so busy!

saturday, september 19, 2009.

8:55 pm (i have to remember to put the actual date/time since the timestamp is wrong!)

sorry i've been so delinquent about updating since i got here. things have been so incredibly busy!

i've got 2 big projects and a big online chem quiz (that may take me about 79 hours to complete) to finish in the next couple days, so life has been pretty stressful as of late.

however, in exactly one week i'll be in adelaide! i'm looking forward to getting off campus for a while, being in a house, and not having to eat college food!! i planned my flights a little poorly, so on saturday morning i'll be waking up bright and early and departing for the airport at... 4:15 am. i hope this week goes by extremely quickly. once i finish my biology project, hopefully by wednesday, it'll be easy going until finals. which, strangely enough, are coming up exceptionally quickly.

the first weekend back from break i'm headed to the sunshine coast with kate, monnie and shanna (aussie girls), dee (from malaysia), dianne (from the states) and the boys from the netherlands. sleeping under the stars on the beach, surf lessons, bbqs, celebrating rob's 21st birthday... it's going to be amazing. hopefully we'll make it there in one place... we rented a minivan (i thought my minivan driving days were over, but sadly they seem to have made a reappearance) and i'll be the chauffeur for the weekend. keep in mind i'll be driving on the opposite side of the road. should be interesting. i may need to ask for some driving lessons in adelaide...

oh, the fireworks we went to last weekend were AMAZING! definitely the best i've ever seen. they set them off from boats in the river, bridges and surrounding buildings. they started the show with 5 jets doing cool tricks right above us. it was admittedly a little scary seeing them weave around skyscrapers the day after 9/11, but it was pretty cool. apparently they have an even bigger fireworks show for new years, so i'll definitely have to plan to be here for one of those!

i can't believe i've already been here for 2 months. we've only got 5 more weeks of class until the semester ends! then we've got a week to study and finals for a 3 week period. time has been flying by. it's been a lot of fun, but i've definitely been dreaming of africa recently. it's been SIX months since i left tanzania, which is pretty mind-blowing. the more time that goes by, the harder it is to believe it actually happened or to remember all the "life lessons" i learned while i was there. although i'm finally getting back on track with school, i can't help but feel as though the important things are falling off track. it's hard to remember aids orphans exist when most college conversations revolve around beer, boys and parties. i do miss africa and the feeling of doing something that mattered more in the long run than organic chemistry does.

anyway, i'm going to keep this post short. i got about 4 hours of sleep last night so i'm totally crashing. dianne and i introduced some other internationals to america's greatest college pastime: beer pong! i don't think they loved it, but there's still plenty of time to change their minds :) from there, we went to a super tacky club for a while. i came back early and finished/submitted a bio lab report... at 3 in the morning! when everyone got back around that time, i went over and hung out with everyone until about 5. i may be getting too old for this as i seem to be struggling to recover today...

i've been given the chances, but i've burned some bridges up. i've had a million excuses why i self destruct. but this time around, i'm a little more ready now. i'm a little bit older, a little more figured out, this time around. i see what i want and i've had a taste. i'm aware of the sacrifice it's gonna take. i ain't afraid of failure... it took a while to find it, but i'm back again. this time around i'm a little more ready now. --david nail

the silence isn't so bad 'til i look at my hands and feel sad 'cause the spaces between my fingers are right where yours fit perfectly... drenched in vanilla twilight, i'll sit on the front porch all night waist-deep in thought because when i think of you, i don't feel so alone... when violet eyes get brighter and heavy wings grow lighter, i'll taste the sky and feel alive again. and i'll forget the world that i knew but i swear i won't forget you. --owl city

waiting for the ferry before the fireworks

the pre-fireworks show!

dee, me, dianne, kate

rob trying on my jacket :)

umar, timmy, me, oskar

i'm (still) learning... (v. oz.1)

... how much i love... but how sometimes difficult it can be... to constantly be surrounded by people from all over the world. it's SO much fun in that things are always entertaining and you get to hear stories from all sorts of backgrounds. however, the "how do you say _______?" game gets old pretty fast. we played it for about 4 weeks in fiji before we were all finally like, "just shut up. if i say it differently, don't even tell me. i don't care." i reached that point about 4 days in here. apparently what i eat is "weird," my clothes are "weird," how i say ______ is "weird," the way i do laundry is "weird." the list just goes on. my average dinner table has people from at least 5 countries at it, so i swear half the conversation consists of, "wait. can you repeat that? i have absolutely no idea what you just said. speak more slowly." it's pretty entertaining when people accidentally switch languages, but it is sometimes exhausting to have to listen so hard!

... how i definitely need to learn how to speak more than one language. most of the kids (who aren't from the states or australia) here speak at LEAST 2 languages. i know a guy from switzerland who fluently speaks 7 languages. he informed me that that was nothing... as his flatmate at home speaks 9.

... how much i despise chemistry. seriously? when will i need to know what enthalpy is? never.

... how i definitely should have just started at school in australia. would have saved 4 wasted academic years.

... how lucky i am to not have to be looking for a real job at home right now.

... how to compulsively check the exchange rate between the US and australia. exchange rate was 1 USD:1.14 AUD this morning. bad news. if it ever reaches 1:1, i will cry.

... how to maneuver public transport. i still hate it, and it never goes 100% according to plan, but at least now i can read a bus timetable.

... that american guys are way more appealing than australian guys. i came here thinking that i'd find a hot aussie surfer to take home, but the longer i'm here, the more unlikely i think that will be.

... that americans get a bad rep for being rude, pushy, loud, stupid, fat and obnoxious. however, i'm going to go ahead and say that we look pretty good compared to some other nationalities. i think it's due to the fact that we tend to be overly polite and PC, but there are definitely some people here who were clearly raised in a completely different culture. for example, elbowing me in the boob and telling me to "get the f#$& out of the way" so you can get a hot dog faster than me in the lunch line? so not okay. making fun of bartenders, laughing in their face and telling them they look like dr. seuss characters? also not okay. telling someone they look really fat today? yup, not okay. the americans as a whole here are actually quite polite and friendly. keep it up guys!

... that uq REALLY loves group projects. too much, in fact.

things are extremely busy right now with the mid-semester break coming up, but they're good. i gave a group presentation on monday which my prof called "brilliant" :) this weekend is the brisbane riverfire festival, so they're setting off fireworks from a bridge in the city, which should be exciting! then next weekend some of us are headed to the gold coast to spend the night and hit up the beach. the following 2 weekends i'll be in adelaide visiting family friends, and then a group of us are going to stay at kate's house at the sunshine coast for a weekend!

i got my toes in the water, ass in the sand, not a worry in the world, a cold beer in my hand. life is good today. --zac brown band