just like to point out

Sorry- didn't mean to load this one on.... and now i can't delete it! But try to find the humor in knowing they patrol the toilets. ("Excuse me! You've been in here quite a while...", "Security, coming through!"; "Oh, and what do you do for a living? You work toilet securty. Seriously?")


that even thought it says i posted my last entry on sunday, it's monday here and sunday in the u.s. I'm not incompitent or confused as to the day. it's the stupid international date line!





Cheers guys. God bless!





Oh, and here are a couople of pics from visting Sydney's Chinatown. The food's amazing!

August 19

Whoa. It's already Monday. Granted it's only 12:12 a.m., but i'm feeling a bit inclinded to start freaking out about uni work and how much i need to get done this week. See, the problem is that i work best under mass amounts of pressure. This means I usually find it necessary (although usually by accident) to leave any important projects until two or three days before they are due, not sleep, come out of my room, or eat until they are finished. Needless to say, this may not be the best method. But it works.

So my friend Jenny is visitng from Montana, and has been here since Tuesday. she leaves Saturday, which seems very soon> We spent the weekend at my friend's beach house on the south coast, in a place called Malua Bay (just south of Bateman's Bay.) Her parents have sold the house, adn she wanted to say good-bye to it.Some of her mates from Canberra came up and we had a good time drinking, just relaxing.

I spent a fair bit of time on the beach, not because it was warm and sunny, quite the contrary, it was rainy and cold, but because I could. it's a novelty to have the ocea there, to be able to sit and watch the waves come in, watch surfer's get pummelled, and kids skip around in the surf.

Something about the ocean makes me think deeply, consider areas of myself and my life that i've put on hold, pushed to the back of my mind. There's something about its vastness, darkness, and rhythm that stops everything else.

My friends Jenny and Kim walked down to the beach with me late saturday night. It was still rianing, the clouds making the sky dark and impossible to separate from the ocean on the horizon. A large black world, broken only by strips of white, the incoming waves, offered a new perspective, the one people are always looking for. You see, last night, the world was black and white. The waves broke out of the blackness, rolling in white until they splintered along the sand, and leave no trace. There were no shades of gray.

The largest, most complicated issues of this world are those that are not black and white, but are colored by shades of gray. Matters of the heart, of the sould, of the mind, we keep hoping one day we'll wake up and find there was a right and wrong all along. That the waves on teh horizon always emerged white from a black night.

But the world's not like that. We won't ever be able to erase the gray, replace it with a solid.

THE FAUX MULO-HAWK

THE FAUX MULOHAWK AND WHY IT SHOULD BE OUTLAWED

The Faux Mulohawk: A Definition

The faux mulohawk is a haircut currently popular among males in Australia. It is not a mohawk, a faux-hawk, or a mullet, but a nasty combination of the three. Essentially, the wearer has a fake mohawk with longish hair covering the back of his neck.

It is this

PLUS THIS

Which equals something awful between the two. Unfortunately, the only picture i could find (on such short notice) was this one:

The photo gives a fairly accurate, if mild, representation of the faux mulohawk> The problem is getting past the ridiculously SHORT SHORTS to the hair. On the plus side, it's an excellent introduction to Australia's favorite sport, rugby, and their uniforms, including knickers/shorts.

THE FAUX MULOHAWK IS NEGATIVELY IMPACTING SOCIETY

This particular hairstyle is causing an animalistic regression of the human species. The men of Australia who sport this style greatly resemble overgrown birds. That's right, birds. In particular, the rooster and casuary birds. These are birds who possess either a comb or a casque. In either case, the protrusion is located in hearly the same area as the faux mulohawk (FMH).

The comb is used by roosters to scare away other males and attrack females. We are all aware chickens are not particularly bright birds, which is probably why this works at all. Although the male looks utterly ridiculous strutting about with that thing stuck to his head, the female refrains from mocking laughter and ostracizing the bird from the flock, eventually embracing and even mating with it.

I am afraid this will happen to Australian society. The women will cease to recognize the FMH as an indication of stupidity, blindness, a manifestation of a weaker, less deseriable characterisitc, and reproduce with him. Thus causing natural selection to fail miserably. Fall flat on its face. Die in the arms of a cock-combed FMH-ing idiot of a man who was too weak to stand against society's joke.

Because yes, the FMH must be a joke. The fashion industry was bored, busy overlaying computer images when they created the FMH. You know they are all sitting in their offices, cracking up, and the guy who bet $20 it would never catch on is walking to work becuase that was his bus money.

Ramblings...

I am currently unable to sleep due to a combination of over-caffeination (I had a cup of coffee about three hours ago) and over-tiredness, which my body seems to think means "Keep going until clinical fatigue sets in, then go ahead and sleep". In the meantime, I'm awake, but unable to do anything productive. I could be researching one of the many topics i have papers due on this semester, or perhaps preparing for class on friday (no class tomorrow, thursday, thank goodness), but my body seems to have commanded my brain to cease all non-vital function> That is, I am breathign and that's about it... no cognitive function about the drivel I am writing here.
So things have been good since i got back. It was good to have madeline here- I hope she enjoyed herself. I felt bad a couple of days because I had class and we couldnt' really do anything. And although sydney is big and lovely, it's entertainment is limited. Or at least it is if youd on't konw what there is to do. Anyway, selfishly, i am enjoying have my room back to myself for a few more days. Jenny Kossler arrives on Monday. We'll see how that goes... I relaly do have to do uni work at some point (like before the night before it's due) and company can be distracting. Especially because company over the age of 18 means "party!" in Aussie.
By the way, i am proficient in Australian, but not fluent. Ben (housemate) said something tonight and I swore he was speaking goblin. But no, apparently it was his particular brand of english.
So the next coupel of weeks/ months are a bit busy. Still havent' turned in my paperwork to stay for next semester, but I am working on it. I've been a bit overwhelmed by the amount of work i have to do. I am still feeling pressured to find a job... mostly because I realize how much i miss working. It's nice to interact with strangers on a regular basis. Not sure why, but it is.
I am thinking about heading to new zealand in october... we'll see how that goes. I would really love to go to uluru or perth, but both are fairly expensive to get to, much moreso than NZ. We'll see how that goes. The way things look, i will need my weeks off to recover from not sleeping!
Uni is okay... my classes thus far are intermittently interesting, with boring patches and a chance of complete frustration. Im only ever frustrated with teachers who can't teach... they must not have to take any courses whatsoever in effective communication. There's this one lady who demonstrated how to do a differential stain (microbiology, not laundry) with her back to the class, completely obscuring plate... then told us all to "Shush!" whenever we talked. Labs, apparently, are silent places. It makes for a long couple of hours, especially when you have questions.
In another, we discussed how the NSW (New South Wales) government pays for methadone (prescription narcotic) for heroin addicts to prevent them from using heroin. Essentially, the addicts can recieve FREE narcotics (paid for by the taxpayers). They are not required to reduce their dose or eventually go off of methadone. The idea, as I understand it, is to simply prevent hte use of heroin. So they give them legal drugs instead.
I'm not sure how i feel about this. On one hand, it's an effective mechanism to reduce the spread of infections associated with intravenous drug use while negatively impacting the illegal drug trade and providing the addict with a safe (r) alternative to heroin. On the other, the taxpayers are supporting druggies. You see the conflict.
I wish I could say I'm tired, but I'm not. Perhaps I'll lay in bed and try to detatch the ugly glow-in-the-dark stickers from my ceiling using telekinesis. hey, it's worth a shot.

Cairns cont'd

Well, guys, as usual, i've done a horrible job of continuously posting updates here. BUT I will try to make it up to you by putting up pics from when I was in Cairns. Naturally, most of them are form the reef.
The amazing thing about the reef is that it really is an incredible as every picture makes it look. I thought maybe it was one of those natural wonders where all the pictures they take to advertise for it are taken within like, six square meters of ONE part of the reef. But no, all of it is absolutely amazing! We visited four different sections of the Outer Reef. I got to try scuba diving (WOW) and did a lot of snorkeling.
I also consumed a massive amount of seawater and managed to bruise my forehead with the goggles. I know, how impressive is that??? I've decided SCUBA and snorkeling equipment is ridiculous looking (i can't be the only one who thinks this), especially wet suits. Wetsuits, by the way, were apparently created to embarass me. Had a bit of trouble getting into one on the first day, had to have the guy help me, where he promptly had to be waaaaaay too close to um, my parts and staring directly at my cleavage. Wetsuits were clearly created by men as another way to give women cleavage. Seriously.
So enjoy the photos! Be jealous. I can't blame you!

CAIRNS

Sexy Suits, yeah?

Tuesday, July 24

We had just enough time to drop our things off at my room in Campbelltown, get something to eat, say hello to a few people, and fall asleep before 9:00 p.m. before we got on a plane to fly to Cairns.

Oh. The "WE" I keep referring to is my sister Madeline and I. Madeline is here for about two weeks visiting, which really isn't enough time to visit Australia properly, but is an awesome experience anyway.

So we flew into Cairns and arrived at our hostel, a place called Gilligan's. As far as hostels go, this is the Ritz. Large rooms with three way bathrooms and balconies, the beds are wide and comfortable and only squeak a little. The bunk beds are NOT in danger of collapsing... and it was clean. Except for the boys. The boys were not so clean.

THe first few nights we had a full room, with a couple of Germans and a couple of mutes. I'm assuming they were mutes because they didn't talk. I passed out almost immediately after finding food. I think my body was violently confused at to what time zone I was in and what appropriate sleeping hours were.

DAY TWO

We spent the day wandering around Cairns, checking out the main shopping areas and the tourist shops. Cairns is a small city, only about 150,000 people, but is the main port onto the Great Barrier Reef. Located on the coast of north Queensland, the lands surrounding cairns are diverse in nature. Coastal moutain ranges house some of the world's oldest rainforests (see Day Four for more details) and some of the world's craziest people. Oh wait. They all work in teh city, mostly on tourist boats. The main source of income in Cairns probably stems from tourism, but the area is fairly agricultural, with crops like sugarcane, bananas and tea.

Back to me.

and madeline..............

We began the day by walking down to the Lagoon. The lagoon is a swimming pool on the ocean's edge frequented by locals and tourists alike. unfortuantely, it was closed when we got there, so we didn't go swimming, Why would anyone want to go swimming in a swimming poool when the ocean is right there? Well, for aobut five to six months of the year, over the summer, the oceans become slightly inhospitable as the Box Jellyfish mature. The jellyfish is only a couple of inches long, but its sting can be fatal. So people tend to avoid swimming when the "stingers" are out and about.

Along the Lagoon are shops and restaurants, as well as large picnicing gardens. Naturally, this held our attention for about thirty minutes. We're a distractable sort, and all the brightly colored shops called to us.

Madeline's search was for a didgereedoo. They sell them everywhere, really, so it's easy enough to find one for under $50. However, these didge's are not authentic; that is, they have been mass-produced, and not carved out by termites and painted by the indiginous people. We did find reasonably priced authentic ones though, and relatively early, so we had the rest of the day to frequent every single tourist shop we came across.

Yep. We went into almost every single tourist shop located on the Esplanade, or downtown Cairns. Every single one....

I walked into our room at Gilligan's and thought someone had stolen a baby giraffe from the zoo and stuck it in there. All i could see was the LONGEST SET OF LEGS i had ever seen! And then I realized they belonged to our roommate, Nick, who clearly had issues wearing clothes. He didn't seem to be bothered that he was only in his boxers; he stayed that way.

We re-named him Nearly Naked Nick, in honor of his affinity for near-nudity.

It wasn't until that night I remembered we were supposed to have spent the day snorkeling... and we'd missed the boat completely. Fortunately, we were able to re-book and headed out to the Reef on Day 3.

Staying in Sydney

So here is where I stand right now. I've been living in Australia for about six months. And then I came home for a month on winter holidays. Just for the record, I am home for winter holiday from Australia means I left at the end of June and ended up back in Montana just in time for 100 degree weather and a hell of a good time.
But here's the thing. I initially headed to Australia for a year to study nursing. Basically, I decided to take a year off from actually working toward my degree while still going to school and go to Australia. If you can't figure out WHY I would want to do this, I can't help you out. Well, I could. But my fingers would get tired (all the typing) and you might get bored. Or distracted. My point is, it's something I've always wanted to do, so I did it. Consequences be damned! Theoretically, of course.
The consequence was a bit larger than expected.
No, I'm not pregnant.
No, I haven't lost half a leg, an arm, and an eye to a crocadile.
Yes, I've seen a kangaroo, but I'm not so sure what the major consequences of seeing one would be.
I've decided to stay in Australia to finish my degree. Not so sure what the consequences of THAT will be, but i guess I'll just have to wait and find out. Turns out life is a little like that. You have to live life to find out what's going to happen. That's a whole different story, unfortunately.

Brief Break from Tasmania Memories/Blogs

URGENT NEWS

Eh, it's not urgent. It's probably not even interesting. It's my love life. By the way, this is being posted about two weeks post-Tas. I'm just late in writing about my little trip.

So Tim and I are officially a couple. I think he must really like me, because the night before we made it official, I kissed another guy (Random #5) and the next day, even after I told Tim about it, he still wanted to be my boyfriend. So yeah. Maybe I caught myself a keeper, eh?

Right Moving on.

It's great. It really is a good thing, this whole relationship thing. I just, I dont know. I still want my unobtainable. Which is the point of an Unobtainable, isn't it? But sometimes i think I'm holding back in my relationship with Tim because i'm harbouring this childish, completely un-based idea that maybe Unobtainable will suddnely become obtainable or something. God, I wish my life were Cinderella's! Lol.

That's really about it. I got rid of the other randoms. Just Tim and Unobtainable. And me mourning the loss of my singleness! Riiiiiiiiiight. Hope you guys caught the sarcasm! More on TAsmania to come, including the actual interesting stories!

God Bless and Love!