AussieEm's Xanga

Monday, December 12, 2005

Mon, 12 Dec 2005 12:33:48 GMT

So, I spoke to Megan for the first time in months a couple of weeks ago, and now it seems we have an apartment together for next semester! We're subleasing a place near the stadium from a friend of her's, so I guess I won't be in the dorms after all. I guess this is good, I'll be able to save money and focus more on my work-I just wish I had a car so I wouldn't have to rely on the busses all the time. i guess I'll get used to it though.

Does anyone have 2 tickets they can sell me for the basketball game on the Saturday before classes start? My dad and I really want to go.

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Tue, 29 Nov 2005 19:15:43 GMT

So this last week has been a surprising mix of boring and...interesting. Boring because I still spend most of my time home alone wasting my life. It kills me not to have friends with me, I'm super lonely.

Interesting because I didn't even make it to the end of my second shift at Bath & Body Works before quitting. My second night there I had a closing shift and found out that I wouldn't be leaving until about 3am. When I heard that I decided I'd have to find another job, I dont' don't feel comfortable walking out to my car at 3 am in a big deserted parking lot, plus that's just ridiculous. But by that point the main manager had left so I decided not to bring it up till the next day, plus I wasn't about to just walk out on a shift. So 12:30 rolls around and I ask the assistant manager on duty when we were getting out. She said she didn't know so I told her that I didn't feel comfortable staying so late, and I couldn't stay later than 1am. I honestly felt this was reasonable, and I was perfectly nice about it. So this other girl who was acting like a manager but I don't think is said "you can't stay past then, or you don't want to?" In a very snippy tone. So I told her honestly that I didn't want to and didn't feel comfortable about it. She then went on to say "Well maybe this isn't the job for you then" and I admitted that it wasn't and I intended to leave. Still, being very nice. But after I said that the two of them got very mean and started to guilt trip me by saying that I'd be leaving the other girl alone to do the work which was bullshit-there was an overnight crew of 8 people already there! So at that point I said that I didn't appreciate the way the were talking to me and I was told to go home. The next morning the main manager called me and asked me to explain what happened. All I said was that i felt uncomfortable about the sistuation and I didn't feel I could go back into work and she told me "good, I don't think you should come back." So that was that. I felt pretty crappy, but I shouldn't-they are the assholes.

But no worries, I got a higher paying job today at BJs. Yay!

(sorry for the huge block of text, I swear I know how to make paragraphs in papers and articles!)

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Tue, 29 Nov 2005 18:58:49 GMT

I liked Jen's survey thing so I'm stealing it...

Take your music player and set it on random. The song titles are the answers to the following questions:

Will I have a happy life?
Flashlight (Parliament)

What do my friends really think of me?
Burning Man (Third Eye Blind)

What does [insert significant other] think of me?
If I Were Gay (Stephen Lynch)-hahaha

How can I make myself happy?
More Love (Dixie Chicks)-so true

What should I do with my life?
Dolly Dagger (Hendrix)

Why must life be so full of pain?
We Got the Beat (The Go-Gos)

Will I ever have children?
Angel (Hendrix)

Will I die happy?
The Internet is for Porn (Avenue Q)

Can you give me some advice?
I Love You (Sarah McLachlan)

What do you think happiness is?
I Never Wanna Fucking See you Again (Rich Hardesty)

What's your favorite fetish?
May This be Love (Hendrix)

bah, only a couple of good ones

Monday, November 21, 2005

Mon, 21 Nov 2005 22:32:14 GMT

Tomorrow will be officially one whole week that I've been in the US. Honestly? It's been pretty crappy. My sister pretty much hates my mother and has been a total bitch, not just to her but to me as well. It's incredibly difficult to live in this house. All of the problems that went away when I was in Australia are back in full force and it's hard to deal with. It's also been pretty dreary here weather-wise and it gets dark around 4:30. I seem to be lethargic a lot now but it's probably also due to getting over being jet-lagged.

But things might be looking up. I got a job at Bath & Body Works today and I have my orientation tomorrow. I won't be making much (my fault as I didn't put much down for what I was expecting on the application and they gave me that-I could have gotten higher) but at least I'll keep busy, and it doesn't seem like a terrible job.

Still haven't seen any friends yet though. I was supposed to see Shaughnessy for her BDay but my car broke down. I'm borrowing my father's at the moment but I'll need to replace my alternator-ugh, so expensive. Football game on Friday though, with Ron and his crew. I was asked if I wanted to play but I think thats a bad idea, I'll go watch.

I saw Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire the day it came out. I hate to say it but I was less attracted to Harry in this one. Must be because he's getting older and I can't be as much of a pedo anymore. I've gotta say though that Cedric Diggory is adorable. Pretty good movie, but it felt a bit rushed. But hey, they had to fit a lot in.

Monday, November 14, 2005

Mon, 14 Nov 2005 17:02:34 GMT

This is it guys, my last update from Australia. I could write a long sappy summary of my time here but I need to finish getting my stuff together before I get picked up in 2 hours. How about some lyrics from a song we all know and love....

I come from a land down under
Where beer does flow and men chunder
Can you hear, can you hear the thunder?
You better run, you better take cover

Time travel, here I come

Sunday, November 13, 2005

Sun, 13 Nov 2005 21:18:56 GMT

So I guess its been a while since I've updated. Guess I'll give a rundown of my outback trip.

We had our first day in Alice Springs free so we just wandered around a bit. I was a bit miserable because it was incredibly humid-very very unusual for the normally dry desert. It drizzled a bit but amazingly the weather cleared up for our sunset camel ride. It was about an hour and it was probably good it wasn't much longer because it was still incredibly hot and humid. But, it was still a lot of fun. Camels are friggin tall.

The next day we were picked up at 5am for our 2 day tour. We drove out to King's Canyon and hiked through there. After, we drove out to Ayers Rock to watch the sunset. The rock is pretty amazing when you first catch a glimpse of it. Just this huge looming object in the distance. That night we camped out and slept under the stars. They were incredible, there are no lights in the desert to block them out and it was pretty cool to know I was looking at a sky I never get to see at home. I suprisingly slept very well outside.

The next day we woke up at 4am to watch the sunrise at the rock. We did the full base walk around which was just over 2 hours-5 miles. Can you imagine a 5 mile rock? Pretty insane. After, we went to The Olgas (Kata Tjuta) and did an hour walk in there. Keep in mind that it was ridiculously hot and the flies were insane. It was a pretty tiring morning. On our drive back to Alice Springs we stopped at a baby kangaroo rescue center and I got to hold a 6 month old kangaroo named Elizabeth-cutest thing ever. That night our tour group ate dinner together at a bar and drank into the wee hours, dancing and playing party games. I got to eat kangaroo steak for the first time, it was really good.

Sorry if this was pretty boring, but I'm pretty down right now. I go home tomorrow, my friends are gone and I'm pretty cut up over it. I'll write more later.

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Wed, 09 Nov 2005 12:17:25 GMT

Sometimes your own desires blow your mind. Some people defy boundaries, I guess.

Monday, October 31, 2005

Mon, 31 Oct 2005 21:25:34 GMT

Ok, so I'm back from New Zealand-birthplace of bungy jumping, the cutest sheep in the world, and Russell Crowe.

Ya know how I wrote about all the problems I had with getting the correct name on my plane tickets? Well i thought I had it all sorted out but lo and behold, when I show up at the airport i was told that my tickets were in the name Emily Kahn-and that 3 reservations had been made for my real name, and all were cancelled. WTF? I was then told it was illegal to change my name on them now but after seeing my distress a very very nice woman from Air New Zealand whispered under her breath that she'd change it anyway. Thank goodness for sympathetic people.

So I arrived in Christchurch at around midnight their time (they are 3 hours ahead of Australia). The next day we decided to spend in Christchurch and soon found out that it's a pretty boring place. Not a whole lot to do, and it wasn't helped by the fact that it turned out to be New Zealand's Labour Day. So the next day we took a 6 hour bus ride down to Queenstown-the 'adventure capital of the world'!

Queenstown is just gorgeous. Rolling green hills filled with sheep, ice blue lakes, and snow topped mountains surround you in this breathtaking panoramic that I'm only used to seeing in movies or photographs. Very picturesque, it almost feels like you're in a painting. Our first day there we decided to go jet boating. Jet boating is when you go in this little speed boat that goes incredibly fast through canyons. They drive super close to the rocks and you think you're about to crash. They also do 360 spins, which was a lot of fun.

The next day I went on a Lord of the Rings horseback riding tour by myself because my friends didn't want to. To be honest, I kind of enjoyed going on my own. We rode up this small mountain which was beautiful. I rode through Lothlorien, saw where Boromir was killed, looked out over Isengard, saw the dead marshes, and a bunch of other places where scenes were filmed. My horse was even in the movies! He was a rider of Rohan. Pretty sweet.

The following day was supposed to be our biggest and most exciting day, however the weather turned nasty and it was rainig and foggy nearly the whole time. We tool a bus/boat tour out to Milford Sound which is where you're supposed to see glaciers and it's supposed to be goregeaous. Well what we saw was nice, but the weather just kind of made it miserable which was disappointing. However, because of the rain there were hundreds of these small waterfalls down the sides of the mountains which was really cool and we wouldn't have seen otherwise.

We then took another bus back to Christchurch since that's where we were flying out of. There's this Antarctic Centre right next to the airport which we decided to check out. It was pretty cool, they had this room full of ice and snow to similate to Antarctic and they had a storm simulation which was ridiculously cold, windy and dark. I never realized it till I got there, but New Zealand is actually quite close to Antarctica.

Unfortunatly, it's terribly hard to see a whole country in 6 or so days, we didn't even get up to the north island and Auckland, but on a tight budget it would have been impossible. Still, I had an amazing time, and New Zealand is one of my favorite places I've ever been to.

I go to the outback for the first time tomorrow! I'll report back to let you know that I wasn't eaten by a snake or spider or something, wish me luck!

Monday, October 31, 2005

Mon, 31 Oct 2005 08:09:10 GMT

Happy Halloween!

As I've previously mentioned, Aussies don't really celebrate this amazing holiday. Well my friend Julie and I just weren't content with the way things were and we organized a mini Halloween party for our dorm. We had $50 worth of candy, costumes (I was a chick from The Craft), and watched The Craft, Candyman and The Exorcist. Not quite the same as being at home since its hot as hell here and you wouldn't know it was Oct. 31 otherwise, but not so bad. I'm pretty damn proud of myself.

New Zealand write-up tomorrow, sleep now.

Saturday, October 22, 2005

Sat, 22 Oct 2005 04:36:46 GMT

What a week. Like I said before, I've had 5 final essays to complete. These have been sucking out my soul. I've already pulled a couple of all nighters (soooo sleepy...) and I still have about 2500 words (about 9 pages) before they are all complete. In these past few days I've written more about Australia than I've probably ever written about America in my time I've been at IU (though, granted, I've only taken one US History class and here I'm taking 4 Australia related classes).

Now lets also reflect on another reason why I've has to stay up all night. Through some sort of screwup my plane tickets for my New Zealand flight had been issued in the name Emily Emily. Now you might think that this would be something easy to fix, but let me tell you that I spent hours and hours and about $20 in phone cards to get this fixed. And as I mentioned earlier I had to do this all between the hours of 11pm and 8am my time because the people I were calling are in the central time zone in the US. What a bitch. But I was persistant and even when people told me it couldn't be fixed and I couldn't be refunded I didn't take no for an answer. I pretty much said that I wasn't happy with the way Travelocity conducts business and they need to work harder. Thankfully, everything has now been fixed and I should be good to go. Otherwise there will be hell to pay.

But though I had a very stressful week, last night was great. It was my I-House (college/dorm) formal and it felt like a prom only a million times better. It was held at a beautiful reception hall that served us great food and again, unlimited beer and wine. And this time the wine wasn't even cheap, it was good! Wow, I can't even say how much better than prom this was. I spent about $500 less (only paid for a $20AUS ticket), people were delightfully inebrieated, everybody in I-House is great and friends with each other, the music was great, and everybody was dancing. Its pretty sad though, that this is our last big event. Really made me realize how soon I'll be home and that I won't see most of these people ever again. But hey, I still have 3 weeks so I won't reflect on that yet.

Anyway, I leave for New Zealand tomorrow which should be amazing. I might have to be a super dork and go on a Lord of the Rings tour.