Seattle to LA, a 7 hour layover in LAX, 10 hour flight to Nadi, another 4 hour layover and 6 hour flight... I'm home in Australia.

It's a humid 80 degrees with full sun shine here. I've managed to shower and unpack and am currently plotting a trip to the grocery store as I am in dire need for some things.

I wanted to make sure everyone how much fun I had back home and I already miss everyone more than you could know!! I will post more information about my trip and everything shortly. :)

love & miss you!!

From One Blog to Another

Most of you will know that I have my Blog Roll of friends and family who also have blogs. However, there is another blog I check - but as I don't know this person I haven't added it... but I think I might.

This blog is actually a food blog which my friend Celia introduced me to and is authored by a woman who lives in Seattle. Each week she picks a different food item to write about and gives a recipe. Now I can honestly say I haven't tried any of the recipes yet, however there is one this week for Peppermint bark which I am seriously considering.

For those of you who are ever looking for a new idea - this is a site worth looking at: http://www.orangette.blogspot.com/

Christmas Helper

Not only do I get to hang out with my adorable nieces, but I also get to hang out with Pearl and Morris - my brother's dogs. :) Morris is especially attentive and has been helping me update my blog...

As you can see I am taking full advantage of my vacation status and have yet to get out of my pajamas and it is already 1:15... needless to say it's good to be home! ;)

End of Session Party

As with each session, my job is to plan the party to help celebrate being that much closer to graduation. This session was no different and as it is the last session before most of the students will go away on exchange I made the party a bit more formal and had it as cocktail attire. We rented the private function room on the back of a bar called The Clock in an area called Surry Hills. There are many pictures, but here is a sample to give you an idea of how it went. :)

Lydia and I

Gabriel, Evren, and me
Celia and I
Sam, Kyra and I

AGSM's Annual Revue

Each year the student class puts together a night of comedy which highlights and reminds everyone of all the thrills and glamorous things that we MBA students get to live with. The theme this year was one which highlighted a very sad situation which we have faced and dealt with all year long. To help bring light to the situation we dedicated our efforts to saving those things which have become so rare and hard to find... white board markers.

PenAid 2008 was successful in highlighting our dire situation to those 100 people in attendance that night. The evening began with a thrilling tale of one pen's rescue from an impending death by drying at Coogee Beach. Our resident Olympian gallantly saved the pen and returned it to the school.

David saves a pen from an impending dry out

After the rescue the festivities went on to highlight certain questionable activities and behaviours of my colleagues, and other pressing issues such as the lack of syndicate rooms. All in all the night was a hit with many laughs and even a few tears. :)

Peter and Jane performing "You're the Room that I want"

AGSM's Flight of the Cronin's with "Business Time"

Introducing Australia to Beer Pong!!

I think most people would say their college experience wouldn't be the same without beer pong. Now the little trouble we found in Sydney was that nobody knew what it was or had played it before. So we had to remedy that. Our trouble throughout the year in trying to play has been the lack of adequate space and tables to play... so we actually ended up playing at school. :)

Now being a part of the student society this probably isn't the best thing for me to do, but as the Event Coordinator I also see it as my role to facilitate the drinking education of different games. :D Needless to say we all had a great time and are planning another game/tournament for the new year. Here are some pictures to give you an idea of the fun times had.

Babysitting and loving it!

So I arrived back in Seattle yesterday and have quickly adjusted to the time change. Even better is that I've already been able to get in some quality time with my nieces. So far this morning Kirsten and I have taken the girls shopping in U Village - where I got my seasonal eggnog latte, a temporary Seattle phone number, and found that there is an H&M there now. I'm definitely going to have to go back and do a bit of shopping... I saw a couple things which could work in Sydney, even though everything is warm weather cloths.

While I'm here I'm trying ot figure out if Sydney is behind or ahead in their fashion cycle... so far it's looking like they might be ahead, as the things I'm seeing here are pretty much what I saw back in Sydney, but I'm not going to make a final verdict until I do a bit more research - aka shopping. :)

My flight back was pretty uneventful. The layover in Fiji was a bit of a drain as it was about 28 degrees C and their airport doesn't have air conditioning... which to me seems very strange, but what can you do right. The shocking part was walking off the plane in Seattle to 28 degree F weather and just about freezing to death. However this does mean that it looks like we'll have a white Christmas in Seattle.

Right now I'm debating on if i can procrastinate further on my school work and do some reading, which trying to type when a large black dog is sitting on my side and putting his head on the keyboard... to top it off this dog likes to drop bombs every so often which are not at all pleasant - but he's so cute that I won't move (plus he'll just follow me).

I'm going to do some updates as there have been a couple events to update on the blog, but wanted to say I'm back.

For those in Seattle checking this I have a local cellphone which is 206-992-6952.

Sea town here I come!!

Ok so it is officially two weeks until I leave to go home to Seattle, and I am SOOO excited!! Of course between now and then I have a massive amount of homework and beach time that I need to get in if I am going to finish this session and get a tan to remind people of the beaches they are missing by not coming to visit. :D Either way words cannot express... So just in case anyone is interested or has forgotten my flight details (and partly to help me remember) here is my flight information.

Monday 15 December

Air Pacific flight - FJ 910
Leaves Sydney @ 1:55
Arrives in Fiji @ 6:55

Air Pacific flight - FJ 810
Leaves Fiji @ 10:55 (ugh for the layover)
Arrives in LAX @ 1:05 (still Monday)

Alaskan Airlines 467
Leaves LAX @ 4:30
Arrives in Seattle @ 7:05

All in all my flights will only take 5 hours, which is insane considering I'll probably spend more than 20 in route. Needless to say I will be very tired when I get home but very happy to see everyone!

Got my shot back!!

For a long time I have been playing on a women's basketball team which plays down in the CBD on Wednesday nights. With classes it was really hard to make it down there in addition to the 1 hour spent on the bus there and back so for this season I am the super sub.

In exchange I have started playing on a co-ed team on Sundays. I've only played two games so far but the pace is a bit more like what I'm used to and today I GOT MY SHOT BACK!! For those who play sports you will understand this feeling - everything just clicked, the motion came back to me, the shots started going in, and the team started passing me the ball!! It was fantastic.

The leagues here are a bit more formal and they have proper uniforms... my number is #23 and I am also giving the possibly boost of confidence simply because of the number. :)

So tonight I am letting myself celebrate by watching a bit of TV... I'm also in the end of my session so this is the most celebrating I can do right now, but will do more if I still have my shot next week. :)

Lauren's New Blog!!

I'm sure most of you have heard me brag about any one of my amazing nieces or my nephew... and while some may find it annoying I really don't care because they're that cool! Lauren, the oldest of my nieces, has just started college in Eastern Washington at a small college called Whitworth. She's loving it and having a blast. Of course, as with all the women in the family, she is beautiful, amazing, ambitious and all the good things you can think of - PLUS now she has a blog!! Yes, for most of you this won't be too exciting, but for me and the family it's another way to keep in touch.

The site is: http://isgonnabealright.blogspot.com/

For those who don't know her here is a picture of her so you can have an idea of who she is. :)

Happy Thanksgiving

As I mark another US holiday abroad I realise that this is probably the one thing that I miss most about living away from home. We are going to have an orphans Thanksgiving with some other Yankies, but its just not the same. There is just something about being with family, watching football, and of course Dad making the first batch of Chex mix, that you can't replace with any amount of good friends and wine.

With that saidI am thankful for the time I have spent here, and hopefully will be able to extend for a while (just not too long). So just to share a couple of them:

1. I know it sounds dorky but I am thankful for Skype and blogging - it allows me to share all my experiences and stay connected with all of those who are unfortunately on the other side of the globe.
2. The new friends I've made. Coming into this experience I knew I would gain a new group for friends, but I never anticipated them to be this fantastic. This isn't just the people I go to school with, but also my flatmates and people I have met outside of school.
3. The chance to explore Australia. I have seen new animals (above and below water), been to some of the most beautiful places, discovered new passions, and seen only a portion of this very large continent.

These are three things that I am happy for and I am looking forward to extending this list once I have graduated and can take a breath and enjoy life again.

love and miss you all!!

Wine Club - aka justifiable reason to drink :)

So a group of the exchange students have organised to have a weekly wine tasting. As I usually have basketball on Wednesday and previously work on Thursday and Friday I have not yet been able to come. This week however, with starting my new job (more info to come on another post) I was able to make it on Thursday and offered to host. Now one thing I've learned about myself while living in Australia is that I love to host events. Whether it's organising the school events or cooking for a group of friends - I like it.

Each week the group selects a different type of wine then they each rank them on a scale of 1-10. One of the guys is then compiling all the information and will have a 10 favorites w/ one of each kind. This week it was sparking wines. So the hostess in me though of strawberries. :) We shared 6 bottles between 11 of us and ha da great time.

Now I'm trying to figure out if we can or if we want to rally more people in the class for a culminating night of the favorites... as I'm new to the group I'll leave it up to them, but could easily try to pull something together. :)

Movember

November in Australia marks a month of men wearing scruffy faces for charity. The deal is that guys will grow a mustaches or a "mo" and people will donate to motivate him to shave it off... Now as you can imagine the guys end up looking like truckers, porn stars, or sex offenders - but when else do they have a justifiable reason to look like complete idiots. :)

Personally this doesn't really affect me as I don't have to deal with kissing or looking at the guys wearing this more than what I see in class so it's mainly an entertainment factor. In a way it's sort of like Susan G Komen but for men and more of a fun thing. I think it should spread to the US, but am not sure if the guys there are as willing to make fools of themselves as the men down here... To give you an idea of what this entails here is a picture of a couple of the guys in my class looking like they're posing for a Sears catalog - if I get some close ups I'll post them to give you a better feel.

Introducing the world to Snickerdoodles!

This weekend we had a BBQ for the mid-session party and I asked that everyone bring a dish from their home country. Now I must admit I struggled a bit because most American dishes are what you find abroad... with the exception of our casseroles and Apple Pie (which I'm pretty sure we hijacked from someone else). So I went back to the good old things that I 1)know how to make, and 2) thought would go well.

In the end I made guacamole and my Mom's Mexican casserole, then added a twist with snickerdoodles. Now I didn't know this was so much of an American thing, but then again you learn something new every day. Of course to the American's they were obvious and a reminder of home, but everyone else was pleasantly surprised and the cookies were a hit. Now I just need to find out how to make a certain desert one of the other girls made which was a combination of a meringue and tart - it was to die for!!

Election Frustration/Rant

Most of you will know that I am a pretty private person especially when it comes to political views. I'm very much a person who can sympathise with how certain points of view may be more appealing to certain people and think it's their prerogative to think what they want. So you can imagine my growing frustration with people here constantly having their own opinion about what the US should do and asking me (and sometimes interrogating me) as to what I think.

Now I have become very good at pretending like I don't hear what they say, but a classic example was last night at work when my boss was talking with a customer about how Americans would be completely stupid if they didn't vote a certain way... now you can then imagine my disgust when they proceeded to interrogate me about who I am going to vote for. Frankly it's none of his damn business!

Being abroad during the last two elections has given me an appreciation and almost sickening understanding of how closely this is watched and commented on by other nations. This one seems to be much worse than the last one. Given the current environment and the continuing impact we have on each other I can understand why so much attention is given to our election. What I don't like or understand is how people how have never lived (let alone visited) the US can so easily form opinions about our government and country based on what they hear on Fox News. Personally I think it's ignorant and just plain stupid - as I would be to pass judgment on Australians for the way they vote and the way their government acts.

This frustration has been growing and will probably continue till after the election is over, because then the questions will simply turn from who I am going to vote for to what I think about who has been elected. Maybe this will teach me to be abroad during presidential elections... I will not get off my soap box.

Pictures from Camping - As promised

Now I must warn you that I am looking damn sexy in these pictures, so please do not get any thoughts or dreams of you knowing a world famous super model someday... it won't happen. :)

Still excited about bush walking (I'm on the far left)

Four hours into it and surprisingly still smiling

S'more Time!!

Nothing will stand between me and my s'more!!

Packing up camp

Wombats, Spiders, and Ticks... Oh My!!

Forewarning: I know everyone wants to see pictures of me - I will post more pictures once I get pictures from other people, as it's hard to take pictures of me when hiking...

This last weekend I went camping for my Leadership Concepts and Skills class and surprisingly enjoyed the entire thing. I had to brush off the long lost skills - like putting together and taking down tents, peeing in the bush... drunk, and other vital things - but came out with a very pleasant experience.

The trip started on Saturday when we left school at 7AM for our camp site. We camped in an area called Kangaroo Valley which is south of Sydney by about 2 hours. So we arrived at the camp site just after 9AM and then we got to it. After having to haul all our gear (tents, chairs, food, and everything else) up to the site we set up camp. Once we had lunch and everything was set up we broke into teams to begin the fun....


Our first task was to all learn to read a map and use a compass. Seeing as how this was the first time camping for some people there was a bit of a learning curve with the compasses and maps. Once we had mastered those skills we set off for an afternoon of orienteering. Orienteering is when there are markers placed in random/strategic places throughout the bush and you have to navigate yourself from one point to another. Now this sound pretty straight forward and is when you are thinking of most of the forested areas we have in the states... but bring that to the Australian bush and it's a whole new game. There were times when we literally could not see more than five feet in front of us because the brush was so thick. Add to this the fact that it's spring so there are snakes and ticks and the picture gets even better.....


My team did really well and was able to do some major orienteering (over 6Ks of tracking) and finally made it back to camp exhausted and hungry at 7:30PM. The night proceeded with some massive steaks, drinks, and S'MORES!!! Now as you know from previous posts there was a bit of searching that had to be done to find graham crackers, but I managed. So I was able to show some people s'mores and give them a taste of true American camping. Needless to say they loved it!!


Sunday was more task oriented (aka less walking more thinking) and ended with a gorgeous canoe ride. Over both days we lucked out on weather - it was sunny with a few clouds so not too hot - especially considering it rained all last week. After two days of activity, no showers, peeing outside, and dealing with all sorts of animals we ended the day with seeing lots of kangaroos and wombats on the bus ride home. Considering what we learned and experienced I would say this class has been worth the tuition payment. :)

Christmas in September?!?

OK so we all know how outraged people in the states get when stores put out Christmas items before Thanksgiving.... here they have been out for at least the last 3 weeks. I'm not talking minor displays ducked back in a random isle - full on displays at the end of the isle. There are even stockings and other things usually left for the last minute shopping people usually do. Apparently they like to do their last minute shopping early here.

Will try to take some pictures and post them - hopefully that won't break security proticals.

Bringing Smores to Australia

Next weekend we are going camping for my leadership camp and I must say the thing I'm most excited about is smores!! I've found all the equivalent ingredients here in Australia. Which for those of you in the states sounds like it would not be a problem. However they don't have or know what graham crackers are... I've found out that the equivalent is something called a digestive cookie. Now I'm sure you're having the same reaction that I had - YUK! But am willing to give it a go and see what happens as there isn't really any other option.

I'm doing a test run this week just to see how good they are so we'll see. Eitherway I will report back on the success and the weekend away.

Australian Spanish

So with working at a Tex-Mex restaurant I have developed a surprising skill that I wouldn't have imagined - that is to understand Australian "Spanish". Before I elaborate let me just highlight the fact that Mexican food is not big here, so I often have people coming in who have no clue what the food is on the menu.

Now with that said, I have heard some really odd pronunciations of standard Mexican names. Here are some spelled out versions of what I've heard...

For fajitas (normally pronounced fa-hee-tas), I get...
fa-gee-tas
fa-gi-tas

For quittos (normally pronounced kee-tos), I get..
quit-os
qoo-tos

The pronunciations are compounded by weird rhythms and speech patters... luckily people usually respond well to my repeating the correct pronunciation, but there are definitely some Napoleon Dynamite moments. :)

Cutest Nieces EVER

OK so I know everybody does this when new kids enter the family, but my new nieces are the cutest!! They are already showing the true McClelland fight and have been going through the roller coaster that most premature babies go through. Kirsten is doing well and Mary might actually get to go home soon! :) Lila is still working on eating a bit more before she can go home. My brother tells me they are already looking different, one having dark hair and the other with light. Will post more as we know more information, in the mean time here are a couple snaps.

Lila Grace and Mary Elisabeth

New Skills of the Resume

So I finally found a part time job (yay!) at a local restaurant. So yes I am going against my personal goal never to have to work in a restaurant but a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do. It's a local Tex-Mex place which is owned by a Canadian of all people and the cooks are all Indian... Needless to say it doesn't live up to my standards of any sort of mexican food - but hey it's money.

Tuesday was my first official day of waitressing - and after 6 hours my feet were killing me and I had come to the conclusion that the years of typing have rendered my hand writing illegible. So I have a couple points to work on but all in all it was a good night. I work again tonight and will most likely be a standard Thursday, Friday and Saturday worker. Considering I don't have class on Friday this will be an excelent way for me to 1) make money and 2) not spend money by going to bars. :)

New Aunt Again!!

So the babies decided they'd had enough and wanted to come out!! So I have now doubled my aunt quotient and now have 3 nieces and 1 nephew. Lila Grace and Mary Elizabeth were born at 1:58 and 1:59 PM on 9/25 and weighed in at 5 lb 1 oz and 4 lb 14 oz. Now I'm on a hunt for some cool Aussie toys/stuffed animals to bring back for Christmas.

Will post pictures when they are available. :)

Roller Coaster Week

This week has been pretty insane... with interviewing for both part-time and future full-time jobs, catching up on loads of reading for school, coming to crunch time on a major project, then today going from severe home sickness to a literally bright outlook. While the majority of these are pretty self explanatory I will highlight the last couple.

I have been working with a team of people from my school and the overarching business school to put on a program to help other masters students who do not have business experience learn some of the basic skills and start networking. Now everything has been going great, but our assistant dropped off the face of the earth for two days and things didn't get done. We are now in crunch mode and having to do things very last minute - which is never any good. The good news is that it's almost over!! After next weekend I will be done with this project and be able to focus on more pressing things.

In the mean time, I was watching the Rock n Roll Fashion show today and was hit with a massive wave of home sickness when Lynard Skynard played Sweet Home Alabama. There is something about those good old songs that make me miss home. However I just checked the weather and am feeling better... below is the forecast for Sydney, Phoenix, and Seattle. For all you American's you'll need to do a bit of converting if you don't want to simply use the pictures. :)

Bruises, sprains and one huge Victory!!

Our weekend in Melbourne was a huge success. It started off well for use sporties w/ a couple (6) pitchers of Guinnes in the pub prior to the debate - so an obvious good start to the weekend. Then was followed quickly by a massive victory over the other school's debate team, which failed to do the basic thing of debate - provide proof that they are correct! This victory was obviously followed by more drinking when we went to one of the attic bars Melbourne is known for. Basically there are all these alleys with restaurants and bars in the most random spaces. These are funky little places with really awesome atmosphere, so a good place to be to celebrate. Given I was going to be doing a heavy amount of sports the next day I was pretty tame with my drinking.

In the pub before the debate

Saturday morning before we went of to play I checked out the outdoor market with some friends - definitely a cool place to be able to go shop. They had everything from food to underwear to kitchen appliances all in an open air market. Then came the sports.... To provide the short story - we swept them in volleyball, soccer, and ultimate frisbee. With the closest sport being ultimate which was decided by a sudden death 'next point wins.' Oh the taste of victory was sweet.

As part of the tradition the hosting school had organised a big night out on the town. So we headed to the tallest building in Australia and the highest observation deck in the souther hemisphere for a night out. Considering it was 3 hours of all you can eat and drink this was a good (granted early - 6PM) start to the night.

The Eureka Tower - where the fun began

Sunday was the perfect hangover day - in that we went back to the markets to have a nice unhealthy breakfast and then spent the day sleeping at the beach. The weather was fantastic and we managed to find an area with live music in St. Kilda and literally slept in the sun. It was fantastic.

Sleeping on the boardwalk

I dont' feel that I was there long enough to guage whether I like it better than Sydney. While it does have the cultural aspects which Sydney lacks it has a much smaller city feel. Now I'm not sure if this is because of where we were and the fact that it was the weekend - but it did not have the big city feel that I love oh so much.

Off to Melbourne!

This weekend 25 of my classmates and I are heading to Melbourne for the annual AGSM vs. MBS competition. MBS is the equivalent to my school in Melbourne and every year the two schools get together for some good old competition. Tonight will be a debate - because a business school competition isn't complete without a debate. Then tomorrow we have a day of sports.

I've brushed up my soccer skills a bit and will be playing soccer and ultimate frisbee. They've managed to schedule volleyball at the same time as both soccer and ultimate so I'm going to bow out of that one and go where my skills might be better used. Sunday we have a day to wander around the city and check a few places out and I am looking forward to that.

Will update more when I get back!

Too Damn Employable... or Not?

Given the financial situation in the US which seems to be getting worse and worse by the day... I have been frantically trying to find a part time job to help me literally survive. The trouble is that I'm too employable. Employers either see my resume and only look at the professional experience - disregarding the 6 months of retail and 6 months at the bagel shop - or they see that I'm graduating and not going to be April and therefore won't be able to help fill their 'pipeline.' I cannot tell you how frustrating and stressful this is.

I've calculated it out and currently - if I don't find a job I will literally run out of money by the end of the year. Now I do have my old 401K which I can and will dip into, but I am trying a couple last ditch points for private loans in the US before I go there. Even that doesn't have a cheery outlook as it is currently sitting with Merrill Lynch, which is now Bank of America.

Luckily we have started to apply and take interviews for actual jobs - after we graduate. So hopefully I will be able to secure something for as soon as I'm done to start trying to make some money.

Hopefully in addition to a real job I'll find someone who actaully looks at my resume as a good thing in that they can pay me minimal money to get someone who is overqualified for the position... keep your fingers crossed!!

A Perfect Day for a Walk.... err Hike

I have been itching to take advantage of the fantastic weather we've had here while spring is coming into it's own. Today it was sunny, 17 degrees C or 62 F, with a light breeze and only a few clouds. So far I have done most of the walks on the 'South head' - which for all those not familiar with Sydney means on the south side of the harbour - and one of the main trails on the North Head. (Note: I pointed out the irony in these being called heads as this is the term for bathroom on boats... but my friend didn't find it as funny.)

At 9AM my friend Alex and I set off on the bus to Manly where we would start our trek. We caught the ferry from Circular Quay to Manly and began what ended up being a 2.5-3 hour walk. Here is an aerial view of Manly beach to give you an idea of the beaches we saw.

The walk proved to be a bit more interesting as there wasn't a set path. So we ended up winding our way through various residential areas from beach to beach and finally found our way to Dee Why Beach. Having just walked for a significant period of time we were drawn to the promise of a cold beer and some food.

While the walk was enjoyable I don't know that it is one I would recommend. I would however recommend any of the various beaches we saw. They have less people, not just tourists but less people, are cleaner, and for anyone wanting to surf they had some pretty intense waves. In addition to this they all had a bit of the natural reserve area behind the beach areas - somewhat like you find in Florida.

Kirsten - on my next walk I will try to take some pictures for you so you can have something to look at. :) In the mean time I will look forward to the 23rd of October!!

Irony in the strikes...

It amazes me at how under appreciated teachers are... The reason I say this is that I know of two people in my lives who are teachers and are currently on strike. Kirsten, my sister-in-law is currently striking in Washington for much needed improvements in not only wages, but curriculum and health benefits. Then one of my flatmates is currently striking here in Australia for some of the very same reasons.

These are the people who are charged with shaping the minds and lives of our children and our future... why is it so much to ask for paying them enough to live comfortably? Corporations and individuals are willing to spend hundreds of dollars an hour for various consulting and professional services, but not willing to spend the extra money in taxes to support our teachers. (Yes I see the irony in me being one of these consultants... but you get my point)

Anyways, I just had this thought today while I was sitting in the McKinsey information session thinking how much I DON'T want to work for a company like theirs and thought I'd share it with you. :)

Is Pondering the Big Question....

Sorry for those who may have gotten their hopes up that the big question I am referring to has something to do with marriage... this is relating to what it is I want to do with my life. We have our careers week coming up at school so I have been contemplating what it is exactly I want to do with myself.

There is the obvious option of consulting, but then there are other things. Considering this is a chance to change courses should I choose I'm facing a bit of a dilemma. After five years of trotting around the globe and being as free as a bird I am starting to have the desire to slow down a bit. I know this will come to the excitement to the majority of my family and friends, as I know Jenni has used up more than one page in her address book simply from tracking my movements. Then will also be more excited to know that I am seriously contemplating taking this slow down back state-side.

Now before you go getting your hopes up too much, this is all just initial thoughts... nothing is certain and I do feel like I should take advantage of being down under to explore and live here with an income for a bit. Right now I'm just trying to figure out the best path for the next few years then we'll see what happens from there.

Today is a very rainy day so is perfect for deep pondering such as this, and considering those reading this are those who care most about me, and I care most about, I wanted to share my thoughts.

I hope this finds you all well! Love and miss you!!

Whirlwind few weeks

I know it's been a while since my last post, so let me just update you on what has been going on...

Last week (August 25 - 29) I had the following exam schedule:
- Monday Operations Management (2.5 hours)
- Tuesday Marketing Management (2 hours)
- Thursday Financial Management (3 hours)
- Friday take home strategy final (2750 word essay)

Needless to say I drank way too much caffeine and didn't get enough sleep the entire week. Luckily thought it ended with a raging party!!

Friday was our end of session party, which I had been planning for the last month or so. We had managed to take advangate of an offer for a $2000 donation for getting 50 people to complete a survey for the local lab... which we obviously did! So this made it so the 4 hour private harbour cruise was free for everyone who wanted to come. Now flash back to your days of a student and you can imagine how sweet this was. To make things even better when we were on the boat we realised there was FREE BEER AND WINE!!! I was completely surprised as this had not been mentioned to me at any point in my coordinating with the boat owners, but who was I to complain.

Here is a picture once we got off the boat... as you can see we are looking very happy. :)


I used the party as an end of session bash/birthday party, since once we were off the boat it was technically my birthday. I must admit that turning 27 did feel a bit sad as I thoroughly enjoyed being 26, but alas I will survive. :)

Since then I have been trying to relax as much as possible, however with friends leaving to go on exchange it has been full of more drinking and farwells than I expected.

Finally yesterday I treated myself to a hair cut as my birthday present from M&D so I now have a clean cut for next week's career fair... now if I can only figure out what it is I want to do when I graduate my life would be that much easier!

The Proud Aunt

Some of you know how excited I am to be an Aunt again... so you've probably heard me talk about it, but I thought I'd put something on here for those who don't know. :)

My brother's wife is due with twins around Halloween time so they have been able to get some of the cool new ultrasound pictures of the babies. This one is awesome so I had to post it on here. Up till now the pictures have been very much like 'find the baby', but this one is insanely clear!

I hope Kevin and Kirsten don't mind that I've posted this here, but what can I say - other than I can't wait to meet them at Christmas!!!

That's a bit yawn!!

Poor Colin!!

I'm not sure if the US news has caught onto this story, but there has been an abandoned baby hump back whale off the Sydney shores. They've named him Colin and for the past few days have been trying to figure out a way to save him.... Unfortunately they haven't come up with anything and are going to put him down.

Now I'm not usually one of those big 'save the whales' type person, but I think you at least have to give it a go and try to save the poor creature. Their reasoning for not trying to pull a Shamu type rescue project is that they don't have the facilities to take care of him, the fact that he is something like 2,000 km away from where he would need to be go get his natural food once he's healthy and being raised by humans would mean he doesn't learn the hump backs language. I can understand these points... then there is the fact that his health is apparently deteriorating.

For the last days he's been going from boat to boat trying to suckle and feed. He almost got away this morning when he wasn't in his usual spot - but they've found him at a dock closer to land and so will be trying to capture him and put him down today. :( sad day

Mental Drain

I have finals next week - 4 in all - and honestly have not been able to focus on anything. Today I tried going for a run to see if that would help... nothing. It is a very frustrating feeling because I know I have mountains of studying to do, but it's almost like I don't know where to start. ugh!

Tomorrow my first task will be to sit down and make a list of everything I need to do and prioritise it. For those of you that know me, you'll understand how this will motivate me... especially once I see how long the list is!

In the mean time, I'm going for a second interview tomorrow for a 'Educator' position at lululemon. For those who don't know the brand, it's a super nice athletics wear store specialising in yoga wear. It's something that will help give me some spending money (not extra spending money... just spending money period) and help keep me from spending too much time in the bars and clubs. So keep your fingers crossed and I will post if I get the job.

Yet Another Strange & Amazing Aussie Animal

Now, we all know that Australia is full of a range of animals that are both unique and odd. There are the obvious things such as the koala and kangaroo. Then there are the spiders, snakes, jellyfish and various other things that can kill you. But I think I have found the animal that takes the cake for strange/fascinating/just plain odd... it's the Lyre Bird.

This bird mimics all the sounds it hears in the forests of Southern Australia... so that obviously includes the other birds and animals. What makes it so strange is that this bird also mimics the human noises it hears... so in its orchestra are camera shutters, car alarms and even chain saws! When I first heard about this I figured it would be similar sounds - but watch this clip and you'll be able to understand why this I think this is so amazing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjE0Kdfos4Y

Extreme Sadness...

So I knew that I was going to take a hit with the exchange rate being a lot worse now than when my loans were quoted... but never did I expect it to be this bad. Without airing my financial woes let me put it in this context.

Loans Quoted: $.85 USD = $1 AUD
$8.50 USD = $10.00 AUD

Today: $.95 USD = $1 AUD
$9.50 USD = $10.00 AUD


Ugh is the best way to describe my feelings today. Tomorrow I begin to hunt for a part-time job on a serious basis. :(

Man I'm looking forward to having an income again!!

14Ks Run/Dodge...

Today was the city to surf run which was 14Ks of beautiful scenery and great running. The only problem was that our group was 'the back of the pack,' and it literally was the back of the pack. Considering there were 70,000 people running you can imagine how packed it was. I think I spent more time dodging in and out of the crowd of walkers than actually running... very frustrating! But I FINISHED!!! I must also thank Kirby (my sister) and my Dad - read on to find out how.

When I was little I would always go watch my sisters play sports. With Kirby it was the cross country meets at Carmichael, Yakima, then later in Seattle. Jodie was tennis matches in Pasco, Yakima, and other various places. Being young and rambunctious little kid I remembered Kirby's events more because I was able to run around and do more... with tennis I usually just ended up getting in trouble or skinning my knees. In addition to having tons of memories I always used to try to run with my Dad as he would encourage Kirby on the uphill and downhill parts. (My Dad was a pretty stellar runner himself.) For the uphills it was things like "attack the hill" and downhill it was more about using the hill to relax. And now to add relevance to this story...

Today's run included an infamous hill called heartbreak hill... as I was dodging people I heard the 'attach the hill' in my mind to help motivate. Then the downhills I was almost laughing at the others who were struggling and, while my knees might not agree, I found it very relaxing.

I didn't run the entire thing (there was a bad experience with stomach cramping and dizziness somewhere around 5K) but I would say I ran at least 12-13 K, which is WAY more than any other run I've done. The times aren't in but I will post the results when I get them... for now I just hope I will be able to walk tomorrow.

Now the question is if I'll keep up the training and stay in shape....

Salvation in Drugs

OK so I know the title of this blog will raise some eyebrows... but they are all legal drugs. Before I get into the basis of my salvation I must give some context.

A while back I wrote about how I am training for a 14 kilometer run. Training pretty much stopped when school work became so busy I hardly had time to shower let alone run. So this week I have been ramping up my efforts in a feeble attempt to get in shape - the run in tomorrow. I had mapped out a plan to run 5K Saturday, 7K on Monday, 10K on Wednesday and another 10K on Friday. Everything was going well and on Wednesday I ended up running 7K but then made up for it with a 40 minute basketball game w/ no substitutes.

Friday morning I woke up with back spasms which made it very hard to sit in certain positions, bend over, twist, or do anything that required my lower back to move... I spend the day laying in bed working on my laptop in a very odd position in the hopes of my back getting better. Alas today I am not in as much pain but it still hurts. Now comes the drugs....

Back in the days of good old RHS my coaches would always carry a little jar of this balm called Tiger Balm. Now this is a 'natural' version of icey hot but only did the hot part. So you can imagine my excitement when I saw they have Tiger Balm here. Today I have been liberally applying far more than the recommended amount and this combined with one Advil liquid cap has made it so I can actually function without looking like I have a large stick inserted in certain orifices.

Tomorrows run will be a different story. My plan is to take a couple Advil, apply the balm liberally, and walk the uphills (which there are a couple doosies). We'll see if I'm able to move on Monday though...

ABBA Invasion

I'm not sure how big the movie Mama Mia is in the states... and to be honest its not that big here. However, I went with my flat mates to see it and have not been able to escape ABBA since.

The more time I spend in the world I find how sheltered I was to so many things. Now this may be a good thing to be sheltered from... will leave it to you. However until recently I didn't know who ABBA was, or that they had an entire Broadway show made from their songs. Crazy...

Now for the movie, Meryl looked amazing for her age, but Pierce on the other hand. I think I winced every time he started singing - it was that bad. For my family members who had to suffer through my singing on road trips, I am a better singer than him... just to put it into perspective.

To make matters even worse there are now commercials on TV for Ultimate ABBA and I haven't been able to get their songs out of my head. I seriously thing I've gone slightly insane.

If you haven't seen it and are an ABBA fan - go... if you aren't save yourself the time and wait till it comes out on DVD. And you might want to stay away from tin foil......

Driving on the Wrong (Australian) Side of the road....

I have no driven on the wrong (British) side of the road... in a manual and have survived. Now considering it's probably been a good 3-4 years since I've driving a manual and the gear shift is on the left hand side - which means I was shifting with my left hand - I consider this a great accomplishment! To make things easier it was at midnight so there was nobody on the road and the car wasn't large.

My greatest fear in driving over here is the spacial difference. Compared to the states where our streets are wide enough for four cars and you slow down when you have to squeeze between two cars- the margin for error here is infinitely smaller. To make it worse, the car was parked in a tiny ally way so to get out I had to navigate out of the ally. In the end all mirrors were intact and I only had on major miscalculation when turning left for the first time - when I promptly hit the curb.

Aside from that the only other thing was the confusing fact that the signals are on the right side of the wheel not the left, so I turned the windshield wipers on every time I went to turn the blinker on.

So my advice for anyone who comes here and plans to drive is to keep the following in mind:
1. The drive should always be closest to oncoming traffic.
2. The blinkers (or signals) are by the window.

The Invation of the Pilgrims

I am not sure if the US news has covered the events of the Pope recently... but he's been in Sydney. This brought on an invasion of around 150,000 pilgrims from all over the world. Now, when most of us hear "from all over the world" we assume there is a good representation from the major countries. Not the case here. Literally there were people walking around with flags I have never seen before. Then there were the larger groups of Germans, French, Mexicans, Canadians, and of course Americans.

Sydney had something like 500 road closures over the weekend, and I was for all intensive purposes marooned in my neighborhood as the pope gave mass about two blocks from where I live. This also meant I was woken up at 7 AM on Sunday with the singing pilgrims on their way to mass - needless to say I wasn't very impressed.

Even more interestingly, they weren't the strictest of religious followers. One statistic said that 70% of the pilgrims would lose their virginity this weekend. Brothels had a 10% discount on 'sales and services.' The kicker is that the group which was staying in the residence hall of our school left a nice present of 6+ bottles of wine, 2 32 pack cases of beer, and various other beverages (all empty) in the lounge area of the school.

For those that are curious, I did not go see the Pope.

Good Wine, Good Weather, Good Friends

This weekend 60 of my classmates and their partners packed ourselves into a bus and drove up to the Hunter Valley for a day of wine tasting. It was a long day, with the bus leaving at 7:15 AM on a Saturday. Two and a half hours later we were hit our first winery and the wine began to flow. :)

Tempus Two was the first winery, and unfortunately for them they were not very polite. Needless to say we did lots of tasting but not much buying... An hour later it was off to the next winery.

Number two was Tyrell's, which is one of the oldest winery and has been around for 150 years. The people were much nicer and the wine was equally improved. After another round of sampling we headed off to the next site.

At this point (around 2PM), all the wines tasted the same and to be honest the names are now forgotten. :) But we had another sampling and lunch at the winery. After finishing up some grub we headed to our last stop of the day.

Our last stop was two wineries, one was the best of the day which was Brokenwood, and a cheese factory. This was a perfect end to the day, once we were finished the lot of drunkards loaded the bus and headed back to Sydney.

Needless to say the bus ride back was not as rowdy as the ride up, given the amount of wine consumed and the long day of drinking. When we made it back to Sydney a few of us actually managed to rally to make it out onto the town. I have to say this was the perfect end to the day as we had dinner at a place called Mad Mex, which is Sydney's equivalent to Chipotle, and I called it a night.

For anyone planning to come down if you have a weekend day this is definitely something I would recommend doing.

Flash from the past... the Stroopie!!

Ok, so this post is mainly for Steph, Diana, Jenni, and Kirby - basically anyone who might have visited me in London and had one of these amazing little treats. We initially discovered these in Holland and were more than slightly obsessed while in London. They are thin waffle type cookies with cinnamon syrup in the middle. The best part is that they are the perfect size to put on top of a cup of tea or coffee so that the syrup melts.... lets just say they are damn good.

I've managed to find them at my local produce store and am in heaven. So Steph, as promised this post is for you and I wish you were here to share one with me!

Christmas in Seattle :)

After a frantic search of every airline I've ever heard of... I found one I didn't know exists. Air Pacific is the national airline of Fiji and they have a flight from Sydney to Los Angeles which only cost $2000. YAY!!! (this is also good to know for people who might be coming over and are looking for cheap tickets)

The bad thing is that I won't be able to go home to Phoenix but the good thing is that I get to see everyone who won't be able to make it down under!

So I have my international flight and am just working on the flight up to Seattle, will send more information when I have it but for now just know that I will be in Seattle from December 15 - 28.

Can't wait to see everyone!!

Airplane Ticket Hell

So I went to change my return flight from September to December and of course it's non-changeable... At the end of the day it's just miles, so I thought while I'm awake (it's not 12:35 AM) I'd try to book my flight in Decembers. Here I am thinking that it'd be no problem and I'd just be able to book it... WRONG!

There are no flights at all... on any airlines which I have enough miles for... and of course all other flights are over $3000 (US). :(

Am going to do a massive hunt for cheap(er) tickets over the next couple days and look at my budget... but I might have to accept that I might not make it home till after graduation.

As soon as I know ANYTHING I will post it and let people know. Right now I'm trying not to be completely crushed by this as I was really looking forward to seeing everyone, words aren't enough to say how sad I'll be if I can't make it home.

Am I bi-lingual??

More and more I am realising how we Americans seem to have created our own language. Whether it is with the way we spell things or the way we communicate things, it's usually very different not just to other non-English languages, but to pretty much every other English speaking country.

I now find myself fighting over whether it is organisation or organization, realize or realise, center or centre.... honestly I could go on! So now I am beginning to think that I should be able to consider myself at least bi-lingual.

To take it a step further, it's not just the spelling. I can interpret things like "Ta" which to an American would be an irrelevant grunt, but to people in the UK or here in OZ it means thanks. Or even being able to better understand (and sometimes even copy) our neighbors to the north and their use of the word "eh". (I blame Nicole, Brent, and Steve mostly for this) This seemly innocent two letter word can be "right?" or "what?" as well as many other meanings.

All in all I can say I am beginning to speak like a local (sans the accent), with one very distinct difference - I do not (and will not) use the word "reckon" which seems to be at the core of the Aussie language. I might have used the word a couple of times in Virginia, however the visual I have of someone saying that word is someone in flannel, overalls, and chew in their mouth.

My last comment will be toward the word "root" which in the US or Canada means to cheer for or support a sporting team, as well as represent a very good winter cloths brand... here root means to have sex. So for those of you who are planning on watching a sporting event down under, please do not ask "Who are you rooting for?" because it will put an entirely different spin on the game (not to mention earn you a few strange looks).

New Layout & Features

So in my procrastination of studying for Operations Management I have made some changes to the site... Including a new layout, added a slide show and some links to my friends' blogs. Specifically, for those of you who know Meg Nelson (my little little sis from DGs) she has a blog of her travels in Europe which is worth checking out.

This week is as insane as always, however we are taking a wine tasting trip next weekend so there are sure to be some great blogs to come out of that (including pictures). I'm going to try to see if I can hijack a friends camera and take some really good pics... however I will understand if he doesn't let me considering the amount of wine which will be flowing. :D

All this Sunshine and So Much Work to do...

The weather has gotten better here (thanks to the end of the La Nina which has ended) with sunny skies and relatively warm days. Unfortunately we've been so busy with school I haven't had time to enjoy it. :(

However we did go out on a harbour cruise this weekend for a girlfriend's 30th, so was able to have a great time on the water. Other than that life has been very mundane here... am working on changing my flight back for Christmas (need to talk with Kevin & Kirby to see where/when I can possibly crash) so will keep everyone posted.

In the mean time, here is a beautiful picture taken w/ one of my friends camera's which shows the views from the water.

The Australian Hamburger/Hot Dog

Us Americans think of the hamburger or hot dog as the cornerstone food for our ballgames, when we want to grab something to eat on the go, and generally as one of our every-day foods. Here in Australia, they have something a bit different. It's the meat pie.

Now when I first arrived here I was anticipating that it would be something like the Cornish meat pies that I had in the UK... they aren't. The meat pies here are miniature pies that fit in your hand and are filled with minced meat, sometimes steak, chicken, or other mystery meat. The meat is accompanies by gravy, onions, fungus, and other veggies. They are usually topped with tomato sauce (their equivalent to ketchup) and are much like a chicken pot pie.

Another version of the pie is a sausage roll which is a popular breakfast food as well as party snack. When I heard of these I was actually quite excited - in my mind I anticipated they'd be a sort of egg McMuffin rolled in pastry. Once again, I was wrong. They are merely a roll of sausage in pastry, which is typically smothered in BBQ or tomato sauce to give it some flavor. (Don't get me started on the different bacon and sausage

I have tried a couple different types and will be honest and say I'm not too impressed. True, the party pies can be quite good if you are looking for something small to eat. (Party pies are bite sized versions with a completely mysterious mixture of meat and ?) However the larger ones that I have had definitely have not met expectations.

To give you some statistics... Australians eat 12 meat pies a year on average. They are topped by their neighbors to the East who consume 15 pies a year. Now consider that these things have an average of 15 to 35 grams of fat per pie, and you might begin to see why Australia is the fattest country in the world.

Jenni - I'm dedicating this blog to you as you gave me the idea. I hope the pies shown on the Food Network are a bit better than the ones we have here!!

Blue Mountain Day Trip

So as this session is has been keeping me busier than I ever expected to be, it is always nice to be able to get away and forget about everything sometimes... I was able to do this last Saturday when a few friends and I took a quick road trip up to the Blue Mountains.

Now, for those who don't know - the weather has been complete shit here. It's been rainy and cold (I even brought out the wool coat today), so I was very excited to wake up to a sunny day on Saturday.

At around 1 we jumped in the car, and after a couple wrong highways, found our way up to the 'mountains'. I put mountains in quotes because in the states they would be more like a plateau or hills. You basically drive uphill for a bit then it flattens out. However while there is the plateau there are also beautiful valleys and gorges. The best comparison I had was the Grand Canyon - only less grand and covered with trees.

This is a popular area to visit and is somewhere I plan to visit more once the weather warms up. :)

Bachelorette Parties - Aussie Style

My good friend Nicole recently eloped to Fiji, so while a bit out of order, we threw her a bachelorette party last night. We started out with fantastic dinner at a pub in Surry Hills called the White Horse. The food was amazing and it started the wine flowing for the next part of the evening... which was pole dancing lessons. :)

Now I must say it sounds bad, but we had a private studio with 7 of our good friends and a teacher. The studio had fun costumes to put on to help the occasion. We learned how to swing around the pole and do some things I never thought I'd be able to do. In a sick and twisted way it reminded me of swinging around the swing set when I was little..

After our lesson we headed to a cool local club for some real dancing and general bachelorette activities (making her do embarrassing things, ask random guys weird questions, etc.). We ended the night dancing at a gay bar, which was quickly followed by a very large greasy slice of pizza.

Today I am surprisingly not too hung over (thanks to the pizza), however am beginning to feel the effects of the pole dancing and am not sure if I'll be able to lift my arms tomorrow. I also have a new optional profession should I ever get really desperate.

My Coaches Would be Proud...

Many of you know that I've been playing basketball in a rec league with some friends here. What you can't imagine is the level of refs... if you've ever played in the states and though your refs were bad - these are worse! To make things more frustrating our team does not have an offense and most people have never really played before.

Now to our credit we still do pretty well, however the league has combined with the bracket above ours and so the competition has gotten better... which means trouble for us. Our games recently have culminated in the refs not calling anything and players becoming more and more aggressive as fatigue and frustration set in. Today was the low point in this as we lost to a team which we could have beaten.

So I've dusted off all my old memories from the days of playing for Steve and Steve, and have recreated our offense. I am quite proud of this, especially considering I did a quick search of offenses which are listed online and couldn't find this one.

For those of you who don't play basketball just think that it has been almost 10 years since I have run this offense, and even though I probably ran it for at least 5-6 years I still think it's an achievement to remember it... now we'll see if I can teach it to my team.

Cliff and Coastal Walks

During my week off before classes I was able to do one of the many coastal walks. There is a path which goes from Bondi all the way to Maroubra... am not sure how far it is but it takes about 2.5 hours to do the whole thing at a brisk walk. Living near Coogee makes it easy because I am at the half walk mark and can either go North or South then take a bus back. :)

On one of my days off I headed south to Maroubra and discovered that I love that walk. Along the way you are forced to walk along the rocks below the houses and there are tide pools, cool sandstone, and overall spectacular views. The path ends at the cliffs above Maroubra and so I was able to sit and relax while eating my lunch (it was one of the few sunny days we've had). So this spurred a bit of a new thing for me... exploring all the 'nature walks' which are found around Sydney.

This last weekend was the Queen's Birthday, so we of course had a long weekend. On Saturday (the only sunny day) I did was is called the Spit to Manly walk... even though nowhere along the way is there a spitting contest to see who can spit to Manly, although that would be entertaining. The walk is a 9.3km walk which all references say takes 3-4 hours to complete. Given my natural speed walking capabilities, I managed it in 2.5 hours. Along the way you go through National Parks with spectacular views back towards the city skyline and out to sea, and there are even a few nude beaches along the path. (Thank God it's winter here and the beaches were empty!!)

All in all, the walk was great exercise and a good way to be get outside and stay within the city. On the way back I took the ferry from Manly back to the CBD (central business district) and just confirmed that the Washington State ferries are my favorites. :)

Anyways, here are a couple pics from the hikes and there are more on my flickr account as usual.