Happy Halloween!!

Thank goodness for Americans and their love for Halloween. On of our friend's, Ali and her roommates had a Halloween party on Saturday night that a bunch of us went to. I have to say Ali and her roommates went all out with decorations for the party. Unfortunately I do not have many pictures of the decorations, but imagine a coffin made out of cardboard with a body inside, a graveyard, a projector with the Exorcist running, and plenty of spiderwebs and spiders everywhere.

Adsy loved his costume as Death. I began the night as an Angel, but then sometime throughout the night I turned into Sookie the fairy from Trueblood. Our friend Amanda was one of the best Zombies I've ever seen. She went all out with the creepy white contacts in her eyes.

Aussie Halloween (or lack there of)

Halloween is a very special holiday. It is a time when people can dress however they want and not be judged (unless you dress really really slutty) for what you are wearing. It is a time for tricks, treats, pumpkins, scary movies, black cats, ghosts, and everything else halloweeny. Unfortunately for me who loves Halloween, Australia does not take part in the yearly festivities.

I found out this information last year as Jordan and I were gearing up for Halloween and Adsy told me that people over here do not really celebrate or acknowledge Halloween. I was shocked. Why not? Why wouldn't you acknowledge a day when you are allowed to get dressed up and go from door to door asking complete strangers for their candy? Anyway, it is true. Halloween is not a big deal. Supposedly it gets bigger and bigger every year, and more and more people are starting to take part in the fun.

I did find out something interesting about Adam this year when it came to Halloween. It happened when we were at the grocery store at the beginning of October doing our weekly shopping. The store actually had big orange carving pumpkins. I went over to examine them when Adam came up behind me and told me he had never seen one before. Shocked as I was, I double checked to make sure what I heard was true. I even asked if he meant seen them in the store before or real life. He said both, he had never seen a pumpkin like that in the store OR in real life. I couldn't believe it, I still cannot believe it.

We were going to get one to carve, but it never did work out. Mainly because we never found any time to carve one, but also because the pumpkins cost around $30!! Next year for sure we will be taking part in that fun tradition!

Really small pancakes

This post should have come before the birthday post, but I jumped the gun and got too excited about my birthday. Can you blame me? No, I didn't think so.

Friday night a couple of us went to dinner at a place called "Pancakes On The Rocks". Yes, you guessed it, it is a restaurant dedicated to serving pancakes. They have savory pancakes such as potato au gratin, chicken and mushroom crepes, Mexican crepes, Monte cristo crepes, etc. Of course they also have yummy dessert pancakes like the Devil's delight, and macadamia madness, bananarama, and strawberry patch.

I got the chicken and mushroom crepes or really thin pancakes if you will, and they were delicious! Adsy got the Mexican crepes, but I did not taste them so I have no idea how they were.

The food was good and the company was even better! We spent most of the meal talking about Halloween costumes for an upcoming Halloween party we are all going to. Costumes are still not figured out.

After dinner we were all so completely stuffed from eating pancakes that we decided to go home instead of going out. Yeah, we are not getting old!

In the cab on our way to the restaurant

I'm pretty sure our cab driver hated us because we made him listen to a radio show talking about periods and masturbation.

Mmmmm Mexican crepes

Group shot after stuffing ourselves with pancakes!

Happy birthday to ME (and Dad)!!

Happy birthday to ME and my Dad!! As most of you probably know or do not know, my dad and I share a birthday. I am always disappointed when I do not get to be with him on or around my birthday. We usually try to make it work. On my 21st he flew in to Austin and totally surprised me. Last year my parents and I drove and met each other in Brenham, TX. Needless to say this year it was not possible to do either of those things. Hawaii is still a little far for a "meet in the middle on our birthday" type of trip. However, I still had a great birthday! Many thanks to another special boy in my life.

My birthday started on Saturday night when Adam presented me with my birthday present which included an awesome unicorn card made out to Sookie from True Blood, a pair of beautiful blue opal earrings which I wore that night, and last but not least sushi classes!! But it did not stop there, Adam also organised dinner for us and our closet 16 friends at a Japanese restaurant nearby. Can you see the theme? Sushi classes and sushi! Mmmm Being the awesome guy he is, Adam also went out and bought six bottles of wine and a case of beer for everyone to drink at dinner. He just wanted everyone to have a great time he said. What a sweet boy, and what a good time we did have! Or at least I did!! So much in fact that I felt it the next day on my actual birthday.











Thanks Adsy and everyone else who made my birthday so special! Happy birthday to you too Dadwell! I love you! Next year we should meet up in Hawaii for sure!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh

The sigh of relief from finishing my last assignment for the semester! Its a good sigh too. These last few days I have worked my butt off to get everything done, and done hopefully well enough to merit a good grade. Now I am sitting getting ready to go to class, and enjoying the fact that I am done with school for the next four months!

I'm sure you can all read the excitement I am going through right now. After spending all day, yes all day, on an assignment it feels so good to be done with it. I don't even want to look at it again. I don't even think I care too much what kind of a grade I get, just as long as I don't fail. A girl I have many classes with has a mantra, Ps=degrees. I was repeating this mantra to myself earlier this week.

I have to say I have had a good semester. Granted I don't know how I have done on these last couple of assignments, but I'm not really worried. I have been doing well all semester and I cannot imagine that changing now, but wish me luck for all HDs. (they are the highest mark you can get)

"Are you from Canada?"

"When Aussies pick up on your "North American" accent, they will likely ask you if you are from Canada, not if you are from the U.S. This is partly because they run into more Canadians than Americans, but mostly because they know Canadians are more sensitive to being mistaken for Americans, while Americans don't care.

As for Americans: when asked that question, don't be offended, it's a great opportunity to strike up a conversation. Outside of tourist areas, Americans are a novelty. "

I found this little gem of information in a book called Americans' Survival Guide to Australia and Australian-American Dictionary by Rusty Geller.

It is funny because I do get asked if I am from Canada, a lot. More in the last 4 months than I have in my entire lifetime of traveling internationally. Before I found this information, I had already asked Adsy why everyone asks me if I'm Canadian or American? He told me that because of the Commonwealth connection there are more Canadians here than Americans. Plus, a lot of Aussies go to Canada for the snow.

Anyway, I thought it was funny and interesting constantly being mistaken for a Canadian. At lease it is good to know that if I ever need to hide my nationality I can easily add a few a's? at the end of my sentences and say I'm from Canada.

Bendalong Nightclub

The first weekend in October was a long weekend because Monday was Labour Day over here. For the weekend Adam and I were invited to join two other couples at a beach house 3 hours down the coast. The weekend was a lot of fun and totally relaxing. There was nothing to do but eat, sleep, drink, and have a good time. Here are a few pictures to document our time there.

We played spoons which I haven't played in FOREVER!

Must include the timed jumping picture. Pretty proud of myself on this one.

Group picture in front of Green Island.

I love these things!

I found a kitty, imagine that.

Group picture after horseback riding.

Me and Dot

Adsy and his asshole horse Ted

Weird, Adsy is awake in the car. He was usually asleep as soon as he sat down.

There are plenty more pictures, but they are mostly us sitting around a table eating. Nothing too exciting. In case you were wondering where the nightclub pictures are. It was a joke, there was no nightclub. In fact there was nothing around except the beach. Therefore the beach became the nightclub when we all went on a trek in the darkness with one flashlight.

Hello blog! It has been a while....

Hello to anyone and everyone who reads my blog. My apologies for not writing in a while, I have not really had much to write about. Actually that is not really true, the truth is I have not been inspired lately to sit and write about my life. However, I am now sitting and trying to work on an assignment that is due next week and I am having trouble starting it. I figured if I wrote something I didn't really need to think too much about it would get me in the writing mode for school. We'll see if it works.

What is new with me? My first semester of school is almost finished. Next week is my last week of classes. Technically I am already finished with two of my classes because I have turned in all of the assignments for them. For the other two classes I turn in their assignments next week. I have no final exams so once the work gets turned in, its over! Crazy. Overall I have really enjoyed the semester, and I am a little sad its about to be over. I'm not going to miss working on all of the assignments that have to get done, but I will miss seeing everyone each week in class. On the other hand, I am really looking forward to my 4 month break from school.

After the semester ends, my internship really starts up. I wrote about it once before, but soon I should have more to say. To recap: as of right now I go one day a week (Wednesdays) to work at Sculpture by the Sea (for free). The exhibition of SxS starts at the end of October and runs for about 3 weeks. I will be helping out a few more days a week in the sales office. I'm looking forward to it, but I think its going to be a lot of time on my part. At least I'll meet new people and have something to put on my resume.

All in all, life is still pretty good on my end. School is going nicely and I am making good grades. Adsy and I are having lots of fun together. He has a ton going on with work and it has been fun and exciting to see it all take shape. I am happy for him. I wish he was coming home with me in December, but I just have to get over the fact that he cannot. As far as my trip home goes, I have not made any solid plans yet so I think I need to get on that. Anyway, this is just a quick update so as to continue procrastinating on my school work. Wish me good luck on these last two assignments for the semester!!