"You're Already Stuffing It Up"

4.7.2012

Saturday. I went to service placement.

Not a lot of people opened doors. Probably most were gone for Easter. But we did talk to one woman named Joy. Joy is a fantastic older woman. She was a ballet instructor for 40 years and was super precious. We talked a lot about generational differences and how these days you have to be open to change. But you also need to stay humble and remember to slow down and take in the small things. I hope that I can go back and see her.

After service I went to a Spanish café across the street with Tam and Monika. The waiters were very flirtatious and really funny. The best way to describe them is Spanish. One of them offered the other as an option on the dessert  menu.

After that we walked around and looked at cute shops that were all closed because of the holiday weekend. I ended up heading home around 3.  I got home, ate, napped then got ready for church.

I met Hong (my other Korean friend) at Strathfield Station so we could take the train to church together. He is great. While we were waiting, we saw Carly and Erica so Hong got to meet 2/3 of my roommates.

We went to central and waited for shuttle bus. We had just missed one, but that ended up being okay because then Julliane met up with us. We all took the shuttle bus together and then went to service together. They are the best. For real.

Afterward we waited out front to go to the event afterward. We saw Charlie and talked to him while we waited for transportation. The event was a barbie in a near by park. I got to talk to Allison a little, but not a lot. I mostly hung out with Charlie, Hong and Julliane. At the Barbie we had Sangers. This is my second experience with sangers (aka sausage in a piece of bread). It was weird. I picked up a piece of bread and put my tomato sauce (aka ketchup) on it  on the bread before I put my sausage on it. As I was doing it I was telling Charlie that this isn’t a thing in America and I wasn’t sure if I was doing it right. As I was squeezing the tomato sauce he tells me that I’m already ‘stuffing it up’. Apparently you’re supposed to put the sausage first and then the sauce. I guess I know for next time.

The park was super neat. Each picnic bench area had different colored led lights under it. It made for quite an interesting ambience.

I met a man from South Africa named Warren. And a girl names Serena from Korea. She was able to talk to Hong in their native language which I think was a relief for Hong. I feel bad sometimes because Hong and Julliane work really hard to talk to me and I think it wears them out. Linh then gave us a ride bad to central station where I took the train with Hong, Julliane and a brazillian boy named Lewis. He was very nice. He is only 17 and has only been here a week. I can’t imagine picking up and moving to a different country at the age of 17! His English was very good though so I think he will do well here.

Good Friday = Bad Day To Travel

4/6/2012

Friday. Today I slept in. then went to Manly beach with my roommates. Because it was good Friday, public transportation was not running as frequently as it normally would be. We took the bus to Burwood station, where we waited 23 minutes for the next rain that would take us to Circular Quay. When we got there, we just missed the ferry, so we had to wait a while for the next one. The Warf was totally packed with tourist and people on holiday. Moral of the story: Good Friday = Bad day to travel.

Once we got the the beach it was nice though. While we were there a sky writer wrote +=<3 in the sky. This is the big campaign by Hillsong church to promote their Easter Services. Hillsong is really into their advertising:

After a few hours I was kind of done at the beach. So I headed back with Rachel and Gina. It’s amazing how not really doing all that much can still leave you super exhausted at the end of the day. When I got home I got a shower and grabbed some food.  

There was talk of hanging out at Rohita’s, that ended up not working out. So I stayed at home and watched 40 year old virgin with Carly and Erica. Seeing as how I had service the next day so I wasn’t to keen on staying out late anyway.

Start of Easter Break

4/5/2012

Thursday.

Today I got to school bright and early. I got there a little before 8 and I put the final touches on my project that was due. I thought that class started at 9:30. Turns out that for presentation day it didn’t start until 10:30. So it was a long morning.

After presentations and after class I ate lunch and sat outside where a bunch of people were hanging out a playing music. Then I had to go to drawing class. Today was a weird day for drawing. I didn’t sit in my regular spot and I really think it messed with my drawing. Not my best.

 After drawing class hung out in the car park with Blake, Ella and Sam for a bit. We made plans to go to the Easter show on Tuesday. The Easter show is apparently like a big fair.  I got more of their numbers besides Ella’s so that if I’m being brutally murdered I can let someone know. I was waiting for Peter to send some e-mails so we could talk the bus back together.  When Peter was ready we went down to the servo. Peter bought an energy drink. They were 2 for 5 so he got me one too. I don’t typically drink them, but I decided to save it for Saturday before service placement.

When I got home I had a pretty relaxed night in. I just hung out with Michelle, Neil and Braedon. They are going camping this weekend for easter. They meet up with their extended family in Canberra. We watched some police/ csi type shows and soon enough it was bed time. We have tomorrow off so My Easter break has officially commenced!

"Tennis! You're Alive!"

4/4/2012

Wednesday. Today I had a very relaxed morning. I actually took time to blowdry my hair AND straighten it. This rarely happens here. Went to school with Carly and we deciced that crossing the street to get to school is quite akin to “Frogger”. I take that back. It's EXACTLY like Frogger. You have to cross one half of the street to a median and then wait for a break in traffic to cross the other half. I mean, there is a crosswalk a half a block away. But I remain steady that it is faster the Frogger way.

 I made my way into school for the gathering.

After the Gathering, I ran into my second year friends. Peter’s first words to me were “Tennis! You’re alive!”

“Of course I am, why wouldn’t I be?”

Peter proceeded to tell me how Ella was sure she had killed me off by sending me in the wrong direction. You see, when Ella gave me her number last night, I called her immediately after she gave it to me so that she would have my number. She didn’t know that and later, saw that she had a missed call and thought that I had died. She thought that I had been kidnapped and since her number was the last one I put in my phone, that she was the person I called.

 She had called me when I was on the train, but I didn’t answer because I didn’t want to be that loud American talking on the phone on the train. I thought about calling her when I got home, but then I didn’t want to seem clingy, so I didn’t.

But apparently, she had gotten to school the next day and searched all over campus (meaning the student centre and the design lab) and saw that I wasn’t there and only further assumed that I had died. When I ran into Richard and Casey, who also exclaimed “You’re alive!” when seeing me.

I ended up lingering on campus for several hours. Some if that time I was using the internet, but a lot of the time I was just sitting on the grass with people. I had a project due the next day, but I justified my procrastination by saying how important it is to build relationships…

After I left school, I met up with my friend Julliane who I met at church last week. He is from Korea and is working on learning English. We went for coffee in strathfeild and just chatted for a few hours. He doesn’t give himself enough credit for the English that he does know. I think he feels bad that he can’t communicate everything that he would like to. But I remind him that he does way better in English than I could ever do in Korean.

He asked me if I knew any Korean words. I said no, thinking that I didn’t. But then, he told me hello. Anyone who watches Arrested Development will know why I found what he told me so funny.

“Annyong”

This a general greeting. From what I gathered, it’s kind of like aloha. It’s hello, it’s good bye, it’s good morning, it’s goodnight.

But I had a hard time saying it without laughing. Oh Arrested Development. Always bringing people together.

Free Cone Day!

4.3.2012

Tuesday.

Today I had class all day. But that was alright, because today was very special. Today was Ben and Jerry’s free scoop day!!

 

I convinced my friends in my Ad design class to go with me when we got out. It was Ella, Peter, Blake, Declan, Austra and fellow ASCer Kristen. We got there a little after 7. We got in the line, which looked very long but actually cycled throughrather quickly. I got the ‘clusterfuff’ flavor. That one has marshmallow and peanut butter and crunchy bits of deliciousness.

You would think that if they were giving out free ice cream, they would be giving out stingy little spoonfuls. AU CONTRARE! They were giving out heaping cups full! It was amazing. I was full after the first cup. After the first round Peter and Austra had to leave. Ella and I sat out while the rest of the gang went back for seconds. When they got back and had finished their ice cream, Blake wanted thirds. At this point Ella and I decided we were ready for seconds. This time around I got Mint chocolate chunk. I ate about half of it but then I was too full to go on. So Blake kindly took over and ate the rest for me. So Blake had 3.5 cups of ice cream. He said it was the best day of his life.

After we were all done Ella and Blake walked me out of the mall and directed me to the train station. As they were giving me directions, a huge group of ASC people came walking up. They were all heading to Ben and Jerry’s to capitalize on the free ice cream. Ronnie had already had three at the shop in Manly and was now going to the broadway store for more. After we greeted them, Ella and Blake told me where to go and told me to call them if I got lost. I found my way to the train station and made it home.

When I got home, I was greeted by a new piece of furniture in the main house. Actually, it was old furniture. Kerian apparently had a couch that he really loved, but looked really ratty. Michelle had tricked him into thinking that she threw it out, but really she had sent it away to be reupholstered. Every cushion was a different color. It is pretty outrageous. Words cannot describe this couch. So here is a picture:

 

I think the ottoman is a nice touch.

I Don't Want To Go To Hurtsville

4/2/2012

Monday.

Today I had photo class. And I can’t really think of anything remarkable about today.

But I do have a brief secondary topic I would like to talk about.

The bus that I take to go to school, when you take it on the way back, the little marquee on the front says that it goes to “Hurtsville via Burwood”. Now I always get off at Burwood, so I haven’t been to Hurtsville. And correct me if I’m wrong, but it doesn’t sound like a place one would want to go. Hurtsville? Might as well just take me to pound town. I mean really. No thank you. I think I’ll keep getting off at Burwood.

Who is Kylie?

4/1/2012

Sunday. Today was a pretty relaxed day. My roommates all went to palm beach but I decided to stay back and work on some other things. I ended up going to the concord library where I ran into Emily, Jenae, Gina, Elise and Mary. I spent several hours posting blogs and pictures.

Later I went home and met up with Megan and Carly and Sarah. We were all going to go to a Uniting church together. We ended up going to a uniting church in Burwood. And it was quite the experience.

We got there, and there was maybe 15 people in the place, including our party of four. As soon as we walked in, it was obvious that we didn’t go there, so we were immediately pounced on and greeted. There was some awkward chit chat and small talk about where we were from, what we were doing in Australia, the usual. We took our seats and waited for service to start.

The whole service was a lot of stand up, sing a song, sit down listen to scripture, stand up sing a song, sit down listen to something else, stand up sing a song, greet one another, sit down etc. The greet each other section was super uncomfortable. In an effort to make us feel welcome many people went out of their way to come and talk to us.

The whole thing was just very uncomfortable. At one point they brought us name tags. At the end of the service the pastor was making announcements. The media crew had an open powerpoint slide and as he was talking, we watched

“Welcome Sarah, Rachel, Megan and Kylie*” being typed onto the announcements.We made the announcements...

*Australians cannot figure out the name Carly. When they say it, it sounds like Kylie to them so that’s what they thought Carly’s name was. (try saying Carly with an outrageous Aussie accent and you can see why).

Overall, one of my more uncomfortable experiences in Australia. We probably should have stayed for tea afterward, but I was pretty much done socializing at that point, so we high tailed it out of there…in the most respectful way possible…