Series of Unfortunate Events

So no doubt you have all heard about the Tsunami that has devastated lots of countries bordering the Indian Ocean. We heard about it the other day but didn't realize the extent of what had happened. One of our houseguests over Christmas Sara left on Monday to head over to Thailand (not knowing what had just occured there). Last night as we watched the news and saw what happened, particularly in Phuket and the islands off the coast such as Phi Phi all of us in the house were pretty shocked and horrified. See the backpacker trail takes nearly everyone who leaves Australia up to Thailand and particularly to Phuket and the islands off it's coast. So as we sat watching news report after news report about it (lots on about it here since Australia also borders the Indian Ocean) all of us were racking our brains thinking who do we know that's in Phuket right now, then we start naming them off well so and so has just left and what about that guy when was he going and all of us began to realize and me particularly that something like this a disaster in a third world country has for the first time really hit home for me, that I probably know someone who was there and I can also picture the mood..no one having any clue this horrible thing was about to happen. Really makes you think..two of my friends from work were set to go over there in 2 weeks and no doubt will their plans as many others will be cancelled...can't imagine what it's like for those who are there but for the first time I actually have the slightest inkling what it's like for something like this to be real and not something that you just see on the news.

Merry Drunken Crissy

So today is Boxing Day (the day after Christmas) and it was quite a fun Christmas I must say. We ended up staying in and watching Christmas movies and eating lots of food and having lots of drinks. My roomate Mary made a full english Christmas meal while completely drunk. She woke up and started in on the champagne, then made mulled wine, then continued to drink more wine after that. Later in the night we started playing drinking games and in the one we were playing you had to basically make someone drink and she kept just picking herself..you know that you're f--ked up when you start doing that. While 3 of the girls were cooking in the kitchen me, Eric and my roomate Scott sat in the living room and drank beer and watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, always a good film, and then blared the Aussie Cricket anthem over and over again..Come on Aussie, Come on Come on!! I think the best bit though besides the drinking games and the arguments over whose party was better, the kitchen crew (who were blaring the Ultimate Kylie CD and arranging cheese plates) or the living room crew (telling stories, singing loudly) was definetly when Scott went into the kitchen with the video camera and filmed Mary putting the roast in the oven, only to see her ovenmitt go up in flames and then her scream and run across to the sink in a complete panic..all caught on film, too funny, naturally we had to watch it about 10 times. I did learn some new drinking games which is always fun, Scott claims to be a human encyclopedia of drinking games so I bet I know lots and lots more before I leave here. Also I went out on Christmas Eve which was quite fun, lots of people out and all of us had some good roomate bonding time. Mary and I ended up being up til 5am...so it's been a busy and fun couple of days..today I'm taking it easy just went to see the yacht race go through the harbor which was cool...oh and also the other day in the mall the carolers were singing Dancing Queen, acapella with tamborines and everyone in the mall was clapping along...it was too funny. Hope everyone had a great Christmas!!

Breaking News

So the latest breaking news over here in my life is that I've been accepted to Graduate School at both of the places I applied. I got accepted to a Masters of International Business program in Queensland and also to a Masters of International Public Health program in Sydney. I haven't decided which offer I'm going to take if either. The Int'l public health program sounds really interesting and it would be a totally different change for me. Most people use that degree in order to coordinate humanitarian aid projects..such as the ones that the United Nations run in third world countries or the ones that the Red Cross operate in natural disasters. Needless to say I have some big decisions to make, I will make sure to keep everyone posted but meanwhile have a Merry Crissy!!

Champagne Supernova

So summer swimming season is in full force, it was 100 this weekend and perfect beach weather, except that the sharks are out in full force as well!! Last week in South Australia someone was killed by a great white and this past week in New South Wales (where Sydney is at) there have been 4 sharks caught in the nets off the beach..scary stuff. Christmas is coming and I can't wait. My roomates are all off already for the holidays and so are the neighbors so needless to say it's been pretty loud around my house with no signs of slowing. My roomate Mary's friend came in yesterday and will be staying with us as well for the week so now we have a resident drunk brit and drunk Irish on the premisis for the holidays. Last night a whole bunch of us had girls night out (yes on a Sunday night--that's the big night out here) and I came home around midnight but the rest went onto a club and couldn't get in b/c not the one of them brought an ID!! Still doesn't seem like Christmas here, I keep thinking it's June or July, just can't get into Christmas when it's summer but it's pleasant actually I've enjoyed it. Last week was my company Christmas party and rest assured it was quite a piss up. They rented out the 3rd floor of this club and it was open bar. I had a really good time and got to meet lots of people, although it was on a Thurs. and I stayed out till 3am and had to come in to work on Friday..looong day that sure was. Good thing I was tired and passed out by like 9:30pm Friday night b/c apparently my neighbors had a rager all night long. One of my neighbors fancies himself quite the guitar player and I swear he just plays Oasis songs over and over again...it's become a problem..something must be done!!

Drunk As

You know when you know that something is a bad idea but well you go ahead and do it anyways..yep..we all know. Well last night when I went up to the bottle shop to get a bottle of wine for my roomie I passed by the bargain bin and I spied at 6 pack of Jim Beam and Vanilla Cokes for $9.99 which really is a bargain and although I knew it was a bad idea to drink 6 bargain bin Jim Beam and cokes well I did it anyways but it's all good our upstairs neighbor was having a party so I went up there and it was a cheap night..got to meet all of our new neighbors as well who are really cool and they are joining us for our Christmas Day piss up..as of now we have 13 people and a shopping cart that we plan to fill with booze and food and roll down to the beach, should be quite a party. I am paying for the Jim Beam and coke ordeal today though but I must press on because tonight they are having a free sausage sizzle and christmas carols on the beach and fireworks later tonight. This coming Thursday is my work Christmas party they have rented out the one of the big bars by my house, my local which is good so I can stumble home and it's open bar so I need to be on best behavior, definetly stories to come out of that one.

P.S.

I also get a free membership to all their gyms in Australia so I can stay fit! There are 3 of their gyms close to my house so hopefully that will actually get me motivated to go!

Fitness First!!

I'm so excited my original temp job ended this past Tuesday and on Wed. morning I had an interview and I got the job, started this morning (Thurs.). I'll be working at Fitness First Australia Corporate headquarters for the rest of the time I'm here in Australia. They are a huge chain of gyms (kind of like 24 hour fitness) with gyms all over UK, Asia and Australia you can check out their homepage at http://www.fitnessfirst.com.au/ Anyways so far everyone is really nice and friendly and their offices are cool..they have flat screens everywhere that show all the music videos that are currently being shown in the gyms...and we know how much I love music videos so the fact that I could watch them all day at work is fab. I'm working in the Accounting Dept. and responsible for vendors Q-Z that's me!! Probably the work is not super exciting but I really like the offices and the people so far and apparently they have lots of parties there. The Australian headquarters for Haviana Brazialian flip flops is on the floor above us and they were having a sale to get them 2 for $10 so of course I had to run up and do that..the guy that sits at the cube next to me says that they do that about twice a month so I will probably end up with every pair of those that they've ever made. Another plus is that the offices are at Bondi Junction (not far from the famous Bondi Beach) and also not far from my house, about a 10 min. bus ride, anyways can you tell I'm excited about my new job?? They wanted me to work there on a one year contract but of course I can't b/c of visa issues, unless I can get sponsored by them to stay in the country a bit longer who knows..but at least I know for the next 3 months I have a cool job...okay I gotta get back there before I get in trouble on the first day.