What a Difference a Day Makes!

Here is a picture of the mountain which I show in my previous blog which you could barely see the snow... This is the bar where my picture was taken from today after 1/2 meter of snow.

Hooky + Road Trip = Good Times!

For those outside of Australia, this weekend was the long weekend to celebrate the queen's birthday which means Australians either flock to get out of town or those who live outside the city try to get into the city. As I may have mentioned earlier in a post my original plans were to stay in the city... but a friend convinced me to play hooky from my very important waitress job and go on a road trip. It was very worth it! We went to Jindabyne, which is the local town for the snow fields of Australia. While there was no snow on the ground we did manage to see snow falling and not freeze to death. Here are some pictures of the weekend away.

View from the house

It's hard to tell but it's snowing in this picture

Emu's! We actually saw some wild one's but wasn't able to snag a pic of the sneaky birds

Wombats - my favorite Aussie animal :)
A spectacular view on the way back to the city

On the way down to Jindy we actually stopped in Canberra and saw the Parliament building and war memorial. It was really cool to see the Pariament building with something like 400 clocks and it was actually a really cool building. The war memorial was more like a museum and had tons of information and wasn't the most uplifting experience - but a good one for anyone going to Canberra.


An artsy picture under the flag pole

It's hard to tell but there are actually 3 clocks in view in this picture

Poppies at the war memorial

View from above the war memorial down towards Parliament building

Front view of parliament building

It is possible to be jealous of eyebrows??

Ok so maybe jealous isn't the right word, but every time I see this advertisement it 1) makes me laugh hillariously and 2) makes me want to enroll in an eyebrow exercise class. :)

Click Here to view

Kerri Meet Bob...

I had been procrastinating about cutting my hair (as a result of financial strain and pure laziness) and made an appointment last Friday. This is when I discovered it's probably not a good idea for me to go get a cut when I'm feeling ambiguous... While I was sitting waiting for my stylist to be ready and noticed how much I liked one of the other girls hair cuts.... then proceeded to get that same cut. I figure since my hair was already short a bit shorter wouldn't hurt and I now officially have a bob. So far the reviews are good and people seem to like it. It's different - the shortest I've ever had my hair - but I like it so far. Have included a couple pictures from a night out the other night to give you an idea of what it looks like.

Am going away for the long weekend so should be able to post some more soon.

The Small Things in Life

To some people this may be a piece of chocolate with their dinner, a smile from a stranger, a hug from a baby... in my word it's the fact that I can buy junior's sized athletic shoes - saving me around 50%. :) Ah yes it is the little things in life that make it great... and in my case, help the pocket book.

I first encountered this back in December when I was shopping for basketball shoes in Seattle with Sabrina. None of the adult shoes fit me, so I gave the juniors a go - and they FIT!! My junior Jordans have served me well so far and have actually been the cause for some envy as it is hard to find women's basketball shoes here.

My latest encounter was the other day when I was shopping for soccer cleats (or boots as they call them here). First off, the selection (as with basketball shoes) wasn't all that you'd hope it would be so I was limited to begin with. Then the sizes were extremely limited... However one of the two sizes of juniors shoes fit like a dream. Considering the adult equivalent was 100 and my pair was 40 I found this a very good sign.

You might be wondering why I am buying soccer cleats - and I must admit this morning I had the same thought - but I am actually not a certified soccer referee for the Sydney School's Football Referee's Association. There is apparently a need for more women ref's and they pay is pretty decent so I have now added a 3rd job to my current list of employers and ever Saturday morning I will be getting up at an ungodly hour to go ref soccer matches in various parts of Syndey. They even game me my own set of flags and red/yellow cards - technically I had to buy them but they're MINE!! Oh the power!! :)

Now if only I can line up a proper job and be able to stay here long enough to make this job worthwhile....

Post Graduation Update

Things are busy but not quite the type of busy I'd prefer.... I've picked up 2-3 weeks of full time work around the school so am doing that in addition to job hunting and working at the restaurant. I'm also doing a soccer referring course this weekend and will begin reffing games the following Saturday.

Graduation was okay... I say this because the ceremony was pretty blah - 1 hour 15 minutes, pretty straight forward. The after party was good to see some people and catch up but not the raging night that I had been looking forward to - apparently some of those who have jobs actually have to get up early the next morning and didn't feel like going hard. (boo!) So I've made up my mind and the next time I'm back in the states I'm having a massive graduation party because I know there are some reliable partiers who would most likely help me throw back a couple in celebration. :)

I have managed to hijack a couple pictures to show you, along with one from my camera. There are more but I'm still waiting for them to be sent to me... so I'll post those when I get them.

In front of the AGSM building - where I spent the majority of the last 1.5 years

The formal pose

The picture guy snapped this at a not so attractive point... but that's me getting my diploma!

New Take on Hunter Gatherer

Ok so this may be a one woman type of hunter gatherer, but that is what mode I'm essentially in. Which also explains the lack of posts - as there hasn't been much to update on. My days are now spend looking for jobs both here and back in Seattle (this is the hunter bit) and seeing how far I can stretch my money and food (my current version of gatherer). I often surprise myself as to how little I can spend and still maintain a fairly healthy diet and less that exciting social life. It does help that I tend to work on Friday and Saturday nights which limits my willingness to go party to the wee hours after running around the restaurant for 4 hours.

But on the happy front - graduation is this Thursday. Yay me! Their graduations are less than spectacular here and from the amount of time, effort and resources they put into it they come off as more of a hastle for the schools. Our ceremony is set to last a wopping 1:15 minutes. No speaches, no words of encouragement, no people interesting coming to present - just calling your name, getting your picture taken, then off you go -> straight to the pub :) I will be sure to have some people take some pictures of my in the cap and gown so everyone can see (especially seeing as how I didn't partake in UW's 4 hour ceremony for undergrad). And I know everyone will be here in spirit! I'll have a drink for each of you as part of the celebration ;)