Elsja’s Bloggity Blog

I Got Tagged November 19, 2008

Wow… I never get tagged. Sure I get the massive amounts of forwarded emails asking me to fill out surveys left and right, but never (that I know of) has someone actually posted my name on their website saying “I tag Elsja.” So when Daisy - this lovely lady mentioned my name in her blog, of course I had to politely oblige and fulfill my tagging duties (plus I needed something to blog about).  So here it goes…here are 7 of the most random things about me that pop into my head at this very moment in time. 

1. I was born at 11:11am and I still make wishes when I see 11:11 on the clock (and when I see shooting stars). And I think I’m cursed when I see 11:34 on the clock (that’s hell upside down for those of you who may be confused). Last year, I had this problem where every night in bed, I’d glance at the clock when I’d lay down and it would be 11:34… literally- like every night! It really started to freak me out.
   

2. I don’t like any seafood. And by “any” I mean “ANY.” I get really confused when I tell people “I don’t like any seafood” and they start going through a list of items, as if they are testing me to see if I REALLLLLY mean it when I say I HATE seafood! “Oh really…. so you don’t like sushi?”… “No, no seafood” …”Oh so not even prawns/shrimp?”… “Listen…if it ever swam, floated or just sat on the floor of an ocean, lake or any other body of water, I don’t eat it.” (So this would even include duck… ducks swim in lakes…and they are gross). It’s like people think they will go through a list and discover the one seafood I’ve NEVER thought of and I’ll have this “A-HA” moment… “oh yes, I forgot fish is from the sea… how could I be so silly? You caught me… I do love seafood after all!”
   

3. Speaking of things I don’t eat…I haven’t eaten red meat intentionally since I was 15. I say intentionally because even though I don’t eat beef by choice… I ACCIDENTALLY ate an entire beef burger awhile back THINKING it was a turkey burger. Once I looked at the bill and realized it wasn’t a turkey burger, I wasn’t too happy. Yes, I did throw up.
   

4. My mom and sisters have size 7.5, 7.5 and 5.5-6 shoe sizes respectively. I wear an 8.5 -9. Maybe this explains why I am also way bigger than any of them ever were at my age. Yeah, I’ll blame it on my feet.
   

5. I say “that stresses me out” or “I was so stressed” (and other variations) A LOT. Most of the time, I’m not actually STRESSED, I’m just thinking a bit more about something than I would like, or I have a dilemma I’m trying to work out in my head. It’s like a natural reaction, a phrase that just spills out of my mouth when anything even remotely unpleasant/confusing/frustrating is discussed. This has lead my boyfriend to think I’m the biggest stresshead he’s ever met. While that may still be true, it shouldn’t be due to my overuse of the phrase.
   

6. I’m horrible at making decisions. Really bad. I’ve been known to stand 15 minutes in the shampoo aisle at CVS trying  to decide which shampoo would be best for my hair. I’ve spent HOURS upon hours reading reviews on amazon trying to pick the best phone/camera/etc. 2 weeks ago I spent about 20 minutes trying to pick out the best containers to use to organize my spice cabinet. One of the most embarrassing cases of my indecisiveness came at my 5 year old niece’s birthday party at Color-Me-Mine. Put it this way… the party was nearly over by the time I decided what I wanted to paint. I was at the shop for more than an hour after everyone finished. And let’s not get started on the choices I had to make for colors! Thank God I brought my own car!
   

7. The ONLY time I ever like rain is when there is a thunder/lightning storm to go with it. I know plenty of people say “we need the rain… drought this…farms that…” but that still doesn’t make me like it when it rains. Rain is miserable and it makes me sad and grumpy. But I will tolerate it if there is thunder to listen to and some lightning to go with.
   

Wow… that took too long. I should have been WAY less thoughtful and just said things like “I love In-n-Out” and “I wear a retainer to bed.” 

So I’m not actually going to tag anyone… because a) as mentioned above, I’m horrible at making decisions and I don’t know who to choose… and b) I might get offended if the people I tagged didn’t actually fulfill their duty. But I still welcome you all to join me in my obvious boredom and complete one of these for yourself. It’s pretty interesting to see the weird things that come into your head when you just sit and think about yourself.

Did Someone Say Yum? November 17, 2008

I don’t think I’ve ever shared my  favorite personally created recipe with you all. It’s not too hard to call it my favorite because I’ve really only ever created about 3 things on my own- so there’s not much competition. Regardless, this one definitely is on top. And since I shared it with a few people on a forum *AND* they seem to love it (yes people actually used my recipe to make their own dinner) I thought I’d share with everyone else too. We had it for dinner tonight and I could eat two more bowls but then Andrew would have to roll me around the house.  Sooo here it is for all my dearest friends and random internet strangers:     

Creamy Chicken Tortilla Soup (for the crockpot/slow cooker)   

INGREDIENTS: 

• 1 large (300g) chicken breast 
• 1 15oz can (420g) cream of chicken soup   
• 1 jar of salsa (375g) 
• 1 can of corn, drained 
• ¼- ½  large green bell pepper/capsicum- chopped 
• ½-1 cup of grated cheddar cheese 
• Bag of plain corn tortilla chips 

OPTIONAL:

• ½ -1 teaspoon cayenne pepper 
• Tortillas 
• Cilantro/coriander   

DIRECTIONS: 

1. Mix the salsa, cayenne pepper, corn, cream of chicken soup and bell pepper in the slow cooker 
2. Place the full chicken breast in the mixture. 
3. Pour about 2 cups of crushed corn chips into the mixture and mix around. These will soften, dissolve and help to thicken the soup. 
4. Cook on low for 4-6 hours (or longer if need be) 
5. Uncover and gently shred the chicken into pieces with a fork 
6. Pour into serving bowls and top with grated cheese, crushed corn tortilla chips and fresh cilantro/coriander  

You can spoon it into some tortillas and eat it like a burrito. I just eat it like a soup but dip tortillas and corn chips in rather than crackers! One girl I know threw some sour cream on there and I do believe Andrew even added some guacamole once upon a time… the possibilities are delicious, and endless. 

*NOTE* If you DON’T like any spice… don’t add the cayenne pepper �� �

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Doing My Part November 11, 2008

It’s November and that means a few things:

1. It is Pancreatic cancer awareness month

2. It is the month of my brother-in-law, Brett’s birthday.

3. Ironically, Brett’s birthday 2 years ago was also the day he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer which ultimately took his life 6 months later.

So, in his memory (and so many others who have lost loved ones to this terrible disease) I donate money in November to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PANCAN). I don’t have tons to spare, but I like to think every little bit helps.

November is also infamous in Australia for its “Movember” campaign where guys grow mustaches and help raise money for men’s health (depression, prostate cancer). Tons of Andrew’s friends are participating and while I can’t give money to all of them, I did donate a bit to one of them (the one I knew about first, sorry to the other guys).

So since I was on the donation bandwagon this month, I decided to start working on #29 on my 101 list- Find 3 charities that mean something to me and donate to them at least once/year.

Now, I haven’t exactly had a reason to have charities “of meaning” to me other than PanCan (that’s probably a good thing). So, I decided to go for a theme here this year and donate to all things cancer related. My 3rd charity is the American Cancer Society. I really had a hard time with this one, for the sole reason that I couldn’t decide if I should donate to the American or Australian cancer society.  Ultimately, I lived in the US for 27 years and in Australia for 1, so the US won out. Cancer is probably the one thing that I’ve seen hurt the most people in my life. Maybe not directly, but it’s all around and it’s pretty damn scary. So I hope my small donations will help here and there and maybe one day Cancer will be a thing of the past…

Some People are so Unaware November 6, 2008

So… my buzzer on my buidling buzzed and i just pushed the button without asking who it was. I do this by relfex because typically the only time it buzzes is when Andrew comes back from a bike ride. A minute later, no andrew (it wasn’t until about 10 minutes later that I realized andrew is not on a ride and he has his keys to get into the building).

So anyways, I go about my business, talking to my mom and niece on the phone when someone finally knocks on my door about 5 minutes later. I open it up looking SUPER scuzzy in my sweats and my shirt with a big toothpaste mark on it from this morning. Not to mention my hair is greasy, my legs are hairy and I wasn’t wearing a bra. (Hey I work from home so no need to get dressed or look pretty)! So there’s this cool looking girl at the door with some papers in her hand and I’m immediately curious. Who is this and why is she here?

She starts talking a bit and I respond a bit and then she says “oh you’re not from here either”- It was only then… after she had talked awhile and pointed out MY accent… that I realized she had a north american accent. I can’t help it, all accents sound normal to me these days.

I realize so far this story makes ME sound like the very unaware person- but it’s really her that I’m speaking of in the topic title.

So we converse some more and talk about where we are from, etc. Turns out she is from Canada. She had heard me through the door as I was on the phone with my niece and I was saying “So did your president win??” (My 5 year old niece voted for obama on the nickelodeon site even though her parents wanted mccain- she said it was because he has a cool name and he likes horses). ANYWAYS… the girl told me she heard me talking through the door and I said “oh yeah yeah” chuckled a bit and then this is what came out of her mouth next…

“So, who won?”

Um.. REALLY? Has she been living under a rock the last few days??? Even though this girl was totally nice and was really cute and trendy looking, I immediately thought she was a total moron.

My response (excitedly) was “OBAMA!”- then she said politely “oh, ok! well, I’m from Jehova’s witness…”

I’m guessing that she wouldn’t have been too excited about Obama with her being from a strict religious background- that is if she even knew ANYTHING about the candidates, which could be highly unlikely.

Blah. My excitement that a new potential friend just landed on my doorstep immediately went out the window.

A.) She doesn’t know who won the election

B.) Even though I respect people’s religious choices, I personally cannot be any part of a religion that doesn’t let me celebrate christmas and birthdays!

She was cool though, she just gave me her pamphlet and we chatted some more about visas for Australia. She was then talking about getting sponsored, etc. and mentioned that she could be a nanny. I said “that might be good considering the timing of the ABC Learning daycare* crashing…”

I don’t know WHAT I was thinking even mentioning that to her. If she didn’t know about Obama, she DEFINITELY wouldn’t know about that!

Sometimes I REALLY wonder what goes on in people’s brains.

*For the Americans…ABC Learning could be going under and it is a big news story at the moment

Moving Forward November 5, 2008

So obviously, Obama won. I guess that’s old news now and everyone and their mother will be blogging about it- so I will just say this…

CONGRATS OBAMA! I really hope things can now turn around and the rest of the world can start to look at the US in a more positive light.

I thought I’d point out to all the aussies, some of the benefits of voting for the US public. While Australians HAVE to vote by law (or put up with a fine if they don’t) there are MANY benefits of voting in the US. In addition to selecting the new president, you can also receive the following:

Free Chicken Sandwich: Most Chick-fil-a locations

Free Coffee: Any Books A Million store today

Free Coffee: Any Starbucks location

Free Donut: Any Krispy Kreme store (and it’s a red, white, and blue donut, too!)

Free Ice Cream: Any Ben and Jerry’s between 5 and 8 p.m.

Free Song Downloads: A handful of free MP3 downloads are available at MTV’s Rock The Vote right now for anyone pledging to vote

Free Taco: Any California Tortilla store (in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and West Virginia)

Free Sex Toy: Snag a free “Silver Bullet” or “Maverick” device at any Babeland store in New York, LA, or Seattle. Limited locations, but we figured this one was unique enough to warrant a mention!

And that’s just a small list… too bad I couldn’t receive all these freebies here in Australia!

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So in other more personal news, Andrew and I went to Perth this weekend. We went to visit his nana as well as his aunt and uncle who live just outside the city. Andrew lived in Perth until he was almost 7 so we were able to see 2 of the houses that he grew up in. It was a really quick trip- we arrived Saturday night and left Monday afternoon. Sunday we rode our bikes an hour to the main city of Perth and watched the awesome Red Bull air race. We didn’t plan our trip around the race, but it was kind of convenient that it was taking place the weekend we were around. Since my old version of wordpress is retarded and it no longer lets me upload videos to my blog… you will have to click here to see one of the cool videos we took:

CRAZY PILOTS FLYING PLANES REALLY LOW AND FAST

Then on the way back, we saw a random fire on the side of the freeway and had to call 000 (911) for the “fire brigade” to come out. It was small, but spreading quickly and heading towards a bunch of dry brush. That was pretty exciting.

Here are some pictures from the weekend:

PERTH PICS

And here is the BEST picture from the bunch… this is a lovely photo of me flying in business class. Oh it was so wonderful. I got to fly across the country twice in a big comfy seat with loads of free wine (although I didn’t have as much as I could have) and I enjoyed pretty good food, a plate of cheese and crackers and chocolate covered macadamias while I watched movies on my own personal TV in our private business class area. You know that little curtain that separates business class from economy? Well, it was REALLY nice to be on the other side of that curtain for once  And, I even get to cross another item off my 101 list… #56. Fly Business Class. I really can’t wait until I get to fly business class on all my flights to and from LA. One day!

Halloween Down Under October 31, 2008

Halloween is so different in Australia. Only a few select areas even have kids who trick or treat. Most of Andrew’s friends weren’t allowed to dress up for candy as kids, such a shame. NO ONE decorates- at least nowhere I’ve seen. I’d go as far as to say it doesn’t even exist here; however, last night I found out there ARE a few people who celebrate. Like the group of teenagers outside my apartment. They were CLEARLY “celebrating” halloween. We were lying in bed around 11 (as we do here on Halloween because there’s nothing else to do) and I faintly heard something that sounded like screaming or dogs barking. Too lazy to get up, I just ignored it- until a few minutes later, it became louder. So I went to peek out my window to find the source of the annoying sounds. Sure enough, there was a large group (maybe 10-12) of teenagers cruising in front of our apartment building. No costumes, no HINT of the Halloween spirit- yet for some reason they still decided that Halloween was reason enough to “celebrate” and act like drunk buffoons all up and down the streets of Mosman.

They decided to take a seat on the wall out front while they smoked their cigarettes and stumbled around trying not to fall over… as drunk, obnoxious teenagers do.

And WHY must the girls scream at the top of their lungs? Are they really THAT deaf? Literally… SCREAMING and YELLING at your friends who are 3 feet away is very unnecessary.

Then they started pushing over this little fence that’s on the sidewalk blocking some pipe or something. Destroying property is always a “smart” idea… but of course, that’s what drunk obnoxious teenagers do!

Then I was even more entertained as one of the boys and one of the girls stood in the middle of the street fighting. This was the good stuff! I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but I found it amusing when the boy looked like he spat in the girl’s face. Then she ran back sobbing to all of her friends still perched on our wall and started mumbling about how “he just doesn’t understand.” CLEARLY neither does she- or any teenagers for that matter. Oh I wish they could all see how stupid they look.

Andrew said we should throw an egg at them.

I have to say, my favorite part of the entire 10 minute voyeuristic adventure was when one of our neighbors decided to take things into his own hands to get rid of these punks. He yelled out his window to try to get them to leave. But it wasn’t a “hey, can you keep it down” or “move along kids, we’re trying to sleep.” Nah, that’s not how they do it here in Australia.

Instead, he yelled “OI! FUCK OFF KIDS!”

That was my thought exactly. I’m pretty sure it was the sobbing teenage girl who replied so politely (as drunk, obnoxious teenagers do) by saying “Fuck off and go back into your apartment, we’re just trying to have some fun on Halloween!”

I miss the good old days when we were 15… STILL dressing up… and STILL more interested in getting as much candy as possible than getting wasted with our lame ass friends.

Happy Halloween to my friends and family back in the states. I’m really missing out this year!

I Voted… I think October 26, 2008

#31- Research presidential candidates and policies

#32- Vote in the 2008 election

Done and done. Ok… so I probably didn’t do AS much reseach as I should have, but I did watch 3 debates which is exactly 3 more debates than I have watched ever in any previous election, so for me- that’s research! I did do SOME reading on the CNN pages but overall, I think I always kinda knew who I would vote for deep down. I still thought it was only fair to give both candidates a chance by really listening to what they both had to say.

Now the only reason I’ve FINALLY decided for sure is because I have to! With only 1 week until the election, I have to make sure my ballot gets to California by then so off to the mail box it goes. I THINK I filled out the form right and I THINK I’m mailing it to the right place (well I’m pretty sure of that one). Honestly, I am one of those people that believes my vote probably really doesn’t matter anyways (yeah go ahead and yell at me) so if it arrives a few days too late, I guess I’ll never know and I’ll at least I’ll always THINK I voted

Glad those two things are out of the way. Now I will just sit back and wait to hear about who will take over the country. Should be interesting.

Applying for Residency October 20, 2008

**See Update at bottom of post** 

I’m applying for Australian temporary residency today! Woohoo. Temporary residency means I can stay here for 2 years, work and get medicare. Then after 2 years is up, they reassess my case, make sure Andrew and I are still in a relationship and then hopefully I’ll be here legally for good. I’ve spent the last 3 months preparing for this appointment. Scanning documents, printing documents, filling out a million forms, getting fingerprinted, getting medicals and x-rays. getting things certified. Now it all comes down to this day… oh, and to $2000 bucks… ugh! So expensive.

I really hope I didn’t forget anything… but looking at this stack of paperwork that I have to bring- I’m sure I didnt!! Wish us luck

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**UPDATE**

My visa was granted!! Right there… on the spot… sticker in passport… GRANTED! She didn’t even want to look at half the stuff in that stack of paper up there… but hey, it said they required it so better safe than sorry right? She said it was good I already did my medical and got FBI clearance because that’s usually what holds things up. She asked us a few questions, asked for a few pieces of information and documents and then told us to give her 30 minutes to review our statements and photos.

30 minutes later she told us that we should break out the champagne because it was granted, right then and there! Now I am legally here for at least 2 years, at that time they will reassess to make sure Andrew and I are still in a relationship and then I will be granted permanent residency. Happy happy day!

AND… I get to cross one more thing off my list-

#90 Become a resident in Australia (get a visa)

Palin as President October 19, 2008

Ok… whether or not you like Sarah Palin… this is still pretty damn funny. Try opening and closing the door a few times!

PALIN AS PRESIDENT

I am going to check back every day to find fun new things

#99 Buy a Filing System and Organize all Paperwork October 15, 2008

DONE!

All papers that have been flying around our house in different piles and boxes are now all in one nice neat box. I love organizing.

That’s all.

Boring blog.

And Now for Some Google Searches October 14, 2008

This is always a fun game…

For the last week, the top Google searches that lead people to my blog are:

4. 2008 NRL Grand Final Pre Game - boring… but at least I’m being found on Aussie searches now

3. Qantas Pilot Newport Marriott - another boring search, however my blog was ranked number one on this search. Anytime my blog ranks number one on a search engine for anything other than “Elsja” is a happy day for me.

2. Family toilet Slave stories. Ok… I don’t know what is worse- this one or the “Lesbian toilet slave stories” search from a few weeks ago. I’m going to have to say that I think this one is worse. And I think it’s great that now that I’ve posted about this a few times, I’ll be even higher up on search results for this bullshit.

And my favorite…

1. Lime Poo. It’s just funny.

The Great Outdoors October 11, 2008

So my internet took a dump this week. Australia has these awful download limits on their internet plans. Well, we (I) reached ours by downloading a few too many episodes of grey’s anatomy and gossip girl, so our internet was useless for awhile. Today starts the new month and it’s back to being remotely quick. I feel like I’ve been freed from internet jail hell. It’s a good day.

But I’ll tell you what isn’t good…

Spiders.

I finally saw my first one of these the other day:

And yes, it was that big. Now, in all honesty- I DID see one of these before. But I was warned ahead of time that there was one on the house and we all went out to take a look and it wasn’t that big.

THIS occurence was a surprise… and of all places to see one, I saw one in the very place that freaks me out the most. On the car!! Why does the car scare me the most? Well, because many times, these are found INSIDE the car and they scurry across the windshield (again, on the INSIDE). Now, this one was on the outside… THANK GOD, but it was dark and late and it made me want to vomit when I saw it’s furry giant legs crawling up the passenger window. I am very thankful that I was driving on this particular night, so it wasn’t MY face that was inches away from the creature. If I would have been in the passenger seat, I just might have shed a tear. Andrew actually opened the door to flick it off. However, you can’t exactly “flick” these spiders off the car. It was more like a shove, and when it hit the ground, Andrew heard a big THUD. GROSS. I really don’t like the fact that Andrew has no light in his car so every night when I get inside there could be creepy crawlies all over and I would never know! UGH.

So while spiders are not part of the Great Outdoors (they are part of the creepy, gross, ugly outdoors), we do have two GOOD outdoors things to mention.

1. Our patio. I finally took pictures of the patio with the table. This isn’t that exciting- and it’s pretty small, but my mom wanted to see pictures- so here you go:

2. We went kayaking yesterday. There were 7 of us, I was clearly the most useless when it came to my kayaking abilities, but I still had fun. I haven’t kayaked since we did it in our high school pool 11 years ago. I didn’t take pictures because I completely forgot my brand new waterproof camera that would have been PERFECT to bring. Oh well, next time. And today, I am sore. Kayaking is rough on the muscles! But it’s not my arms that hurt, it’s my left calf. Yes, evidently kayaking is REALLY hard on the calves (particularly the left one). Who knew??

Oh and also this takes care of #40 on my 101 list (go kayaking) woohoo!

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NRL Grand Final 2008 October 6, 2008

If someone from another country moved to the US and then was offered tickets to the Superbowl, they would be CRAZY to pass them up. So, when I was graciously offered a spare ticket to the NRL Grand Final, which is the Australian “equivalent” to the Superbowl (only it’s rugby), I just had to say yes!!

To get a feel for the Grand Final, just imagine the Superbowl without big name bands, fancy stages, celebrities, wardrobe malfunctions, thousands of hired performers, etc. Instead… think of pre-game musical performances assisted by jean wearing teenagers banging BBQ lids moderately in sync with the drums (imagine STOMP, aussie style).

It was pretty cool to see The Living End though… I was happy that there was a band performing that I’d actually heard of (even if they did only sing 2 songs). Oh and I’ll add that the Cat in the Hat BBQ girls were not accompanying The Living End. Instead, they had some other teens in white shirts with white pom poms dancing to their new hit “White Noise.” Clever, right? (It was almost as cool as Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson).

A bit more about the game: It was held at Olympic Park (home of the 2000 olympics) and it was Melbourne against Manly. Melbourne got SLAMMED which was a good thing for me considering I decided the night before that I wanted to cheer for Manly… (i.e. I asked Andrew “Who do I want to win?”). The game itself was really fun and half time came VERY quickly. I’m sure the 5 beers I drank added to the speed and thrill of the game. I really don’t even think there was a halftime show. If there was- it definitely wasn’t loud and exciting enough for us to hear from the bathroom and beer lines!

Rugby is not nearly as boring as US football because it doesn’t start and stop 234982734 times, it just keeps going no matter what happens! Plus they don’t wear padding so it’s always more entertaining to watch them slam into each other and then just get up and walk away. I’m amazed they don’t kill at least one player during each game.

Good times were had by all, and now that I’ve had my yearly dose of football, I can return to my normally scheduled sports-loathing self. Thanks so much to Natasha for inviting me along to experience some real Aussie culture!

There are some more pictures HERE if anyone is interested.

America vs. Australia October 1, 2008

Lately I’ve been reading a lot on blogs and in forums about how Australians have a negative outlook on Americans and the American culture. It’s really starting to annoy me really. After watching a video on Laura’s blog, I felt compelled to refute some of the aussie negative stereotypes of Americans. 

Americans are all really fat: - Well, yes, while many are- I’d like to remind everyone of THIS ARTICLE that shows that Australia has taken over as the fattest country in the world. At least Americans can blame it on free refills and the large portion size. Here you have to pay $4.00 for a coke and people still manage to become obese! 

Americans are a bunch of “ditzy cheerleaders”- Well this one hits home. I was a cheerleader, but I graduated from my University with a 3.74 grade point average and graduated with my masters with a perfect grade point average of 4.0. Oh… and its not like Australia doesn’t have cheerleaders… they do… and they dress just as skimpy as the US ones! 

Americans are arrogant: Umm… maybe some are, but I can’t even tell you the number of Aussies who have said to me “Australia is the BEST country in the world… why would anyone want to live anywhere else?” Yeah… because that doesn’t sound arrogant AT ALL! 

Americans think the world revolves around them: Well I won’t agree or disagree with this one, but you have to admit- this whole US credit crisis has drastically impacted the WHOLE world, has it not? 

Americans are rude: There are rude people everywhere. At least when I would go on walks in California people would smile or say hi as you walk by. In this area, people don’t even look at you as you pass them. I make Andrew call customer service for me because I figure they will be nicer to him with his Aussie accent. And I can’t help but think every time I ask for something in a restaurant or grocery store that the person helping me is thinking “dumb american.” 

I’m not trying to be all bitchy with this post, but honestly- I’m so over hearing people bash Americans and the American culture. Every country on earth will have good people and qualities and bad people and qualities. For a country that is supposed to be SO nice and SO friendly, I’ve never in my life felt so much discrimination as I have since I moved to Sydney. 

I’m So Happy September 28, 2008

Reasons to be happy…

1. FINALLY (after nearly a year) we found a patio table for our balcony. I thought we’d have to settle on something crap, but it’s not even ugly! We can now enjoy dinners by candlelight in the warm Sydney summer. All I need are some twinkle lights and I’ll be totally set. Although, I do think those might be a bit much. Maybe my green citronella mosquito repelling tea light candles will be sufficient.

2. Alexis is in Sydney!!! Although she’s not here to visit me or anything, it’s still great that there’s finally someone out here from the US. The phone rang today and it was a number I didn’t know. This is always a huge excitement because I pretty much only ever get calls from Andrew.  I’m going to meet up with her tomorrow and probably Thursday as well. It’s so exciting to finally have people out here!!

3. I just went on to Itunes and saw something wonderful. Grey’s Anatomy started!! It was such a wonderful surprise to see it there, ready to download. And there’s TWO parts. SWEET. Downloading has commenced.

4. The 26th was the 1 year anniversary of the day I moved to Sydney. it’s kind of exciting that I’ve made it a year in a foreign country In a month I’ll be applying for residency and hopefully not too long after that, I’ll have my visa approved!

5. Saturday we did the Spit to Manly walk with Kris, Tess and Ben. It is 9.5 km (5.9 miles) along the beach and through trails. It’s not always easy (up rocky steps, down sandy hills) but it was a good workout (even though andrew doesn’t think so). You can follow our trail on the map. It is supposed to take 4 hours according to the posted sign but we did it in 2. We started at the orange star and followed the yellow, red, blue and green lines to the end at Manly where we had lunch.The next day, of all things on my body that could possibly be sore, my back hurt the worst. Who knew walking was good for your back???

5. Saturday night was great as well. We first started at wes’ house for an awesome BBQ and then headed to The Oaks for dual parties. We were there to celebrate the return of Sinead from her long trip overseas and ALSO to celebrate Stu’s birthday. Some of Andrew’s other pilot friends came to hang out as well so Andrew had three totally separate, large groups of friends there (luckily all hanging out in the same area). It was great to see everyone all at once. The DJ played great music that everyone was singing and dancing to and the drinks were flowing! I had tons of fun until the DJ started playing “time of your life” which is the surest way to tell that a bar is about to close. Here is a great shot of Kimbo attempting the dirty dancing “lift” as the song played (turned out to be more of a tackle). Oh and what exactly is going on in that second pic?? All of the rest of the pictures can be found HERE.

Grey’s anatomy is almost done downloading… peeing my pants with excitiment right about now!