Thursday 29 December 2011

Hello Joe

Why hello blog-reading-type people. I bet you were starting to think I had given up on this thing. Silly people. Silly, silly people. I'm just lazy, but I'd never given up on you.... well, not purposely anyway. Lol.

So this isn't gonna be the longest post ever (so by the standards on my blogs, only HALF a novel long :P) but I figured I should say something. I'm gonna try to stay on top of this blog again. After all, if nothing else its a great procrastination tool lol.

So how was everyone's Christmas/other denominational or non-denominational holiday? I gotta say, mine was excellent. In terms of presents I got absolutely spoiled. That wasn't why it was excellent btw, just a bonus. It was excellent cause its been so nice, relaxing and snowy! Finally snowy btw. I live in Canada but I had to wait til Christmas eve before I saw an real snow? Not cool weather, not cool. Great Christmas present however lol. I also have plenty of time to spend with family and friends, yet no solid plans so I don't have to stress myself out trying to schedule everyone in between other plans and run from friend to friend so I can see everyone. Just kinda taking every day as it comes and figuring out my plans that way.

I suppose I do have some solid plans, I do have a big New Years party I'm going to. That in itself is odd cause normally my New Years are just small parties with whoever is free. So I am purdy excited about that. Anyone else have big plans foe New Years? (She asks as tho more than like four ppl read her blog). 

So ATM I am writing this blog on my new tablet... my second new tablet lol. I got one super super cheap a few months ago, which turned out to be a lesson in "you get what you pay for". So I saved up a bit and used some Christmas monies (and thought up some damn good excuses) and bought myself a new (tho still slightly cheap) tablet. I love this thing, should a waited from the start. Even the fact that I *can* blog shows how much better this thing is than my old one. I'm trying to think of a name for her. Right now I'm thinking Hexm after the wizards "computer" in Terry Pratchett. I'm not sure if she feels like a Hex or not, but its starting to grow on me. What do ppl think?

Anyway, I think that is all for my quick update Internet. I have more to tell you, but i'll save it and get another post out sometime soon. Try and stick with my before-New Years resolution. Until then, have a good one!

Monday 3 October 2011

Flabbergasted

Life is so crazy right now. I constantly look at this loverly blog and feel guilty for my lack of updates, but its hard to find the time lately. When I do have the time, I normally just want to collapse with a good book or for a nice, long nap. Anyway, hello Internets, how are you doing today?

So what has been keeping me so busy? Well, mostly work and school. This is the first time I have REALLY combined the two at a University level. I mean, last year I "had a job" over Christmas working at Sears, but that was MAYBE once a week if I was lucky. While at Talize I am working 10-20 hours a week. Plus I have a lot more assignments this year in school on top of regular readings and classes. Which I like because they help take the pressuer off exams, and for the most part I'm a better writer than I am a test-taker, but it does eat up more time. I'm ok with that though. I love being busy, it makes me happy.

I am really liking my classes this year, to my surprise. My last blog I think I promised to fill you in on what I am taking and what I think of it, so it's been a few weeks - here we go.

Health Promotion: The point of this course is to look at Health Care at both the individual and the population level and look at how better health can  be educated, promoted and advocated (so how to help make people healthy as well as help raise awareness for both the community and the governmental bodies on what would help an area be overall more healthy). I really like the basis for this course, because health is about more than sick or not sick. On top of that our proff is hilarious. And really good as well, using slides as an aid rather than reading the information directly off of them. I've gotten a bit of a chance to get to know her as well, as I did the Terry Fox walk/run with her and some of my classmates a couple weeks ago.

Childhood and Adolesence Health: This course is (atm) probably my least favourite course. Not that I dont find the information interesting, because it definitely is, but Im not fond of my proffessors teaching style. Namely that what is on the slide is what she is going to say. And she gets annoyed if we havent done the readings for class, which is always something that has bothered me. We are in University, you shouldn't sold us like children for not doing the readings - we're old enough to decide for ourselves at this point. I do like when she starts talking about her own work, which is often quite interesting as her method of research is to esentially intergrate herself into the culture she is studying and try to live the experience with the people she is studying, in the best way she can. So thats often interesting to hear about.

Research Methods - aka, Stats: Now as a general rule, I severly dislike Stats classes. I am normally pretty good with numbers, but stats is something I have incredible amounts of trouble wrapping my head around. However I really like our proff. He uses real-world examples and explinations, in ways that we can really relate to. Often in class he will actually get us to interact in the lesson as well. It is a really good way of explaining math and stats. I've always been better at understanding when the "theoretical" is taken away and I can see a real-world use to something. So I think I could actually do well in this class, as long as I keep up with the homework.

Speculative Fiction - Sci Fi: Oh MAN do I hate analysing books. SO much. Dont get me wrong, I LOVE reading - reading to me is almost as essential as breathing, no joke. But I enjoy the stories, I enjoy the connection with teh characters. I HATE analysing books. Yes, authors will purposely put symbolism in their books. I have learned that much from watch John Green videos. But I don't think they've put in enough sybmolism that people are still finding "hidden meanings" 100+ years later. Also analysing a book to me always feels like learning a bad secret about a good friend. I really enjoy a book and then I find out the "meaning behind it" is supposed to be, I dunno, anti-feminist or some other idea I disagree with. Then I am conflicted as to whether or not I should still be enjoying the book...

Quality of Life: this is the class I talked about last time. I still really like it. I really like the proff (he kind of looks like my Great Uncle David. Its weird). He's nice, friendly, very engaging. And again, I love the premise of the class. Health is more than just being sick - health is about the personal percieved quality of life. A person can be very sick and feel healthy because of aspects of teh rest of their life or their outlook on life, and a person can be medically "healthy" but be still be not-healthy, some aspect of their life is subpar. I feel this is one of those courses that anyone wanting to be a doctor should take. Guess what, your patient is more than just a condition - maybe you should treat them like a person for a bit and see what happens.

So those are my classes. I'm trying my hardest to keep caught up with readings and stay on top of things. My goal is to have no mark less than an 80 this year. And honestly, I dont see any reason why that shouldn't happen!

So I'm really hoping I can try and update a bit more in the coming months. Next weekend I'm busing 9 hours back to Ottawa for Thanksgiving and my 10k race I'm doing (!!!). So hopefully I'll put up a post about that or perhaps something else. Until then, keep it healthy Internets :P

Friday 9 September 2011

Flemmingsworth

So I apparently fail at this whole updating thing. Was doing so well for so long, and then - nothing. I blame August. It's OBVIOUSLY all August's fault :P.

Why, you ask, do I blame August? Because it was such a meh month. I realise this is an unfair assesment as it had to go after July and July was just amazing, but all the same... I came back to London, all my friends were working, I had no job and nothing else really to distract me. Mostly it was spent handing out resumes and being locked up in my room. Now, not to say nothing good came out of it all. I made a bunch of jewelry to give away to ppl at various times in the upcoming year (some of it I already have done) and I did (FINALLY) manage to find a job the last week of August. Yay! Nothing exciting, your basic retail job. Working at a thrift store (called Talize. Think Value Village but with the colours of royal blue and bright-ass orange) as a cashier. At least it pays, and honestly, that is all I really wanted.

Anyway, I don't really have too much to say. I just figured I should put something up here, prove I havent died or anything (not that it was ever a threat that I WOULD die, but its still always good to know right?). I started school again this week, so probably more posting will happen soon when I start to have random thoughts or just am looking for a way to procrastinate. Like right now. I should be cleaning the disaster I call a room. Instead I am writing a relatively pointless blog. Productive, no?

I'm not too sure how I feel about my classes this semester. I've only had 2 so far (semester started on Thursday). The first I had was my Health Related Quality of Life class. I'm not too sure about the content, I hope it turns out to be interesting, but I think its going to be a lot of repetativeness on the theme that is this entire program. On the other hand I think I'll like the Proff. He's very chatty and high-energied and can be very funny when he doesnt try too hard (the jokes he purposely seems to put in often end up sounding like he is trying to appear cool to the young student crowd however). So hopefully that will keep the course interesting *cross fingers*

The other course I had was this morning, and I dont know how much I can tell you about it. I get there for my 930am class (after havign trouble falling asleep and then waking up early) for a 10 minute lecture. No joke. He obviously planned the lesson to just go over the syllabus (waste of time in general, I mean, we CAN read), but he couldnt get the new computer system to work (*eye roll* proffesors. Am I right?!) so he just talked to us and condenced the entire class into a 10 minute schpeal. I was there like "really? REALLY?! I came to class for this?!"

What I can tell you is that he seems nice and possibly even engaging, but its hard to judge at this point. Also the class is "Reasearch Methods in Health" but by looking at the course readings, apparently "Research Methods" is a fancy term for Stats. Woo-effin-hoo. God I hate stats. Sooo much. So I really hope he is a good proff, or at very least a good teacher. Otherwise I am going to start dreading Fridays.

So next week I will have the remainder of my classes. This includes a Sci-fi reading/essay-type course (which could be interesting, but I always find disecting books to the degree english classes seem to ends up ruining the book for me), Health Promotion and Health Issues in Childhood and Adolesance. I shall report on them, you know, eventually.

I suppose that's enough procrastinating for now (at least of this type lol). I shall talk with you soon Internets :)

Monday 15 August 2011

Kanga and Roo

So, Internets, it occurs to me that not only have I majorly slacked on keeping up with my blog this month, I also seemed to have not managed to finish my Australia story. So I suppose I better do that now.

We left off on the bus home from the snow, am I correct? I really should have written this earlier, because the days now seem to blur together a little bit. Lets see...

So we got back to Sydney around 4 in the afternoon (ish... very ish). After a brief exploration of the cities train system while carrying luggage we managed to make it back to my sisters apartment. As far as I remember, we didn't do anything overly exciting that night. Brief grocery shopping, homemade wraps for dinner, spent the evening reading and going on the computer. I remember us discussing the idea of watching a movie on one of our laptops, but I dont think that ended up happening... OH! I remember the major thing that happened that night. My laptop broke. As in physically broke. The left-hand side hinge decided to give out, to my dismay. Stupid laptop, honestly never again buying an HP. Anyway, it wasnt that big a deal. The hardware and software and all other types of ware still worked, so my computer was still usable. I just had to be very careful with opening and closing my laptop until I was able to get it back to Canada and my tech-guru fasha.

Anyway the next couple days were quite fun but not exactly what you would call Ulitimate Australian Experiences. On the 25th, so the next day, my sister and I decided to hit up Patty's Market for some last-minute souvenir (and whatever else) shopping. However it turns out that Patty's Market was closed so we went to a different part of the Sydney Harbour (the name escapes me at the moment) and did souvenir shopping there. I found this awesome little store full of touristy aboriginal Art. Have I mentioned I love the Aussie Aboriginal art? Cause I really do love the Aussie Aboriginal art lol. But anyway, we spent pretty much the entire day there shopping and wandering and talking and whatnot.

That evening was awesome. We went to a all-day Pancake and Breakfast restaurant (not the awesome part, as I pretty much got plain creps and then bought myself sushi afterwards) with my new friend, my Australian counter part, Elyse (also known, to me, as Padfoot. And I am Prongs :D). It was a night filled with hilarity, newly formed inside jokes, puns, that's-what-she-saids and nerd humour. And it was awesome to see her again (met her last in Canberra, as I BELIEVE I mentioned in this post here. ). It is saddening that she is now on the other side of the world from me, but hey, isnt that what facebook is for? :)

Only picture of Elyse and I in my possesion -
Her allowing me to delight in the sight and aroma of her chocolate and whipped cream and etc. crep.
The next day Jen introduced me to her friend Louise and the three of us went rockclimbing. Not real rock climbing up like the side of the Three Sisters or anything, but at a Rock Climbing Gym. Which was pretty cool in itself as I was unaware such things existed and it was covered from floor to ceiling with rock climbing walls. And it was such a blast. I've only gone rock climbing before, at someones birthday party when I was a kid, and it didn't go well. If I had to pin-point my one major fear it would be heights. Inarguably it would be heights. And I am working very hard to, if not get over the fear, to at least be able to tolerate it. Not freeze up when I'm more than a meter off the ground. And I did it, at least with the rock walls. The first time up was pure determination, not concentrating on anything but the next grip up. The second time I froze about half-way up. And then forced myself to move. After that, it was no problem at all. Also I love the decending part after you've reached the top. So much fun.

Louise was quite good at the rock climbing thing. She does it at least once a week, so I guess she better be, but it was still fun to watch. And then there was my sister. My stupidly, annoyingly naturally-athletic sister. Helped, of course, by her pole-dancing muscles (have I mentioned that before? My sister does competative pole dancing. Anyway, back to my story) she would just scurry up those walls like a little monkey. Climbing both the walls and the ceiling, trying to find the most challenging path she could do. Little shit :P.

AFter we were done that we went to Louise's house and made pizza (or, for me, dough with veggies and chicken) and watched Sucker Punch. I really liked the movie, much better than I expected it to be. I really want to see it again because I feel like this is one of those movies with more details than one can get in their first view.

And then I left. Next day, July 27th, I packed up my bags (well, finished packing my bags, they were mostly packed the day before really) and headed off to the airport. Got there at 8:30amish expecting my plane to be leaving 10:30amish. Boarding pass, when I got it, said 9:30am - but the plane still ended up leaving at 10:30, so I think something just was weird with the boarding pass. So I said goobye to my sister and headed off through security.

So my journey home was supposed to go something like:
Sydney to Vancouver: 14 hours
stop over
Vancouver to Toronto: 4 hours
Stop over
Toronto to Ottawa: 1 hour (or less)
And essentially it went like that. However it wasn't exactly what you would call a "seemless" collection of flights.
We left Sydney slightly late, not monumentously, but something like 20 minutes or so. However our slight was slightly longer than normal because we had very little tailwind the entire time back. This resulted in our getting to Vancouver at 8am (Vancouver time), when we were supposed to be leaving Vancouver at 9am. And in that hour we had to get off the plane, get our luggage, go through custums, go to the other side of the Airport, re-check our luggage and re-go through security before boarding the plane again. Which, if you couldnt figure out, takes a little longer than an hour to accomplish. So I was absolutely running through the Vancouver airport (not, by the way, a small airport) with two large peices of luggage in hand as well as my carry-on bag and my purse. Oh, did I mention it was about 3am Auz time at this point and I had had no sleep on the plane? Yeah, definitely in the best frame of mind during all this. By the time I got to security it was 9am. I was of 2 minds - part of me was thinking that they couldn't take off yet because there was definitely more than one of us who got off that flight who needed to get back on. The other was "Please please PLEASE don't take off without me!!" Which they didnt. Of course, I didnt find this out until after I got through security, but they had delayed the flight 40 minutes.

Actually, they ended up delaying the flight almost 2 hours. The other flight from Vancouver to Sydney via AirCanada got cancelled for some reason, so they had to delay to get them onto our flight. Which ended up meaning that more than half of us on the plane ended up missing our connecting flights. Now for me, not a big deal, there are flights from Toronto to Ottawa like very couple of hours. For the lady and her 3-year-old sitting beside me heading to New Brunswick, bigger deal. There was only one straight connection to NB, and they missed it. Meaning the poor lady had to drag her (admittedly well-behaved for a 3-year-old on a long plane journey) through a couple more airports and transitions. I felt bad for her, I hope everything worked out in her favour.

But finally I made it to Ottawa. Got a new connection from TO, let my friends and family know I was going to be late (the Vancouver plane landed pretty much at the time I was supposed to be landing in OTtawa) and settled down. Had a bit of a nap on the flight and just enjoyed the thought of getting off the damn thing in less than an hour. And then I was home. Well, techincally it was my friends and families home as I am actually living in London, Ontario atm, but it was close enough. Spent a week in Ottawa before heading back to London, which was super nice - I think tht may be my next blog post. Or a future one anyway. Unless I forget. In which it wont.

So, Internets, that was my journey. From Canada to Auz, there and back again. I'm really glad I blogged it, hopefully that will let me remember specifics better in the future. So until next time Internets, this is Paige landed and signing off.

Friday 29 July 2011

G’Night, G’Evening and G’Day Mate

 

Long flights are long. I dont do well sitting for hours at a time. Never really have. Currently I am on a plane at almost the exact half-way between Sydney, Australia and Vancouver, Canada. Seven more hours to go. And then 5 hours from Vancouver to Toronto and another hour from Toronto to Ottawa. Wow I’m so happy at myself for writing that hour because now I know I have ONLY another 13 hours of flying left… yay.

My dad recommended to me the best way to deal with jetlag coming back is to not sleep from Sydney to Vancouver and then sleep from Vancouver to Toronto. I guess we shall see how well this works. So far that hasn’t been a problem as it is only about 5pm Sydney time so I don’t really have any urge to sleep. Well, except for the fact that about an hour or so into my flight I started getting a migraine. I should have brought advil, but with my stomach problems I’m technically not allowed to use it so I didn’t. Hind sight and all that.

On my way flying to Sydney I passed a lot of time by either sleeping or making use of the in-flight movies and didn’t end up using a lot of the other activities I brought to keep myself amused. This time around I am giving up less time to that whole silly “sleeping” thing, which mean I am actually opening my computer or my book (um, aka, computer as I’ve been using my kindle program) or my magazines (Scientific America because I am cool like that). Of course this may not be the best idea as atm I am blogging through turbulence which really isn’t helping my head. But let’s just pretend I dont have a head, that will make it all better right?! I may not go as far as to start editing my vlogs/videos I’ll be making about my trip, that may take a bit more concentration than I can give at the moment.

So I had a couple random thoughts-about-Auz blogs lined up that I was planning on writing this trip but, as it turns out, when you don’t write down what exactly it is you plan on writing you often end up forgetting it. Weird eh? But I do remember one, so I think I will write about that for a bit. Therefor I present to you:

Random Thoughts about Auz – Restaurant Service

So on my flight down to Australia I sat beside a very nice Australian couple just coming back from a month bus tour from Vancouver, through the Rocky Mountains and up into Alaska. We started talking about the differences between Canada and Australia and I got warned not to expect as good restaurant service in Auz as we get in Canada because it is not custom to tip your waiters in Australia. Since they do not have to work for it, often service is slow or just not that great. So I suppose in a way this blog is also a response to them (although they’ll never actually read it.)

Australian service is slower. There is no doubt about that. Which has its pros and cons. For example pro- more time to just sit and talk and relax with the family, not feeling like you are being rushed through your meal. Con – when you are in a rush, honestly, it’s probably best just to avoid eating out (*does NOT make a “that’s what she said” joke). 

However from my own special point of view, past the slow factor, I have had some amazing service at restaurants in the Down Under. As I’ve mentioned in previous blogs (at least, I’m pretty sure I have… right??) I have annoying dietary problems. *Read more at http://paigrsbrain.blogspot.com/2011_04_01_archive.html.* So I’m sure you can imagine what a joy it is to try and find a restaurant I am able to eat at. And while my parents were still travelling with us we ate out at LEAST once a day. It honestly became almost a game “Find a Restaurant Paige Can Handle.” Not the most funnest game ever when everyone playing is hungry, let me tell you.

Unsurprisingly we failed, during the entire trip, to find a restaurant with a dairy-free, spice/herbs/seasoning-free, red meat-free, oil/butter/fat-free, acid-free (etc.) choice on the menu. And this is where my own special point of view came in. Because what I would look for is a fish or chicken dish with little or no seasoning (past salt and pepper) or covered in some sort of sauce. Then when we would sit down and the waiter would (FINALLY Smile with tongue out) come around I would always be the first to order. And it would sound something like:

Waiter: Hi, I am *name* and I’ll be your waiter this evening. Do we have any questions about the menu?
Me: Ummm. Yes. Sorry.
Sister or mom: She has digestive iss-
Me: SHHH! I can tell them! Sorry. I have annoying diet problems and I was wondering I could have *menu item* but with no sauce, no seasoning, no tomatoes, no onions, no *blah blah* and on the side instead of the chips, can I have some sort of unseasoned vegetables instead? 
Waiter: I’m not to sure, I’d have to ask the chef. Is *this* ok?
Sister: No she can’t hav-
Me: Jen!
Sister: Sorry! I’m just trying to help.
Me: *gives sister look and turns back to waiter* No, sorry, it’s just that I can’t have *lists off*
Waiter: Ok, I’ll see what I can do

And to the credit of like 95% of the waiters, they would figure out something. Many restaurants would be able to bring what I asked for, but others would have something like the fish has been pre-package or marinating in the sauce all day or comes pre-seasoned or something like that. But the waiters would so often go out of their way to find an alternative solution, running back and forth from the kitchen as the messenger between the cook and myself.

I was worried at the beginning of my trip because my first 3 or 4 days of meals out were salads. Although I can’t eat a lot, I do like to eat. A month of  salad (sans dressing remember) would have been hell. So it didn’t take me too long to realise the more specific I was to the waiters (and nice, polite, understanding, as un-demanding as possible) the more like I was to get a real meal. And I had (as per my limitations) some really good meals while I was down there. I discovered crab (and never looked back), ate more fish this month than I have in my life (and I LOOOVE fish) and had some incredible vegetable mixes. So kudos to the waiters of Australia.

Of course, it wasn’t all wonderful and roses and whatnot. I had my share of times leaving restaurants where I was still hungry or just didn’t away something I should have and suffered the consequences afterwards (eg. best meal was at a backpacker resort in Port Douglas. Best because they had put butter all over the vegetables, making it the tastiest meal of the trip. But one of the worst for me). The other downside to my situation was that it was always the more expensive restaurants I had to eat at because cheaper ones would either not have any menu items I could modify or if they did, often they would be pre-packaged, pre-cooked or something along those lines meaning I couldn’t eat there anyway. And the dishes I could have, where ever I was, were always the most expensive item on the menu. I always felt so bad, because it wasn’t me paying for the expensive mess.

Honestly, I really do appreciate what my family put up with for the sake of my stomach – long, hungry hunts for restaurants, over-priced menus, me snapping at them because it gets annoying really quickly when people start to order for me and try to explain my problems for me. They were trying to be helpful, which I appreciate but honestly – one of the most annoying things you could do. All the same, thanks for putting up with me and my stomach. It is a pain in the ass to deal with, trust me, I should know, and you alls did well.

So on the sappy note, I think I will bring this to an end. Yay family. Yay waiters. You know, all that stuff. Not too sure what I’ll do now to eat up my time but I can assure you Internets, it will be something! Ttyl!

Sunday 24 July 2011

Didgeridoo

Hello again, I feel like its been a while since I posted. And I guess it has, since I’m pretty sure it has been about 2 weeks since I last posted. And I suppose there has been one or two things in those last two that may possibly be worth telling you about. I may just give you a brief summary of some occasions – but we all know me by now, even my  brief summaries end up being pages long :P

So my last post was the day we left Port Douglas, flew to Sydney and then took a train down to Wollongong. Wollongong is… well… for any Ontarians out there, an awful lot like Hamilton. Not exactly a place you would fly half-way across the world to visit. For a better picture, the Hotel we stayed at had a gorgeous view of the local Steel mill. We went out for a walk along the beach for a sweeping view of the coal and other-such-like plants. City itself was, well, relatively grungy. Definitely a bit of a shock coming from sunny, warm and gorgeous to grungy, rainy and mid-fall temperatures.

041

Wollongong was just a short stop for us. I’m not sure if I mentioned this previously, but this is actually my sisters second exchange in Auz. Her first one she stayed in a small city-esk/subburb area called Warilla, which is just outside of Wollongong. So the reason we were  partying it up in “the Gong” was to visit her old host family and meet some of her old friends. The people were great even if the city could use some work.


After Wollongong the real fun started (re-started?). We once again took the train, this time heading towards an area called Hunter Valley (a 6-ish hour journey costing only $27 for 4 people. I still don’t think my dad believes it.)  Hunter Valley is beautiful, sweeping hills and surrounded by mountains. Even though it was kind of rainy and grey for the majority of the weekend I liked it much better than Port Dougy. Hunter Valley is Australia’s wine country, although I didn’t really take advantage of that since I can’t drink. The real reason we were in Hunter Valley was that once again it was running time. This time around my dad was running the Half Marathon and I was running the 6km Run/Walk.

The day ended up being perfect for running. Slightly cool (again, mid-fall/spring temperatures) but not too cool and sun just peeking out of the clouds, which means we wouldn’t be running in direct sunlight the whole time. Dad ran first at like 7am (we may possibly not have gotten up to see him off… but we showed up at the finish line in our shirts again so it was all good). He loved it. The country side was beautiful and most of the run was uphill. I know, he’s nuts rights? But he says he likes the uphill because it takes more effort and you have to think about it more.

My race started at 11am and was brutal. Not because of anything to do with running or the track or the distance. No, that was the day my body thought it would be fun to wake up with one of the first colds I’ve had in almost a year. Of course. Actually, TECHINCALLY I got it the day before. It was just worse on race day. But because I am an idiot or a masochist or just too proud and stubborn, I was not going to let that stop me. So I ran the damn thing – well, mostly. It kills me a little to say this, but I had to walk about 500m of it. Stupid cold. And yes, my route was also mostly uphill which is something I dont have much training on. I can see what dad means about thinking about it and having that be a kind of distraction. I was just dying by the time I was done tho – spent the rest of the day on the couch reading and sniffling. (I ended up reading all of the first Hunger Games and then immediately downloaded the next two and have since finished them as well. SO GOOD!)

[So like right about here is where I’d put up a picture of me in my running gear looking like I’m about to die from my cold, but they’re on my sisters computer so I guess that isn’t going to happen right now…]

Oh! Also a couple days before I had gone out for a run (you know, training and all). It was my first night in the Hunter Valley. I was just kind of running along behind my hotel, turned a corner and ran straight into a troup (or court or mob) of about a half-dozen Kangaroos and their joeys! It was so fricken cool! I just kind of stopped and started at them and then ran back to the hotel and ran into my dad and sister and told them to come out and take a look. Then I went off, ran 6k, came home, slept and woke up sick the next morning. Go figure. Not that the two events are connected, mostly I was just filling in the timeline Smile with tongue out.

After Hunter Valley we went back to Sydney. Mom and Dad had only 2 days left in Auz by this point, and the majority of the the one was spent traveling. Their hotel was pretty sweet because they were right on the Harbour and out their window was a veiw of the Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House.


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The 19th was Mom and Dad’s last night in Auz, do we decided it would be a good night to do something special. So we all got semi dressed up and went out to a show at the Sydney Opera house Smile. The show we went to was a modernised and slightly-rewritten (well at least with lines added to it) version of Shakespeare’s Foust. It was well done (unless you ask my sister whose exact words I believe were “it was shit”) although I’m not sure if I liked it. I’ve done my share of live theater (and wish I was still doing it, just absolutely love it) so I really appreciate the use of the stage and the minimalist way they used props and costumes. The acting was quite good and the writing was clever and there was definite scenes I quite enjoyed. But there was also a good chunk of it that I didn’t enjoy as much either. So I guess I was rate it as “alright.” It was also slightly disappointing because it was in some small side theater, not the main theater in the Opera House, but meh. We still went to a show in the Sydney Opera house, and that is just cool.

It was also just a really nice last night with the family. After the show we went out for desert and just enjoyed each others company. Took the ferry back to Mom and Dad’s hotel (Im staying with my sister at her place, saving a bit of $$) were we talked a bit more and Mom gave us (well, especially Jen) a teary farewell (my dad on the other hand “ugh, do I have to give you a hug now?” Smile with tongue out) . While we were waiting for the ferry from the Opera House to the hotel mom discovered some of the best graffiti in the bathroom and altho she isn’t a Doctor Who fan herself, she knows the rest of us are and ran excitedly out of the bathroom to show us…
Jen July 17-20 040
My mom can be so cute some times lol.

So now it is just my sister and I, but we haven’t settled yet. That night we pack up again and head out bright and early the next morning and head out to the Snow. Well actually, we headed out to Canberra, capital of Australia, for a stop over and then went up to the snow the next morning. But stopping at Canberra is worth a mention because we had SO much fun there. ACTUALLY, even before that I think I should take time to mention our train ride from Jen’s house in Epping, Sydney to the Sydney Central Station were we caught the train to Canberra.

About two or three stops into the 45minute CityRail ride, a trio of Transit Cops got onto the train just a car down from us and spent a good amount of time talking to some people there. Jen was a little worried because she had bought a student ticket event though her student concession card had expired for their winter holidays. The cops then came into our car and proceeded – not to ask us for our tickets. Not only that, they just stayed and chatted with us for the rest of the trip. They were super nice. At one point in time a guy walked on to the train, saw them, turned around and the girl cop (Deb? I believe her name was) called after him “No ticket? Oh don’t worry about it – you’re fine for today anyway.” So the guy lucked out – altho he was still super worried about it until his stop and kept apologising and making excuses for why he didn’t have it. Anyway, once we got off they asked us where we were going and we told them we needed to find the country link. And they picked up our bags and escorted us straight to our train. It was awesome. Never had anything like that happen before.

So we arrived in Canberra. We spent a little while just kind of exploring the city, which was really fun cause we were both in kind of act-like-idiots types of moods. We discovered an outdoor ice skating rink (because yes, it was JUST cold enough for that. Still not that cold tho). We didn’t go on it however, it was tiny and jam packed and there was just no room to move. We also discovered a comic book shop with a ton of Doctor Who merchandise which I had a hard time pulling myself away from and kept having to remind myself that a full-sized Tardis cutout would NOT fit in my luggage. But the real fun was when we got back to our hostel and decided to go out and socialise. Honestly, its true what they say – when in a hostel, go out and meet people. The people were awesome and fun and nice. Met this one girl named Elyse who, personality wise anyway, could have been my Australian counter-part. Of course the kicker was that we had to get up at 430am the next morning to catch our bus but didnt end up going to bed until about 130am because we were having so much fun. Didn’t regret it in the morning however – totally worth it.

So yes, we arrived at a town called Jindabyne, which is just kind of at the base of the mountains where people ski, at about 8am just in time for Jen’s bf to be able to pick us up and drop us off back at his place before he went to work. Jen and I were so tired at this point that we spent the rest of the day sleeping and reading.

Next day was Jen’s bf (Jason or as I like to call him Jay-Jay)’s day off. Our original plan was to ski that day, but even before leaving we were less than inspired about this idea. By the time we got to the ski resort (Parisher) Jay-Jay had made the executive decision that we were going to wait until tomorrow for skiing. Because the weather was just crap. It was rainy/misty and the fog was much too thick for skiing in. JayJay kept wanting to show us gorgeous mountain scenery and instead we just saw a grey blanket of fog. So we went back down the mountain and back home to put on some warmer, dry clothes. However, we didn’t stay at home. He decided we were going to go drive to the other side of the mountain for some site-seeing and kangaroo spotting. And we were not disapointed. The drive was spectacular, down and around the side of the mountain, going from snow to weather that felt like spring. We even stopped at a steam and drank some yummy fresh (cold!) mountain run-off water. He drove us right into the valley, a spot called Tom Groggin, were we saw a troup of definitely no less than 50 kangaroos! There were so many!! Jason decided it would be fun to chase them with his car for a little while, and then we went out and took some pictures of them. They were really curious about us at first, one actually hopped right up to my sister and licked her finger! After that they left us alone however (not that it stopped Jen and I from trying to coax them into coming close again. They were so cute!) The weather was also sooo nice, completely different from the top of the mountain. It was warm (we stripped down our layers) and running and bright. Not going skiing at that point was definitely the right decision.

Jenny Ski pics 038

JayJays awesomeness in decision making was confirmed the next day when we did actually go skiing – and couldn’t have asked for a better day or better conditions! Not a cloud in the sky the entire day. I’ve never done proper mountain skiing like that before, but we went up to the very top – and could for MILES around us! Just absolutely amazing, picturesk views of the mountains. My camera does not come even close to doing it justice.

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And I apparently I also missed getting picture of some of the more spectacular views.

The ski conditions themselves where much better than anticipated. Every Australian who we mentioned to that we were going skiing said something along the lines of why? It’s not worth it – its all ice and crap snow, you’ll spend more time in the line for the lift than you will actually skiing, its not worth the price (p.s. if I ever complain about the price of a Canadian lift ticket again, slap me Smile with tongue out). However, we had something none of those people ever had – an employee! Oh, and damned good luck. No, the snow wasn’t fresh powder like we’re used to back home. However it also wasn’t sheer ice. Rather, more like ice pelts which really isn’t hard to ski over at all. The run got a bit more icey by the end of the day – possibly cause it was the end of the day. It happens. As for lift lines, the longest we had to stand in line for a lift was about 3 minutes. JayJay, having worked at Perisher for several years, knows the hill inside and out and took us to all the best and least-used runs. No lines, no crowds, just nice skiing. And the price – yes, Australian lift tickets are expensive (about $100AUD a head). And no, we weren’t able to get a deal on them. What we DID get was was completely free rentals. JayJay knows a girl who works in the Rental Shop (or “Hire” as they call it) and she got us rentals at no cost. No only rentals, but really nice ones – no the cheap 1980’s kind we’d get at home. There was really no possible way we could have asked for a better ski day. Ok, I guess except me – my giant feet don’t like ski boots, no matter what the quality and my knees kind of hated me after my 6k up-hill run last weekend and definitely made it known they were still angry with me by the end of the day yesterday. Ah well, I suppose life can’t always be perfect Smile with tongue out. Somehow I think the rest of the day made up for it however.

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Also the weather for skiing was MUCH warmer than we are used to back home. We dressed in layers like we normally would for our –20 degrees Celsius skiing and ended up stripping layers down to our t-shirts (tank top for my sister) and very basic cover against the wind as the temperature was definitely above freezing.  Honestly, we could not have asked for better ski conditions.

So yes, there we are. Got up early this morning and am currently on a 7-hour bus ride from Jindabyne to Sydney (altho by the time I post this I will probably be sitting back in Jen’s room in Sydney where there is internets availible). We were sad to leave the snow and Jen was sad to leave JayJay but it was time to go. I *tear* head back to Ottawa on the 27th (just 3 more days…). This trip has been amazing, it’s hard to fathom heading back. And I am DREADING that stupid plane flight.

So I guess I shall depart dear Internets. Next time you hear from me, I will probably be in Canada. I’ll try not to miss you too much until that time! Ta!

Tuesday 12 July 2011

Kookaburra’s Gum Tree

 

Or – Aussies Differences #2: Food

For the most part, Australians eat pretty much the exact same as Canadians. Of course, as all countries do, they have their own types of food that would be less likely to be found elsewhere such as Kangaroo or Crocodile. But that’s not really what I’m looking to talk about today, because every knows about those things. (Both of which I have tried btw. Kangaroo tastes kind of like deer, very gamey, and I had a bite of my sisters Crocodile Pie which mostly tasted like soggy bread so maybe I should give that one a try again if I get the chance). Or, of course, the ever famous and disgusting Vegemite. No, this blog is going to be more highlighting the smaller differences in food practices.

Beetroot – or, as known back home, beets. To my knowledge, other than home gardens or on the occasional menu back home, beets are really only ever seen as a condiment for Shwarma. However here in the Down Under, they are a constant companion on burgers, sandwiches, wraps, salads. Personally, I have a strong aversion to beets. Never understood why people eat them. So it came as a shock the first time I was ordering a sandwich and it was tainted by the root. But it’s perfectly normal down here – I mean, who WOULDNT have beets on a burger? Seem tasty to me… or not. 

Eggs – speaking of odd things to put on your burger, lets talk about eggs. Now this isn’t one I have personally experienced, but you see it everywhere. Aussie like to put eggs where they don’t belong. Such as, as previously mentioned, burgers. Or pizza. Yes, they put eggs on their pizza. Or pasta. I’m sure the list goes on, but like I said, I haven’t encounter this one specifically. My parents have however (in fact, my dad ordered a burger the other night which happened to be topped with eggs and ham, so my mom took those toppings home for breaky the next morning).

Pizza – pizza is obviously not an odd Aussie food. However some of their ingredients are. Such as eggs. Or bbq sauce instead of tomato sauce (which I am sure is very good, but due to my dietary restrictions is not something I will be able to try this time around). My mom had a pizza with cranberries the other night, which I actually think sounds kind of good. Better than pineapple anyway Smile with tongue out.

Prawns – are shrimp. They don’t “throw some shrimp on the barby” down here, they “throw some prawns on the barby.” Fun fact.

 Pumpkin – Pumpkin is another one, like beets, which is everywhere. Of course, by pumpkin they are actually referring to butternut squash (unless they actually mean pumpkin. They don’t really differentiate). If you were to go to a restaurant and order something with a side of veggies, pumpkin would be included. Dishes such as pumpkin risotto or pumpkin linguini are commonplace in restaurants that serve Italian-type cuisine. I love this, it adds a different flavour and makes my plain food much more exciting and makes me less sad when everyone else can eat exciting dishes but I can’t. And always a bit of a surprise because I still haven’t got used to it yet, so I’ll order a dishes and be like “HEY! PUMPKIN! COOL!” Every time. lol.

Juice – Ok, so this isn’t a big one, but what the hey? Iced Tea and Juice have not a larger, but definitely a different range of flavours. For juice we have flavours such as apple-pomegranate or rhubarb-raspberry-apple or, my favourite, mango-anything lol. Iced Tea is much more flavourful as well, moving away from Green Tea or Lemon and towards things such as Peach iced tea. Which I loved (well, my mouth did. My stomach, on the other hand, had some major objections). I saw a sign at a restaurant for Mango Iced Tea, but after the gastronomic-objections (was that too descriptive?) from the peach, I decided it would be a bad idea.

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Chips -  as in potato chips, not french fries. Again, not something I personally have experienced, but I was asking my dad and sister if they have any other food differences I should mention and my sister brought up potatoes chips. Apparently they have a much larger selection of chips flavours here. The ones my sister mentioned where – oh, ok she didn’t. “I don’t eat chips!” is her apparent explanation “I just know there’s more flavours!" Oh, wait, now she thought of one. Chicken flavour lol. Yeah, that’s a good one. I may update you further if I remember to take a look for more of them next time I am in the grocery store.

Pies – I guess I couldn’t get away without mentioning the beloved Australian meat pie. If you order a pie in Auz, unless otherwise specified, it will be a meat pie. Ranging in flavours from beef to chicken to curry to crocodile. My sister’s absolutely favourite food now that she is here. Barely a day goes by that she is not mentioning her craving for pie. The right pie. Not microwaved. Not from a pie chain. Fresh, hand-made pie. Apparently it is delicious. Unfortunately once again I cannot confirm that for you. I’d make a very poor food critic eh?

So, like I said, nothing too dramatic of a difference. But different enough that I decided, while sitting here on this plane pretending I’m not bored out of my skull,  are worth mentioning. Or perhaps a warning, to those of you out there who don’t like eggs or pumpkin or beets or bbq sauce. I’m sure there are more out there, but I haven’t discovered them yet. So you may or may not want to expect an update in the future. Only time and tasting will tell Smile with tongue out.

So, um, ciao belle ma Internets. Good eating to you all!

Sunday 10 July 2011

42 Wallaby Way

It’s a hard life, staying out here on the reef. Sometimes I just don’t know how to handle myself. I guess, well, when things just get too over whelming I’ll just do what the locals do. Snorkel and hike in this so-called tropical paradise. Honestly, my life is rough!

In other news – I have had an AMAZING last few days. Well, Saturday was pretty standard. We didn’t manage to book anything too interesting or exciting to do. So I ran for the longest straight run I’ve ever done (half hour straight of running, about 4km) and then my sister and I ran around the town and did some cheesy souvenir shopping for people back home. Its always a combination of feeling way too touristy for comfort and super amused at all the “awesome” touristy junk they sell at some of these places. I was relatively successful in my endeavours that day so some people back home should be expecting some super exciting things (not that I expect them to really read this Smile with tongue out)

But Friday and Sunday were probably the best days of my trip. Not “so far” no, best days period. We’ll start with Friday seeing as its chronological and all.

So FRIDAY was the day I did something I have wanted to do since I knew there was, frack I don’t even know how small. FRIDAY we went snorkelling the Great Barrier Reef. FRIDAY was absolutely AMAZING. I want to say Friday was the best day of my trip, but between that and Sunday it’s really hard to compare.
So we got up early on Friday to catch a shuttle bus from our “holiday apartment” to the marina. Which was relatively pointless because we could have walked there in the same amount of time since it’s so close. The tour we went with was called Aristocat, and for a generic Reef tour it was great. Of course, now that I’ve done it once I want to do it again – but this time not on a crowded tour that only takes us to the “tourist” sports that are apparently not to the same quality of reef. But I digress (… which is pretty normal for me). Aristrocat is a smaller company with a boat that only holds about 100 or so people and gives you the opportunity to dive or to snorkel in three different locations around the reef, depending on how much money you wish to spend. If you’re travelling to the Port Douglas area and want to find out more about them, their webpage is here: http://www.aristocat.com.au/rates_snorkel_Port_Douglas.htm

So my sister sat out on the upper deck the entire time and met a very interesting couple who we sat with for the rest of the trip. The Guy, Pete, was from Yorkshire, England originally but now lives in France and works as a tour guide. The girl, Sarah, springs from Melbourne. They met when she went on one of his tours last year and are now having one hell of a long distance relationship lol.

But as lovely as these people where, the best part was hands down the reef! Each site was increasingly deeper and contain increasingly more diverse flora and fauna and all were just BEAUTIFUL. It’s hard for me to describe exactly how it looked. LUCKILY my darling sister is a hot, spunky redhead with a scubadiving camera. Why, you ask, is that lucky? Because it attracted the attention of the professional photographer on board whose job it is to take pictures of people in the reef and sell them at the end of the trip. He spent much time trying to, um, educate my darling sister on photography. And at the end of the day, gave her a CD with every single picture he had on his computer of the reef. So we ended up with pictures like
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Sea Tutrle we ACTUALLY SAW!
Picture by Brice Bastier
and this
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Great Barrier Reef
Picture by Brice Bastier
and this
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Coral and Fishies
Picture by Brice Bastier
it was kind of sweet.

Aside from all the amazing things we saw in the actual reef, we saw a few pretty cool things while on the boat as well. And by that I mean on three separate occasions we saw whales!  That was a dream come true for me, hands down. On the way to the reef we saw a mommy and baby Humpback whale that had decided another tour boat would be fun to play with for a while. Leaving the third snorkel site a Minke whale swam by us and oh the way back into the harbour we saw three more humpback whales.  If I never made it into the reef that day, the whole thing would still have been worth it just for that reason! I want to do it again!

And then there was SUNDAY. SUNDAY was super fun as well, but for completely different reasons. SUNDAY we went to the Daintree Rainforest. The tour group we went with was called Daintree Discovery. They’re also a smaller group but I don’t think we could have had a better one.  Our tour guides name was Chris and he was amazing. Very chatty and funny and had an obvious passion for the rainforest. He had all sorts of little tidbits about the rainforest, could tell you its history from the time it used to be an ocean floor right up until it is what it is now, a collection of mountainous rainforest. And he is a HUGE conservationist. He made so many very passionate arguments for the saving of the rainforest. Many many many passionate arguments for the saving of the rainforest… in fact, it was his main topic of conversation. Honestly tho, he was awesome and if you ever take this tour, try and get him. Its worth it. If anyone is interested in learning more, this is their website:http://www.daintreediscoverytours.com.au/ and this is their facebook: http://www.facebook.com/daintreediscoverytours.

This tour started early as well. First place we went was Mossman Gorge, a big tourist haven. It was very very pretty (GORGE-us if you will. I am way over-using that joke) and we managed to beat the tourist rush since we got there so early in the morning.
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Mossman Gorge
After a quick tour there, learning about the stages of the rainforest from millions of years ago until today (algea, moss, fern, coniferous and *something else that starts with C*, and flowering), we moved on to stage 2. Boat ride down the Daintree River to spot crocodiles. It was really nice, the water was purdy and we saw lots o’crocs, but not my favourite part of the trip. Crocodiles are cool, but don’t really hold my interest for too too long. The water was so nice tho and there really is nothing better than boating on a nice day Smile.

Then we headed up into the hills. Unfortunately we couldn't go in too far as we were driving so we had to follow the road. The horrible, evil manmade road that cuts right through the forest and causes landslides and forest degradation. But you know, since its there we might as well use it. We were brought up to a view that in my opinion has to be one of the best views in Australia. So pretty!
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Veiw of Daintee to Ocean

After that we piled back in the car and headed off to Cape Tribulation. It’s a beach point where Rainforest meets ocean, a very rare occurrence as Rainforest cannot survive off salt water. The water is stopped by Mangrove trees whose tangle of roots will trap and use ocean water or run-off rainwater from the hills. While we were there we saw some awesome insects, including a blue stick bug, a spider about the size of my hand, green ants whose venom is vitamin C and a bright yellow caterpillar that stands on end when threatened. Unfortunately I’m really bad with nomenclature and don’t actually remember the names of these creatures. But they were really cool.

After that was a lunch and a walk in the forest in our secluded little picnic area. Honestly, I could just watch in that forest all day. We were told there was a change of seeing Casowaries (iconic bid of the forest) but alas we did not. We saw a lot of their droppings however. We then went to an ice cream place for a quick stop before heading up to the grand finally of the trip, off-roading up to Casowary Falls! Off-roading wasn’t REALLY all that exciting as we were with a bunch of old people (Smile with tongue out) who didn’t want to go fast, but the falls were just amazing. This gorgeous swimming hole under a cascade of water. Water was slightly frigid, but totally worth swimming in and you got used to it after a while.
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Sister and I diving into Casowary Falls
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Our Tour Group
It was an amazing end to an amazing day. Honestly, if you ever go to the Daintree Forest, go through this tour group. Every moment was worth it!

I have to say Internets, this was one of my hardest blogs to write because there is SO much detail I am editing out (such as how AMAZING the Rainforest smelled). I figure it’s long enough already and I’m sure you have more to do with you day than read overly-detailed accounts of my trip. So I shalt babble at yous laters! Au Rivour!

Monday 4 July 2011

Crocs in Socks

Or - My Random Aussie Observations

So I'm sitting here at 6:30 in the morning thinking how crappy it is that I am awake right now. Also that it's hard to figure out activites to do that wont wake up the rest of my family. So what the hell, whose ready for another blog post? (also internets working, but it doesnt want me to open my email so that's also out of the question atm).  These are my observations from Auz so far:

Toilets - So a request I got from a few of my friends was to make sure I take a video of toilet flushing here in Auz so we can prove once and for all whether it flushes in the opposite direction. And while I realise this may not have been the MOST serious of requests, there is still a slight hitch in this plan. The hitch being that, well, toilets don't flush in a circular motion in Auz. They just sort of, well, dump a shit-ton of water (or a half shit ton, all Aussie toilets have the option of half or full flushes). I'll still take a video, you know, for comparisons sake if people are THAT curious. But it shalt prove nothing. Maybe I'll take a video of the sink instead...

Grocery Shopping - Grocery shopping has this odd mixture of weird but not weird. The grocery stores themselves are set up very similarly to the ones back home, so when you first walking in nothing feels weird. Produce is at the entrance, meat at the back, random drugstore aisle in the middle. Pretty normal. But then you take a closer look and realise that everything is wrong. The brands are all different, and even if they're the same they are still different. Different looking, different tasting, different sizing (fricken soy milk comes in containers half the size of what we get in Canada. And I go through THOSE in about a day and a half...). Now this may seem obvious to people, of COURSE they're going to be different, Im on the other side of the world. But its different hearing about it and when you actually walk in and can't find what you're looking for because you dont know anything about the brands in front of you.

Oh, also, blueberries here are like $10 for a small container. I never realised how much these poor Aussies suffered!

Oh, also had a fun time trying to find ant-acids because I ran out of the ones I use in Canada. There are similar brands, but the boxes look different (and much less selection). The pharamcist was sooo confused what I wanted, trying to give me one-a-day tablets when I just want something if my stomach acts up after a meal. And I dont know how strong the ones here are compared to the ones at home, because if I've discovered anything from the food, just because the brand is the same does not mean it's anything like the similar (supposebly exact same) item at home.

Jetlag - sucks. That is all.I'm tired by 8pm and get up at 6. Wtf body? Get with the program!

However, watching the sun rise over the palm trees is gorgeous and listening to the all the birds is relaxing. And different, because these are definitely not birds you get at  home :D.

Coffee -  this is more of an observation of my parentals than myself, seeing as my diet restricts the intake of caffine and all, but I feel the need to inform those of you who are coffee hounds and thinking of travelling to the Down Under. Apparently you cannot order a straight coffee here. Mom and Dad will go out for breaky or after dinner or something, and my dad will say "oh, just a coffee please" and then waiters will look at him expectantly. Coffee what? Latte? Mocha? ummm... ok, I dont really know too many other types of fancy coffee. But yeah, black coffee or coffee with just cream and sugar isnt a thing here apparently. So if you love coffee and are planning on making the journey here, brush up on your fancy coffees (lol, my mom is kind of loving it) or be prepared to make your own. Or face a lot of confused waiters :P.

So yes Internets. Difference I have noticed so far. I am sure I will sprout a few more over the coming weeks. And I'll try not to bore you with differences like "The light switches! They're smaller!" or silly things like that :P. And for now, depending on the part of the world you currently reside in, Good morning, good afternoon or good night! :)




Ye'r

Day 4 in Auz so far. Day 4 in a land where 17 degrees celcius in Winter and considered freezing. Silly Australians.

The flight over from Canada was... well, brutal. In total I spent between 21-22 hours on planes. Hour from London to TO, 5 from TO to Vancouver. Off the plane for a half hour and then back onto the SAME plane for another 15 hours to Auz and then another hour from Sydney to Gold Coast. Ugh. The worst was the 15 hours. Not just the length, but the length PLUS the fact that it was night and I dont sleep well on planes PLUS I dont do well sitting for long periods of time PLUS the people sitting beside me where sleeping so I could be noisy, talk to them, move too much... etc. If there is a way to torture me, stick me in a dark place for hours on end and restrict all social interactions and movement on my part. It'd make me crack in a second (well, a few hours maybe :P). The hour from Sydney to Gold Coast was decent, at least I had my family to talk to, but by then I was planed out and just wanted to get off.

Gold Coast is gorgeous, but super touristy. It made me think more of Miami than of what I think of as Australia. The beach was AMAZING however. Very few people were at the beach because it is "winter" and the water is too cold. You know, like it takes a second for you to get used to them. As opposed to summer where, apparently, you jump in and its perfect. Silly Aussies. However most of our time there was spent exploring the city and shopping.We were very lucky however in that it was warm and sunny the entire time there.

Dad after Marathon. Don't worry, he's FIIIIINE :P
Left to Right - Me, Dad, Jen (sister)
Sunday morning however was Dad's marathon. 42.2Km (or 26.2miles for you Americans out there :P). He finished it, altho not as fast as he wanted. It wasn't a bad day for a marathon, altho slightly... warm. But it was overcast for most of it so that helped. I was proud because while he was running, I also ran further than I've ever run before (4k) and since I'm training myself it was a good day. But I SUPPOSE dads accomplishment is something that earns slightly more bragging rights. A little.

Our hotel - or "Holiday Apartment" was pretty schanzy. 2 bedrooms, second bedroom with twin beds so Jen and I didnt have to share. It had a kitchen, 3 washrooms (one on-suite, one "bath"room and one... toilet room? lol). The view was just GORGEOUS, we were on the 16th floor and looking out towards the beach. Couldn't have asked for better :)


Jen, Mom and I also wore the shirts I designed for Dad for Father's Day (which was one of my "secret projects" for those of you following along at home). We wore them for him to see once he crossed the finish line, kind of like his cheer squad. I'm pretty proud of how they turned out, I have to say.




Sunday night was also fun because my sister and I decided to go down and enjoy the hot tube at the pool in the hotel (*ahem* Holiday Apartment). Which ended up being fun because a few no-too-shabby-looking Aussie boys had also decided to use the hot tub and we ended up chatting. When the hot tub closed down (it was pretty late at night) they invited us for drinks, but we had to get up early the next morning to catch a plane and still hadnt pack, so we declined. Still, as my sister said, its fun to be in your 20's and be able to enjoy chatting, being hit on by and flirting with hot boys. More fun for me I think as I'm single - Jen can look, but damnit I can choose to enjoy if I so please :P.

This morning we had to catch a plane at 9:30 to Cairns and then a bus up to Port Douglas, where we are staying now. The driver from our Gold Coast hotel to the airport was super friendly and chatty and even took us on a short detour to show us the "best view in Australia". It was a pretty veiw, altho not my favourite. Not so much of a "city scape" view, prefer nature. But I could see why he took us there for teh view.

   
Veiw of Surfer Paradise, Gold Coast
"Misty Mountains" (as I called them) - Road to Port Douglas
The plane ride was uneventful, but the ride to Port Douglas was fun. It was about an hour, hour and a half through super twisty roads, along the sides of "mountains" (big hills) and along the ocean. The veiw was gorgeous the whole time, much more wild and "real" than I found Gold Coast. I can't wait to start PROPERLY exploring everything, because there is so much wilderness to explore.

Since we got here, we've just been exploring the town. It's VERY much a resort town, the street we are on is purley different resorts. There is only really one actually shopping street in town, but its long and full of little beach shops and tourist traps. Slightly disapointing, but its still gorgeous here, by the beach but surrounded by tropicalness and close to the rainforests. Other than the beach, hopefully we wont be spending too much time in town anyway. And even if we do, I doubt I'll be disapointed. The only way I'll be disapointed here is if I dont manage to make it too the Great Barrier Reef, which is my one and only item on my Aussie Bucket List that I will actually be greatly disapointed if I dont achieve (well that, and maybe hugging a Koala).

We are staying a week here in Port Dougy. So I'm sure I'll have much MUCH more excitingness to tell you about in the coming week. It all very new and exciting and I've barely even started. :D Hope you're having as awesome a time as I am Internets, G'Day to yer Mates! :P

Sunday 26 June 2011

Bartle the Bead

Want to know something kind of mind blowing? In 3 days, I will be on a plane to Australia! Thats right, mind. has. been. blown.

Ok, maybe not. But it's still fricken exciting!

And techincally I'll be on a plane from London, On to Toronto... I may have even landed at the TO airport by this time on Wednesday. But close enough right?

Its all kinda starting to hit me now. My parents landed in Auz 2 days ago now, and looking at their pictures and reading their facebook posts is making it feel more real for me now. Like it is ACTUALLY happening. They are there and soon, I will be too! Holy crap!

Other blatant reminders of my upcoming adventures is the fact at that all of my projects I wanted done before I left for Auz are slowly coming to a close. I've pretty much rapped up what I have to do on my friends website logo design (for now), my final exam is on tuesday and classes are over, my *can't say online until I get to Auz cause a certain someone supposebly reads these posts* are done and just need to be packed, and my other secret project was revealed this morning! Its all rapping up nicely!

Oh, yeah, other secret project. A grad gift for some dear friends who graduated this past month (that may POSSIBLY have been supposed to be up 2 weeks ago. No one said I was punctual lol). For anyones interetst :




It's pretty silly, but I like it :D.


But yeah, with all of those things comign to an end, really all there is left to do is pack and get on a plane! (you know, after my exam is written). And then sit restlessly for like 20 hours... I REALLY hope I sit by someone interesting, or at least chatty. And you know, I would really not object to eye candy either. Just sayin' :P.

I dont think I really have too much more to say. I just keep getting these waves of holy-crap-excitment! while I've been trying to study, so I needed to outlet it a little. but HOLY CRAP Im going in Australia in 3 friggen days! It may have hit me, but it definitely still hasnt sunken in... I may have to wait until Im on the plane for that.

Anyway, Internets, I think I'm going to go run now and let off a bit of steam. Maybe that will help me concentrate on my studying a bit more and take my head out of the clouds. Aidious Amigos! :D

Friday 24 June 2011

Drip Drip Drop

You know how people live in squalor via the excuse "Im alergic to cleaning!", well you know something? I think I really am!

You think Im kidding. Haha, Paige is just making excuses not to clean again. But its true! I mean, just today I've been cleaning my room (a project I've been putting off for a good part of the summer) and I cannot stop sneezing. My nose is stuffed, my eyes are itchy. Its a serious problem!

I mean, suuuuure. You could say Im not allergic to cleaning, its all the dust I've disturbed as I've gone about my tidying activities. Or the chemicals they put in the so-called "chemical cleaners." But you know what I have to say to you? Disbeliever! Sure, you can make a logical justification for anything. "Oh, the sun moves across the sky because the Earth is turning, not because its being dragged across the sky by some Greek God's chariot." But really, who believes these "justifications" anyway.

What? Majority of people? Shush you!

Anyway, thats besides the point! Maybe the Earth is spinning, whoop-de-do. MY point being that cleaning makes me sneeze. And drip. And itch. So really, if you want to look at it "logically", there is cause and effect going on here. I clean - I sneeze. I dont clean, I'm relatively symptom clear. Thereby, cleaning is OBVIOUSLY the cause of my misfortune and should be avoided at all costs.

Hmmmm. Maybe I'll take my cause to the government. Once they realise what a burden I have to bear, they'll definitely provide me with someone who'll clean the house for me right? I mean, wouldnt you? Think of all the years of suffering I've been through! Years of a mother who TORMENTED me by FORCING me to do dishes, dust the living room and MAKE MY BED?! Honestly, what kind of a feind is this woman?! After the government hears of my plight, they are bound to put things right. That's what governments are for right?

No? Well what do you know? You obviously havent suffered the way I have. Geeeez, insensitive much?

*sigh* Maybe you're right. But there has to be SOME solution. I can't just be living in filth my whole life after all! Whats that? Get over myself and clean? Take an allergy pill? Gawd, there you go trying to be logical again. Whats up with that? Obviously I can't talk to you today if you're going to be like that. I'm going to go clean now instead, see how you like that! So there! Proved you wrong... SHUT UP! :P

My life is rough... BYE INTERNETS! :D

Thursday 16 June 2011

Tweak

Honestly, how is it that Im almost 2 months into summer and am still busy? I havent been bored once this summer and its awesome. And only 2 more weeks until Australia! I AM SO FRICKEN EXCITED!!! *ahem* *recomposes dignity*

I also realise I haven't done a random, babbling post in a while. Blogging during BEDA is so different that blogging without a schedule. I never had enough going on during BEDA that one days experience could fill up a blog, so I would just blog about whatever popped into my head (however random it was). Now Im trying to blog twice a week (but lets face it, its turning into once a week or less... other things that are hard without a set schedule), and am so busy that I just always have more to fill people in on. Because my life is awesome apparently. So no, definitely not complaining :P

So one of the big things going on these past two months has been my summer course Im taking. Its Health and Ethics, and surprisingly, it turned out to be very interesting. I expected it to be dry and full of theories and boring shit like that. Im not sure if its the proff or the course itself, but because its Health/Medical ethics, they are bringing a lot of practical application and real-world examples into the mix. Unfortunately I can't give you any examples, one of the class policies is confidentiality - since that's an important ethical concept in the real world. So what we hear in class, stays in class. Which is also an interesting idea. Reaffirming that idea of confidentiality before we are close to entering the medical world.

My problem with ethics, even this class, doesnt just lie in the dryness of it. I've always been one to see things from multiple examples (HowI argue "Look, Im not saying I dont agree with you, but you have to think of it this way as well!" or "Well what about this? Or this? or this? or this?" lol. argueing is fun). I had a hard time writing my essay for example (regarding the growing US market around egg donation. Based off of this http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2004/4/29/will-you-be-my-babys-mama/ article). As an issue itself, I dont feel that its strickly unethical. I feel there are parts of it that could be, but its annoyingly grey in terms of ethics. It didnt help that I had many conversations with my essay editing peeps about different circumstances when it may be more or less ethical, making it even harder to "pick a side".

It also gets frusterating in class. I've discovered I love having a good disscussion class. Mostly because I talk a lot and have an opinion on everything. But it can also get really frusterating when someone just picks one side and REFUSES to see anyone elses point of view. I'm lucky in this class that it doesnt happen too often, but often enough. We've formed groups that we break into for disccussions now and there is one specific guy in my group how just obviously doesnt care and doesn't want to change his views on anything. I hope this guy isnt planning on heading to MedSchool because I'd hate to have him as my doctor. He wouldn't listen to a word the patient said and would just do things the way he thought best... ok, so he sounds like most other doctors I've had. Doesnt make it any less true however.

But other than that, most people are really good about discussions. Even if people have differening opinions, we listen and take that into account. Its a smaller class as well (only about 20-30 people. As opposed to most of the classes I've had here so far which are about 200-500 people) so we're starting to get to know each other a little. My favourite moment ever happened yesterday. We were broken up into our groups and tasked with creating our own civilization/society based around ethical principles and had to take into consideration everything from the largest infrastructure to the tiniest details. It was really hard and reaffirms something I have known forever - I am NEVER going into government and NEVER going into administration. I'd be put into an insane asylum by the end of the month.

So at the end of the class, each group presented their civilization. Group number 3 was my favourite, because their Civilization name was Mordor. But it got better, because the first question asked by the class was from a girl sitting beside me. "So, can one simply walk in?" A few of us laughed pretty hard (ah, Im with my people :) ) and the rest kinda did the nervous giggle of "I know that was a joke, but I dont understand why..." It was a brilliant moment and that girl and I walked away from class talking about nerdy stuff together. Because once a nerd discovers another nerd, its hard to seperate them :P.

Anyway, the last class in next week and the exam the week after that. And then, and then? And then I fly to AUSTRALIA! Fuck Im excited about that. Im not sad the class is ending or anything silly like that, but I actually have enjoyed taking it this year, as weird as that is lol.

So I hope you've had a good week Internets. I'll try to post a bit more in the next two weeks before I leave. And I'll try to update consistently in Auz. I will have my computer with me,  so I dont really have any good excuses not to. But I guess we'll see what happens once I get there lol. Until then, Laterzzz Gaterzzz :D

Thursday 2 June 2011

Frozen Pup-sicles

Heya Internets. It feels like a really long time since I posted something, but I think its just because I've been keeping myself busy. Still, I dont think I've been living up to my "posting twice a week" promise I made. Maybe once a week which, for me, is pretty good.

Im having an absolutely awesome summer. Like I said, I've been keeping myself busy which is actually kind of surprising to me. I completely thought that when I actually had free time after all that studying I'd just waste it on the internet. Sit inside all day and stare at my computer and be bored. But I dont like being bored, so I havent done that. The last few days have been gorgeous, so I have spent as much time outside as physically possible - whether it be biking or walking or running or sitting on the patio with my roomates and neighbours or sitting on the patio by myself and reading. I actually am at least a shade darker white than normal! Actually, considering that it's been liek 45 degrees with the humidex, I'm surprised I dont have a burn. Being in a Health Science course however has made me super paranoid about skin cancer tho, so I have been lathering up the sunscreen lol.

When Im not outside, I still have stuff to do. I am taking that summer course, so I'll be writing notes or studying for my midterm on monday. Now I have an essay due in a little over a week, so thats a main focus for me. As well I've been getting my creative on - for example that awesome video I've made for ma mother. I've also been doing more on photoshop, playing around with Adobe Premier so that next time I go to edit things I shalt have a stonger grasp on how it works. Its an awesome program, I still have so much to learn on it. I've also been song writing again, specifically a present for a friend of mine. I dont want to say anything about it tho, just in case she (erm, I mean, or he.... yeah...) reads my blog. I've also been working on gifts for a few other people as well.

ON TOP of all that, my delightful bestie has commissioned (erm, for free) me to design a logo for a website she's designing this summer. She's thinking about possibly persueing that as part of her career and is testing out her skill and enjoyment by designing a website for her mothers quilting. (Her mother makes AMAZING quilts, one of which I was lucky enough to get as a grad present coming out of high school.) She also is trying to figure out a good name for the website, but it's hard as most of the good ones are already in use. Right now they've settled on Hearts and Stitches Quilts, but I dunno - I think its kind of lame. I just am having trouble coming up with something better (which is kind of unusual for me).

My sister and I are also going to be doing a fun creative project, although it wont start until I go to Australia. When she saw my rap video she sent me a message on FB just PRAISING my creative abilities (cause I am just so wonderful :P) and decided that when I get to Auz, we have to do something like that together. So my minds being flying around with ideas, probably (hopefully) more than one of them will be getting done. I think a big reason why I am enjoying this summer so much is that I have so much more time than normal to persue some of my creative endevours that I'll often put off for "more important things." Well, with no job and only a little bit of school, my creativness becomes my important things :D.

The job thing is a little trying. It gets frusterating getting rejected from job after job KNOWING you had an awesome interview. All because I'm going to be gone for the month of July. Its understandable, I don't begrudge any of them for it (well, for the most part.) I even had one potential employer tell me to call them once I get back from Auz and they'll see if they have a position open for me then. So, you know, cross fingers. I may not get work before then, but if I can get in a job in August and for the school year I'll still be happy. As much as money-drain sucks, it is kind of nice having a summer off. And man, I am SO excited for going to Australia! :D I feel like a little kid when I think about it - except better, because I can do so much more now that Im all old and crap. Yay me!

Anyway, thats just my quick life update I guess. It's kind of vague, but a good solid summary of some happenings. I've also been hanging out with friends a lot, my roomate is hosting a bonfire tomorrow night and I am going to a different bon fire the night after that, so that'll be fun. I do need to crack down on this essay however. Next weekend I am going to a wedding (my first wedding EVER) so you'll get to hear all about that once thats all said and done with. So yeah. Such is my life atm.

Have a nice weekend Internets. I shalt seeth thou on el flipith side! :D