Bonfire!!!

Marq, me, Umi, Claire, Clara and Palm..some uni people that dropped by the party last night, was a rousing success and we watched the sun come up!
So who's the hot guy on the left you ask..well that's Lars, one of 3 hottie Norwegians that are in some of my classes, I swear all of them look like models I've never even spoken to any of them...too intimidating, anyhow Lars showed up at my party with my buddy Nico (on the right) and is really nice and totally my dream boyfriend, also I swear I've never seen Lars wear a proper shirt..always a tank top..suppose that's what you do when you're hot!

It bloody looked like bonfire in my backyard last night at my wonderful party. Lots of people showed up and we had a really good time..of course the police did come once..the mark of a good party I say..and why would the police come you ask? Well Dylan my landlord was getting a bit crazy with the fire he started ripping leaves off the palm trees in the backyard and setting them on fire and waving them everywhere..then when he felt like he needed more branches he got the bloody chainsaw out at 2am and started trying to cut down a freaking tree..I'm surprised he didn't cut his hand off. Anyhow the coppers showed up and said that the fire was fine just don't turn on the chainsaw anymore b/c it's too loud and there's complaints..lordy!

Honestly!

Alright so as previously mentioned I'm having a going away party tonight. In light of this the past couple of days I have been texting my little fingers to the bone inviting people to my party. So last night I sent a text to a hot norwegian that I have class with and talk to every now and then, and I'm not gonna lie have a crush on, but he's way outta my league so that's that. Anyhow he sends me a text back saying, "I'll see if I can pop by tomorrow, I might have plans, I'm waiting to hear back from someone". What kind of response is that I mean seriously just lie and say you have plans and you might stop by if you can or something don't tell me that you might have plans--in other words if your better plans come through you won't stop by...it's too much..maybe it's the language/culture barrier.

Go the Socceroos!!

Last night Australia qualified for the World Cup for the first time in over 30 years, it was such an awesome game..totally got me into soccer...wish I could be in Germany this summer for the world cup..will be a big party no doubt. Speaking of big parties..I'm having a massive going away this Friday and we're gonna have a bonfire in the backyard...sounds like a fire hazard to me, hopefully we can manage not to burn the place down. Also my landlord has made about 100 bottles of homebrew for the occasion..should be messy..pictures to follow!!

DON'T talk about Korea!!

Honestly my Korean Roomie is too much! Not only does she yell out her window in Korean to her friend that lives next door at least 4-5 times a day, she always asks me what I'm eating and if I eat that in America too, always makes me try weird looking Korean food and finally she constantly forces me to have awkward conversations! Last night I was peacefully watching TV when a tampon commercial came on, no biggie, except that Korean Roomie then taps me and says do you use? and I was like huh? and she's like do you use the tampang (louder this time) umm yeah I said cringing because I could only imagine what was gonna come next..then she says Oh I don't use..I'm very scared to which I didn't say anything hoping the conversation would be over but nope..then she says..you not scared to use? No I said they're fine..then she says how they work the tampang? I said don't you have those in Korea and she says..yea but no one use too scary..oh I said well maybe not safe there--notice how I"m starting to talk like her b/c well when dragged into the conversation I too start talking in broken english don't know why just happens! Thankfully that got her off the track and she says yeah not safe..and that was the end of it..it was a harrowing 3-4 minutes though and I just can't take much more of it!!

Just in time for Christmas: A Barf Story!

Last Christmas I was here in Australia and working at the corporate headquarters for the biggest chain of gyms in the country. Naturally we had a HUGE Christmas party where they rented out the top floor of this club and had open bar, good food and of course a hot DJ. Now lots of people got outta control at the party and were of course the subject of office gossip for weeks to come. Fortunetely for me, I committed my extremely embarassing antics very late in the night and at a second scene of the crime (the bar next door to where the party was held). Some others however were not so lucky, perhaps not so surprisingly most of the stories were about the marketing and HR girls (who always seem to be wild..no matter what company it is). One of the marketing girls, who by the way came to the party looking very nice, new dress, shoes, the whole works, was basically passed out on a couch in the club about 2 hours into the party (there were lots of victims of the pink champagne that was being served). Anyhow at some stage she threw up and was looking quite a mess..which does happen we all know, difference is that the next day she was telling everyone at work that she was sooo mad because someone had barfed on her new shoes at the party (wonder who that was?). So cut to almost a year later and there are 2 new branches of the gym opening up here in Brisbane so there are billboards everywhere..billboards with the marketing girl who barfed on her shoes and one of the managing directors riding bikes to advertise the gym..so everytime I see one of them I giggle a bit b/c she barfed on her own shoes!!

Job Update

ACCOUNTS PAYABLE/RECEIVABLE OFFICER
• Excellent Salary Package incl salary sacrifice• Inner City North Location• Perm F/T working within a friendly team environment Leading statewide community service organisation seeks a self motivated accounts officer to join their busy finance team.This challenging and exciting role entails all facets of accounts payable & receivable functions including electronic and manual pay runs, banking, invoicing, end of month debtor billing, bank reconciliations etc. The successful candidate will possess strong accounts payable and receivable skills, be able to work autonomously and have a high level of commitment to attaining performance targets. Ideally you will have a minimum of 1 years experience in a similar role. A sound working knowledge of Attache and Microsoft Excel would be an advantage.Interested applicants should email their resume to -----

The ad above was posted by my current employer in order to replace me since I'll be coming home for a couple months and am quitting this position. There are a couple of things in the ad that I take exception with--#1 being challenging and exciting role, I suppose it is challenging in that for 8 hours I'm expected to sit in a room with 2 other accountants including my boss directly across from me which means--no music, no personal phone calls, nothing but work and occassionally e-mail, if I'm typing alot my boss always asks me if I need help..which I think translates as..are you e-mailing again--stop! Now about the exciting part, I reckon the most exciting a day gets around here is when someone brings in pastries to have at tea time...yep we do have tea breaks, or maybe that time when the receptionist was out and they were interviewing people for another job so they asked me to sit down at the front desk--that was exciting because no one else sits down there so I just listened to my mp3 player and texted all day. Sometimes a client will come in person to pay their bill and that's exciting because then I get to go talk to them and hear all about how our billing procedure sucks and how their bill was wrong. Oh wait I totally forgot about the time that one of the counselours got stuck in the bathroom because the door jammed..that was 30 minutes of excitement or the time that the receptionist was in the paper and her age was listed as 37 which she is NOT, there was lots of whispering that day..no way she's 37 and the like..so I guess yeah there is a fair bit of excitement.
Also the successful candidate will work autonomously and have a high level of commitment to meet performance targets--that would be good to have because while I work autonomously I don't have a high level of commitemnt to meet performance targets--I'm not even sure what those would be for this position...think it would be make sure the bills are paid on time...uhh 2 more weeks..have to keep telling myself..just 2 more weeks!!

The Art of not giving a damn

I've only got 2 weeks of work left before I leave on my wonderful holiday to America (also known as my trip home for the holidays). Lately I just don't give a damn about anything, specifically work, and actually I haven't for a while..it tires me, I get bored and frustrated and I do have a bit of an attitude..which I keep to myself. The past couple of weeks though I have ceased to give a damn which has caused me to do a number of things, such as Tuesday morning when I came in an hour late and didn't bother calling to say I would be or the last 2 Fridays when I've personally declared it casual Friday and worn jeans and tennis shoes to work even though we don't have casual Fridays or one day last week when I decided I'd come in at noon until 5 instead of 8:30-1:30, and you know what the beauty of all this is..no one has said one single word to me about it...no asking why I was late, or talking to about the offical dress code or a lecture on the importance of sticking to ones work schedule...nope nothing but praise for the wonderful job I"m doing...it's freaking amazing..reminds me of office space..probably soon I'll get a raise.

Melbourne Cup Madness

You know this morning I wish I never heard the words Melbourne Cup..my head does not like me..it's like there's a little man in there with a pick axe going to town. The race itself was very exciting, the racetrack I went to was packed and the weather was beautiful, and you know we were only at the track for about 3 hours but it was enough for me to have lord knows how many beers, by the end of it I was walking around barefoot in the dirt..classy. Get this at the track they had one of those huge blowup jumping castles and it was for adults..yep for drunk adults..drunk adults dressed in their finest clothes..women in hats and dresses and men in suits..I've never seen anything like it..ever..and thank god I didn't get in the thing..I bet there were injuries.

Schoolies Week

Instead of spring break here they have schoolies week, schoolies week is for high school seniors on their spring time break..think spring break with all 18 year olds who are allowed to drink..in other words a mess! So the gov't has a website with schoolies week safety tips..good stuff here are some highlights:

Dealing with toolies
It's a sad fact of life that wherever there's a bunch of young people having fun, there's also going to be idiots there. 'Toolies' are non-schoolies who head to schoolies destinations hoping to cause trouble. If you're planning on heading to a schoolies hotspot, it's good to know how you can avoid toolies and keep your holiday safe and fun.

Keeping idiots at bay
Not everyone's a predator who's out to hurt or injure you. Sometimes toolies (or even other schoolies) are just being annoying. Even if someone seems pretty harmless, it's best not to encourage their behaviour and to get rid of them as quickly as you can. Here's some tips:
Don't take the bait - usually if you ignore any unwanted advances (even if they seem harmless) people will often get bored and move elsewhere.
Politely but firmly tell them to go away - there's no need to be rude or violent, but make it clear that you don't accept their behaviour and you don't want them around you or your friends
If someone's ignoring you and you feel unsafe, you could say you are going to be sick - people get out of the way pretty quickly if someone's going to vomit --this is my fav tip!
Get out of there - if the idiot just won't go away, do the next best thing and get away yourself. If possible, report them to a venue manager, security staff or police

There's also lots of other interesting stuff like sobering up and dealing with fights with freinds..here's the link..http://www.youthcentral.vic.gov.au/ViewPage.action?siteNodeId=835

Group Projects: OVER

Left: Jean-Francois, Drinky girl, and katya
Below: The group in happier times: Jean Francois, Nico (in red), Katya (at computer) and Me














So Friday I finished my last presentation for the semester. It was with my previously mentioned dysfunctional group..with the tempramental Russian. There was of course one final incident. About 15 minutes before our presentation we were all in the computer lab and had changed some of the slides then are running out to class and Nico says, hey katya did you print up the new slides? (because we have to turn in a printed copy) and she gives him a death stare and says, Vhy didn't you tell me to print them before I shut off the bloody computer..and he says I did I told you a minute ago..and she says again with the death stare..NO vhen did you tell me..you told me after I turned off the computer..and he didn't say anything b/c he was seething and she continues the death stare..then says..NICO you told me after I shut off the bloody computer and she sighs and throws her purse down on the desk and noisily logs back onto the computer and Nico says...go fuck yourself...good stuff..nice to have everyone mad right before the presentation..and good news is that drinky girl e-mailed me the pics from the other day..they're posted above.

The Hoff

David Hasselhoff is big here..well not famous exactly, but widely made fun of..until I moved here I'd never seen a hoff-mail or an e-mail with a pic of The Hoff as they call him superimposed on a movie poster or some other such picture..all the hoff-mails are super funny, here's one of my favourites..and here's a link to lots more..they are super funny...anyways all of Australia is excited b/c tonight The Hoff will be on Rove Live (night time talk show) should be good stuff. www.riphoffs.com

Christmas is Coming!

My friend Claire works in the Christmas Trim Department (think trees, gift wrapping, all things holiday) in Australia's biggest Dept. Store. Anyhow Christmas trim has already opened for the season--in OCTOBER but well no halloween or thanksgiving here so guess they gotta start the Christmas stuff early. So yesterday a slightly disturbed man came in and gave her his letter to Santa--here's the e-mail she sent me..funny stuff:

Was given a letter to santa from a slightly mean retarded man. Anyway my personal highlights included "in relation to the 100 smokes I will leave you as a reward for these gifts....I request you smoke them all". Thanks Kurt. Personally I do see that the christmas shop lady has pretty close ties to santa. would be my obvious choice. THought about trying to find out his last name and adress of his institution and then I could send the letter to australia post who then send a reply from santa. It would be like a christmas miracle/christmas special/christmas cartoon/telemovie all rolled into one. But then I thought maybe there was anthrax in the envelope adressed to santa that I opened and so I threw out Kurt's dreams for 50000 jet skis and washed my hands.

Feathers in my Hair

Here's a picture from the races where I went with the Aussie trend and put feathers in my hair..I was looking classy at the beginning of the day! This is the new dress that I had to buy about an hour before the races started because of a dry cleaning ordeal with my old dress that I won't even get into b/c it made me so very angry!

"Friended"

**"Friended" : when a guy/girl lets you know that you have been moved to friend status or that you are "just a friend" (almost always done indirectly by actions and not said outright). Usually this is a demotion from a higher status, such as, "talking" "seeing" "hooking up" to a friend.

The exact moment you have been friended can usually be pinpointed, some examples are:

Being called buddy, getting a pat on the back, or pat on the head (any pat really), being told you are like a brother/sister. I'm sure there are many other defining moments..just can't think of them offhand.

Anyways I was "friended" today..and really I think it's like being had..because obviously the only way you can be friended is if you thought there was something else there.

Finally--I just remembered what used to be my favorite quote freshman year in college I even had it posted on my mini-dorm fridge--"Players only love you when they're playing"

**This term was coined by a "friend" of mine, a very funny and wise man.

What Aussies think of Americans

By far the most common comment I get is I thought you'd be louder or more obnoxious, apparently Americans are thought to be both.

Also the general feeling or experience with Americans has been that we are arrogant or think that our way is the best way to do things. Or that we are stupid..a former roommate of mine proved this time and time again--being American and all, always speaking before thinking and making themself look dumb, although I don't think it's a totally American trait perhaps we are just louder about the fact. In addition the feeling is that we don't know much about what happens outside our own country which is true..I agree with that one..I feel I've gotten alot better on that one..most people know lots about our politics and country while I realized I knew nothing about huge european or asian countries and their politics or way of life..I suppose we aren't innudated with it like other countries are with American entertainment/news..I think this is what gives people the most warped view of Americans..they see the bad way more often than the good.

Finally I'm always being asked if I'm Canadian, the reason for this? Canadians are offended when someone asks them if they are American and since there are heaps of Canadians here people just automatically ask if you're Canadian. It's not hard to tell whose Candian though..they love to wear the Canadian Flag everywhere and are even fond of wearing shirts that say I'm NOT American--nice of you neighbors to the north!!

Also in a typical Ugly American incident--on the sailboat we went to the reef there were about 25 people from Isreal, Holland, Ireland, England, Norway, Sweden and of course the US. Besides Joey and I there were 3 other Americans, sorority girls if I've ever seen them who didn't socialize with anyone but each other--we're stuck on a boat people at least try to make friends. The bar we had our after boat party at was hosting a wet t-shirt contest and I turned to Joey to tell him they were the 3 #1 candiates to enter but before I even finished the sentence one of them stumbled over and shouted that they'd went and signed up for a wet t-shirt contest. Then at the boat party tried to get everyone to come and cheer for them, of course all 3 of them entered and figured they had a better chance of winning that way..they were acting like they were on girls gone wild..much to the amusement of especially the Irish girls who thought they were acting like every bad US tv show they'd ever seen..so embarassed for them. Also I ran into 2 of them here in Brisbane last Friday and no they didn't win, got naked for nothing!

Crazy Foreigner Antics

Yesterday I had a group paper due in my Business in Australia class at 10am, at 9 we met to put final touches on everything and of course one person couldn't be there and we didn't have his part, said he'd get to school by noon at the latest. So we go to class and tell the prof and she says when he gets there we can leave class early (class ends at 1pm) and get the paper to her by 1pm, so Jean-Francois (yep..French, actually from Mauritus which used to be a French colony) shows up about 12 and let the mad dash begin, our group, Me, Nico (French), Katya (Russian and angry at this point), Jean-Francois, and Shirlee (the girl I mentioned in my blog that used to be a drinky girl in China) set off to the computer lab..once we get there Jean-Francois is on one computer trying to get his part together and Katya is on another while me and Nico look over her shoulder and try to help her get an extra section added..where is drinky girl you ask..just sitting there with a grin on her face..and it gets even better b/c as it gets closer to 1pm and we get more frantic..I swear everyone is sweating at this point drinky girl hops up and starts taking pictures..yep photo time..it was so random and sooo funny (well now anyways) but the best bit was after she took her first round of photos she then taps Nico and tells him to take a picture again with her in it, so he takes a photo (she targeted the right person b/c he is so nice he wouldn't tell her to fuck off like the rest of us probably would have) and then after he takes it and looks at it on her camera..he says to Katya..you are looking very Russian in this photo..and she says..Does that mean I'm looking extremely pissed off. Yep that's exactly what it meant and yep she was extremely pissed off..I think she was ready to deck drinky girl. I'm gonna e-mail drinky girl and see if I can get copies of the photos to post..they are priceless I"m sure.

Couple of Sailing Photos

Here are some photos from sailing--that one above is paradise, whitehaven beach.

That's me chilling on the boat.

The Stress of it all!!!

So not only do I have heaps of assignments due the next 2 weeks but now I've found myself in the midst of an employment tug of war. My current job is alright I like it and it's in the middle of the city so close to everything, sucks b/c I have to work Mon-Fri though and I have class. Then yesterday afternoon my old employer called me and asked me to come back said they'd pay me more than I am making now. Only drawback is that A--I just promised my current employer I'd stay there through the end of November the day before. B--The other job is kinda far I have to take the train there and I don't really like working there but they told me that I could come back after I go home for 2 months and they'll pay more..uhh I don't know what to do and I'm under the gun just got a voicemail saying that they want me to start next week call to discuss my pay rate--dammit I feel like I"m being railroaded!!

Thought for the Day

Every step that you take
Could be your biggest mistake
It could bend or it could break
But that's the risk that you take
--Coldplay

So true everytime I make a decision or try to do something I'm always worried it will be a mistake but well nothing good ever happens without the risk so it's best to take the leap.

Airlie Beach a.k.a The case for permanent sobriety

So we've been in Airlie Beach for less than 24 hours, we being me and Joey who got here for a visit two days ago. We're about to embark on a wonderful sailing trip of the Whitsunday Islands..yep this will be my second time in just a couple months but it's absolutely lovely so I'm going again. The problem is Airlie Beach which is where all the boats launch from. It's probably the drunk backpacker/sailor capital of Australia (with Cairns tied). Yesterday was particularly upsetting from about 2pm people were just completely off their faces, acting a fool, not being able to walk, being drunk and completely disorderly walking up and down the one street here in Airlie, Joey's like it's like Las Vegas stuffed into one 4 block street with nothing to do but drink, not even the gambling to distract people. Didn't help that it was the Australian Football League Grand Final yesterday which gave even more of an excuse than usual. I went home at 11pm but before that I saw several bare butts, people getting kicked out of bars, people barfing, etc. Thank god I missed all the various wet t-shirt contests going on around town..it's all too much, can't wait to get on the sailboat and out of this town!

Thank your lucky stars

Okay I know that I bitch about school because well it's stressful and I always have heaps of assignments to get done, etc. However I've decided that I really like the program I'm in and I'm learning lots. For example last week the assignment I was slaving over was a guide for US negotiators on how to maximise outcomes in Brazil, really interesting to read all the research about how culture effects negotiation styles and the tactics that each culture deem appropriate to use. This week I'm writing a foriegn currency strategy for a company on ways to minimise their risk from fluctuations in exchange rates, which believe me is as confusing as it sounds but in all honesty I'm learning alot and I'm beginning to understand things I never thought I would. Also I really like most of the other people I'm in the program with, now that we are in semester 2 everyone is starting to become friends which is cool, especially given everyone's completely different backgrounds. This past weekend Nico, a french guy in my program had a bbq with some others from class and it was fun, apparently Uno is a universal game, the norwegians, french, and thais all knew how to play. Also everyone is really smart which is a bit intimidating but for the most part every one is always glad to help out. Plus it's interesting to hear about everyone's backgrounds, we've got the Indonesian royal (who I don't like b/c she thinks she's smarter than everyone and is always trying to prove it in class), the super rich Russian (who I used to think was intimidating but is actually nice even though she's often wearing like 10,000 worth of clothes and jewelry), the super rich Thai (whose parents apparently own a billion dollar company in Thailand but you'd never know it, I just thought he was a funny little Thai guy that loved the Simpsons), soot face the crazy Dutch woman who really is endearing when it's not your project she's messing up and she does mean well, the French baseball fan who told me he loves the Cardinals and gets all the games on satillite over here so he can watch them, the Swedes who are all tall and good looking but really nice and don't mind how many times you ask them about it being dark for like 3 months during the winter and are always happy to tell me the stories about people who've gone crazy from it, and the norwegians--all of them who do love to have a party and then the Taiwanese and Chinese who sometimes don't say much but always smile and wave when they see you, and the outspoken Thai girl that told me she doesn't want to go back to Thailand b/c she can't voice her opinion over there--I feel for you sister..keep fighting the good fight, almost forgot the Germans who can always come up with a practical question and readily admit that they like order and efficiency and beer too--musn't forget the beer. So here's to all of them and to the unique experience I'm getting to have working with students from around the globe--I've truly broadened my horizons and I feel lucky to be able to do this, and thanks to Nico who I talked with about this on Saturday which made us both realize how lucky we are and helped us to quit bitching as much about all the work we've gotta do.

Mini-Poll

Today my friend Claire sent me a text saying;
As long as I live I will never believe that Ben would have dated Felicity in real life

I wrote back saying why because she was a doormat/stalker/pathetic

Response from Claire;

Don't forget whiny, pseudo activism and anal cleaning

Mind you I like Felicity we all do b/c well we can empathasize but sometimes you just wanna shake her and go dammit Felicity!! So mini-poll is this who thinks that Ben would have actually dated Felicity in real life?


I'm torn on this..on the one hand I say no b/c Ben was a popular track star and then Felicity follows him to New York and then reads his admissions essay and tells him why she came there..so embarassed..also lets be honest Ben wasn't that bright and was kinda flaky but he was hot..I think maybe he would have slept with Felicity but not dated her or made fun of her to his friends. Also why didn't Felicity like Noel he was the male her.

RANT

I just have a bit of a rant, today my sister just got a job working at a call centre in Arlington, TX and you know how much she gets paid an hour? $6 To me that's absolutely ludicrious, good on her for working for that much, I can't believe that there are so many low paying jobs at home, I think our minimum wage is disgraceful, someone can't live on $6 an hour even if they work 40 hours a week after they get taxes taken out of their check, much less support 2 kids which is what my sister has to do looking at what happened in New Orleans and knowing this I see why there are so many working poor the wages they get are ridiculous. I have a friend here in Brisbane that just started working for McDonalds last week and guess how much he gets paid?? $15 an hour, yep that's right that's what McDonalds pays here and they still make a profit the only people being paid less are those considered juniors which are workers under 17 and they still get a minimum of like $12.50 an hour. I fail to understand why wages for the lowest paid US jobs aren't a bit higher but I'm guessing it's b/c we wouldn't dream of making large corporations pay their workers more.

TAXES!!

Alright so if you thought filing US taxes were annoying try filing a foriegn tax return..not fun...I've just started and thought I'd share something amusing on the first page it asks name and all that of course but it also asks for Title, now on the US one it'd on give you options of Mr, Miss, Mrs, etc. here is a sampling of some of the choices for Title on the Australian tax form:
Abbot
Able Seaman
Baron
Baroness]
Bishop
Rabbi
Right Honourable
Count
Countess
Dame
His/Her Royal Highness
Vicar
Viscount

Not by any means an exhaustive list there are heaps more titles..wonder if you are his/her royal highness if you get a phatty tax return.

River Fire Pics

This is the Story Bridge (one of the 3 bridges that had fireworks going off on it during riverfire)
Here are some awesome pics from RiverFire the first two are the Dump and Burn, an F11 flies across the sky burning it's fuel mid-air, looks just like a rocket..so cool.
A View from Above--I didn't take this--got it from the river fire website but it was awesome looking..the whole display.

Flashbacks

So today I was trying to fill out a job application for when I graduate, mind you that's a year off but some places make you apply by Oct. this year to start in 2006..don't even get me started but hey I'm gonna be in desperate need of a job by the time I get out of here. Anyhow the point is this, I had to fill in all my classes and grades from A&M on the application form..yep that was fun..so I went to the TAMU website and pulled up my unoffical transcript and proceeded to copy the contents into the application. Let me just tell you that this was not a fun exercise for several reasons
1.0 I totally forgot about half the classes I took, like literally I couldn't even remember who the prof was or what classroom it was in much less any of the content.
2.0 I had also blocked out those classes I never should have taken that I got D's in--such as all the finance ones and for some reason I vividly remember those classes..vividly!!
3.0 Then there were the classes I got F's in..luckily there were only 2 and I have valid reasons
3.1 Business Math
3.1.1 It was my first semester and I was amazed by the fact that no one cared if you went to class or not, turns out I'm not so good at math if I don't go and learn it then I do bad, in this very bizarre case class attendance was directly related to grade.
3.2 Bowling
3.2.2 A disproportionate amount of this grade was based on actual performance in the game of bowling, therefore when I missed class or was late and got points taken off there was no chance to pass unless I was an excellent bowler--I'm not, although every once in a while I got lucky and made a strike it just wasn't enough to save me from the gutter.
4.0 I took some class called Culture and Peoples, I don't remember anything about this course or what it was about or why I would have signed up for it..if anyone was in this class with me..drop me a line and remind me..it sounds like something that I would have been interested in taking, so why dont I remember?
5.0 I was reminded of all the classes I dropped (not more than 4 in my college career as dictated by our friends at Texas A&M) but I had really forgotten about those classes. Lets revisit my Q-drops shall we?
5.1 Medieval Europe 300-1300
5.1.1 Honestly have you ever heard of such an absurd course for me to sign up for, why in the world did I sign up to take this..it has disaster written all over it, not to mention I had no prior knowledge of the era, not that it couldn't have been interesting but I can't imagine why when I was looking through the course catalog for ELECTIVES I would have picked this one out of about 1,000 courses I could have taken. Also i couldn't understand the professor and we had to read all these long boring history books..I just couldn't take it anymore.
5.2 Funding International Business
5.2.1 I'm not sure why I decided to take this after I had previously done so poorly in other finance subjects but well at least I came to my senses before I got another D and dropped the course.
5.3 Strategic Management
5.3.1 I'm not sure why I dropped this I can't even remember being in the class, I took it again though (because it was required) and got a B, so I'm guessing I just couldn't be bothered to go to class that particular semester.
5.4 Wonders never cease--BOWLING
5.4.1 Given my previous failing in the course and my inability to bowl, I as a glutton for punishment signed up for the course AGAIN and had to drop it before I failed AGAIN using my last allowed drop for my college career on a PE CLASS!! Although rest assured I'm not totally turned off bowling..anyone who wants to invite me to the bowling alley I'm up for it!
6.0 Finally I was forced to relive the horror of my freshman year psychology course which I had entirely blocked out due to the fact that as a condition of passing the course we were forced to participate in psycological experiments, yep, I'm not even sure if that's legal, I mean you got to choose which ones you wanted to do but hell there's a limited number available so you're gonna have to do at least one you don't want to. I ended up in one that tested effects of violence and you know what that one did..I sat in a room with a TV and a videocamera pointed at me while I watched a video of disturbing images..honestly!!! You can't do that to a poor freshman!!

Also can you tell that I've done this while procrastinating on doing an assignment..yep that's me, also I took 2 Anthropology classes my first semester..I think I wanted to be an anthropologist..I still kinda like that idea.

The State of Things

So I can honestly say that with the events of the past week or so occcuring in the US I'm not exactly dying to go back. The events in New Orleans are sad, tragic and downright unacceptable..not only the people who picked up guns but the government who wasn't prepared for a disaster on our own soil, the rescue efforts are worse for this than they were for the tsunami which occured in some of the poorest areas of the world..there are lots of people who should be ashamed by the whole mess. Also I've had endless questions from foriegners who don't understand why so many people had guns and why they were shooting and rescue personnel and each other and I can honestly tell them I don't understand either b/c I don't, but I can say that I'm embarassed that I have to be asked these questions to begin with and that the image of Americans as gun-toting lunatics is constantly being reinforced. My Swedish roommate simply said this is what happens in a society where the government doesn't take care of its own. I tend to agree as the wealthiest nation on earth we leave a large number of our citizens to fend for themselves, the poorest among us which only exaserbates things like crime and creates a cycle that's hard to break. I don't know how to fix it or if it can be fixed but I think it's worth a try..to make the world a better place by starting at home. Didn't mean to preach today but I'm frustrated, frustrated of trying to explain to others, and frustrated of trying to understand myself, most of all though I can say that I do love home and even though I may chose not to live there for a while I do want to see America grow and prosper and change for the better.

River Fire

This weekend was RiverFire an annual huge fireworks/airshow over the river which is one of the biggest events in the city..people camp out all along the river to see the show. Luckily a friend of mine lives in a high rise along the river so I went over to watch the show and enjoy the party. There were 2 house parties on his floor so I was able to go back and forth for the best view. So here's a tip..don't go to watch a fireworks show from a house where there's a Swedish party..I swear I walked onto the balcony and couldn't see anything for all the tall Scandanavians standing out there..even the women are super tall, luckily some kindly Swede let me stand in front..fine for everyone involved since everyone was at least a head taller than me.

The Name Game

I have many names Ade (family nickname), Adie (what my little sister and mom call me), Dre (what my friends call me) and of course just plain Adriane. Well this phenomenon has changed in Australia, for some reason Australians always call me Adri, I've never said I was called that or told anyone to call me that but I guess that's the shortening of my name here. Furthermore Adriane is only a man's name in Australia so people always take it upon themselves to call me Adriana, people at work, professors and so of course everyone in my courses call me Adriana..it's like my name's been offically changed..in Australia I'm someone else..this girl they call Adriana.

Koala!!

Here's me and a koala, took this picture forever ago but had to scan into the computer and just got around to it. See those claws..the koala was kneading his claws into my shoulder almost like rubbing it..freaked me out. Also they smell funny..probably from all that eucalyptus they eat..but they are cute as hell, especially the baby ones. They sleep like 18 hours a day, just curled up on tree branches..they yawn and stretch alot..ahh must be the life!

Group Thang

Here's the scenario, last Thursday in class we had to get into groups of 4 for a team negotiation. Then sometime during the week we were to meet with an opposing team to work out the contract for the merger of a hotel chain. Initially when our team met we though the contract points would be relatively easy ones to negotiate and this shouldn't be too hard. WRONG, last night we negotiated for over 2 hours with the other team not only was agreeing to every single point a long, drawn out process but everyone got mad and I mean mad as in not going to do this anymore mad..I never thought it would happen but yep, we couldn't stand the other team and their tactics and their lack of answers and they couldn't stand us..there was shouting..yep shouting over a school project..the prof told us during this unit we'd want to fight someone and I didn't believe her but yep now I do. We had to take time outs from the negotiation so people could calm down and I thought my fav Russian friend who was on the other team was going to kill someone..she yelled at us, gave us a lecture, said we'd ruined the long term relationship with her company..but that's to be expected Russian tempers and all..but what wasn't expected is this the norwegians got mad, our team captain was bright red the whole time and the norwegian on the other team everytime someone talked kept saying I don't want your pie in the sky come back to earth. But guess who got maddest? The Thais there was a Thai guy on our team Palm, we had to stop him from talking several times, was always on the edge of his seat, his vote was to tell the other team to just f--k off, the team leader of the other team was Thai and she was super mad..at one point she wouldn't even talk and refused to agree to anything. Everyone left mad and drained..should be fun on class Thurs, when we have to debrief the negotiation.

Side Note: At my new job my boss had to set me up with a logon for their company intranet, got here this am and there was a message, username yankee password doodle, made me laugh

Soot face

So in an earlier blog, the one about the Chippy I think I mentioned my dutch group member who suggested that we pretend the company we were profiling burned down and we had to re-create their strategy or something, anyways involved in this plan was that we wear black make-up on our faces (fake soot) whilst doing the presentation. So I've taken to calling her soot face. Soot face is an endless source of fascination, she's always asking the most ridiculous questions in class and is always late for everything including as it turns out our presentation for today. The whole thing was pretty much a disaster a 90 minute excruciating disaster I might add. Not only did we have to do the presentation but had to lead group discussion/activity it was physically painful because soot face was leading the group portion and instead of defending our recommendations she was agreeing with people that they were flawed. This is the best soot face story and I'd forgotten it (mostly b/c I didn't know who she was then) until she mentioned it today. Last semester in logistics she was in another group (thank god) and when they did their presentation she forgot to bring the slides..yep no slides and not only that no dry erase marker to write anything on the board..you could tell her group members wanted to kill her and today she laughs and was like everyone was so mad...yep soot face..everyone is always so mad!

People are crazy

Alright so I know I'm in business school and that means that people are gonna be all into school and studying really hard or whatever, but some people are just ridiculous. I've got a 1000-1500 word paper due on Friday in my negotiations class, naturally I haven't really started because a) I'm a procrastinator and b) I have another paper and presentation due on Thurs. so I've had to prioritize. Anyways just now I was in the Masters Lab, which is where all us masters students can hang out and use nice computers in our very own little cubes, nice idea but really when you go up there no one is getting any work done just trading masters gossip and really who'd have thought but there is lots of masters gossip..it's neverending...oh the revelations..I should start posting some gossip on here it's a mini soap opera. So the big gossip up there just now was this Indonesian girl who's forever trying to prove she's smart in negotiation has finished her paper and apparently has 35 references..so the masters lab has been buzzing with the revelation..stupid I know but honestly..how can she fit 35 references into a 1000 word paper?? I'll probably be lucky if I have 5, I'm already feeling inadequate and I haven't yet begun to write the damn thing.

Inappropriate Germans!

My ex-roommate Sebastian (pictured above taking a big whiff of some vodka) has just had his girlfriend come and visit him from Germany. Since we've all been hearing about her for the last few months naturally we were all dying to meet her. So on Sunday night a few of us went to a bar to meet up with them whereupon Sebastian introduced all of us to Natalie, "This is Warrick the officer", he said about Warrick who's a security guard, "this is Adriane the great" he said about yours truly--not sure what I did to deserve that title but I'll take it, and "this is Jann the womaniser" he said about Jann who really is quite the ladies man, but honestly no need to introduce him as such..it was awkward/very funny.

Good Stuff

I just heard the funniest aussie saying..to describe someone with freckles you say.. they look like they've been throwing pebbles down the dunny.

The dunny is the toilet.

Chippy

Carpenters here are called Chippys..odd name I know and I have no idea where it came from but it's not uncommon to ask someone what they do and for them to tell you they're a chippy. Anyways last night I met a Chippy named Simon at this bar that used to be a church called The Rev. On Sundays at the Rev they have a free barbie and cheap beer so it's a great place to spend a couple of hours. So Chippy Simon after introducing himself asked me how old I was, then if I was engaged or married and then when I said no he asked for my number, very to the point this Chippy was, it cracked me up.

Random Bits:
I'm moving on Tuesday! I found a new place not too far from where I live now, got a bigger room and a queen-sized bed so I'm happy about that. My "landlord" is a twentysomething aussie surfer dude who lives in the house and rents out the other rooms for money. Apparently he has no job and just makes home brew beer and surfs, should be interesting. The other roommates are a swedish guy here doing an internship, a brazilian taking english classes and a scotsman who's apparently never home.

New Semester, new wacky group members! In my strategy class I've got this Dutch girl in my group who suggested that we put black makeup on our faces and come into the class on presentation day acting as if the company we are profiling burned down and all information destroyed so then the presentation can re-create their company strategy..honestly I'm NOT going to my strategy class with fake soot on my face!!

The Ekka

It's almost time for the Ekka here which is aussie terms is short for Exhibition, the official name of the event is The Royal Queensland Show, something like the state fair. I remember when we used to go to the fair I used to love to go into all the exhibition halls where they were selling crap and pick up all the free magnets and pens, etc. Here they have something called showbags and apparently there are halls and halls of booths that sell showbags from different places which have goodies inside, for example there's a Britney Spears showbag, containing a wallet, pen, hair scrunchie, etc. for like $10..there are hundreds of showbags available and just so you can make most efficient use of your showbag shopping time they've got them all listed online so you can check out the contents before hand..here's the link..have a look some pretty interesting bags they have available.
http://www.ekka.com.au/(uscgliiysqisupuh05raip55)/pagelink/Default.aspx?pageid=100848

Grades and Such

A few weeks ago I got my grades back for my classes and while I was aware that I did well as in not getting the lowest grade for anything still my GPA meant nothing to me b/c they use a different grading scale here. The highest you can get is a 7.0 and I got a 5.25, so confused I was about the whole thing, anyways today I came across a convertor to the American System and lo and behold my GPA is 3.0, pretty darn good I think, better than I did in undergrad that's for sure.

Also on another note, I noticed today in my negotiations class that people from other countries answer roll call differently..minor difference I know but just something I noticed when I was zoned out and staring into space. When my name's called I always say, "Here", whereas the Europeans always say, "Yes" and most of the asians say, "Present"--I'm guessing the whole present is a result of them being taught formal english or something. So that' s my observation for the day.

HAGgling

I don't like to haggle, it's a hassle and most of the time not worth it..anyhow that's all we do in my negotiations class is haggle about stuff, last week it was the purchase of 3000 oranges and this week we have an hour to negotiate the terms of a book contract with 8 different points..it's gonna be an ordeal...but I"m sure I"ll learn something..isn't that always the way.

The House!

Alright so since I'm gonna be moving from my house in honor of that I thought I'd post one of the last pics of all of us roomies together.
Back Row: (Left to Right) Jeff, Marc, Jann, Warrick
Front Row: (left to Right): Colin, Sebastian, Lilli, Valerio, Me
Across everyone's lap--Rafael

The Photo

So I've had comments that I look mischevious in the photo posted on the entry below, I would totally have to agree. The picture was taken by one of my roommates while I wasn't look and no doubt I was hatching some evil plan.

AHHHHHH!!

Hey everybody..why the AHHHH you ask? Well in the last 24 hours I've gotten a notice to vacate my house by Aug. 10th and been told that my job will be ending after next week, so needless to day in the next week or so I need a new job and place to live. Guess I'm gonna be busy, I've been trying to be proactive though and been looking at places today all day on my break from Uni. The job thing might be a bit trickier but I'm confident it'll all work out (if I wasn't telling myself it'll all be okay then I'd be freaking right now). I have to say it's making me minorly stressed being that I'm super low on money as usual but don't get the rewards without the sacrifice, love where I'm living at even though it's been a bit difficult at times it's all worth it. Also since I just started classes I figure that new semester, new everything, my whole reality might as well be altered.
So apparently I can now just upload pictures straight to my blog so here's experiment #1 with a random pic taken a few weeks ago...hope this works then I'll post pics up here more often!!

The Russian and the Chinese Fashion Designer

This semester I'm in a class called Business in Australia, now the thing with this class is you are only allowed to take the class if you are an international student so as it turns out I'm the only native english speaker in the class (about half the students are French, the rest Chinese or Thai with a Russian thrown in the mix) except for the professor who's British. So on the first day the prof paired us up with someone and we had to talk to them for a bit and then introduce them to the class and they in turn would introduce us..you know getting to know you games. My partner was from Taiwan and after several botched attempts for me to say his name right he finally said I could just call him Chris. Once the introductions started hilarity ensued, mostly because people kept saying inappropriate things about their partner such as their age and they were too young or old for this program or they hate certain foods or they come from small town in China with only 7 million people stuff like that. The best bit though had to be this Russian girl Katya and a Chinese girl Shirlee. Now Shirlee was wearing an interesting outfit, it looked to be a full on pink velour sweatsuit and some type of space boots. So Katya says to the class, This is Shirlee from China, in China she studied fashion designing obviously. At this point I bust out laughing (no one else does) and Katya turns red as if I was laughing b/c of her english or something, I don't think she meant to be funny at all, not from the expression on her face but it was funny nonetheless. The she goes on to tell us that Shirlee was also professional piano player in China playing in many bars (again laughs from yours truly) and I didn't hear anything after that b/c I kept thinking how Shirlee was a fashion designing drinkie girl in Shanghai and that threw what little focus I have to begin with right out the window.

International Negotiations

So semester 2 is offically underway as I"ve just attended my second lecture, which is my negotiations class..you know the one I blogged about where you can't be late. It's definetly gonna be my hardest class this semester (apart from probably International Finance but since I've already given up hope on that one before it's even begun, I have a certain zen feeling about the entire thing). First we had to break up into cultural groups so that we could tell the class how our culture normally negotiates. Once again I'm the only American so I had to be with a couple of Australians that were in our class and we talked about negotiating in Australia. Then we had a huge group from Thailand, one from Mainland China, one from Norway, one from Taiwan, and one from France. So that pretty much sums up the class...half asian, half european..then me the token American as my professor called me. I'm definetly gonna learn alot there's no way I can't being totally out of my element. Also as an aside I also must mention that all the French guys are hot, that's sure to throw off negotiation tactics I'm sure..at the end of this week we got randomly given a negotiation role to study for next week and some other random person got the other number so that's who you'll be arguing against next week. I've gotta argue with Emmanuel this Frenchman who promptly came up to me and says, ah so now we are a couple. Ummm yeah I guess you could say that..trouble!

Back to the Grind

My semester break is nearly over got a few more days left but already the madness has started..these days professors can send mass e-mails to everyone on the class roster which is slightly annoying..I got this e-mail today for a class that doesn't start until over a week from now.

IBN409 - Negotiating Across Borders
Dear All
This is Cheryl Rivers, your unit co-ordinator and one of two lecturers in your Negotiation course this coming semester. Our first class is next week on Thursday morning - yippeeeeeee!!! Please note that this course only works if students come along to all three hours of the class. Because I am a lovely person - you have all, already earned 15% of your marks because I figure you are all great people and want to work hard in my subject. Now the bad news - if you do not come, on time, every time, then I deduct marks off the 15% as part of your reputation /integrity marks. -5% for being late - how harsh is THAT? No excuses are acceptable beyond being on your deathbed or work (and it has to be somewhere more important than MacDonalds / local restaurant). If you are extending your holidays at home, or your bus is late, or you can't be fagged walking in until 9.20 am then you lose marks. You would not walk into a business negotiation late, so do not do it in this course! Please read the unit outline in more detail so you know what you are getting into. Please do not email me with your tales of woe of where you live and how often the busses run - I don't care and will not waive the rules for you. I look forward to seeing you at 9am next Thursday morning. Set those alarms early!!
Cheerio Cheryl

Uhh honestly..I like the bit about not being fagged walking in until 9.20..never heard that one before..guess I best to not go out ever on a Wed. night so I can make it in by 9am on Thurs.

I Fought the Reef and the Reef Won

Hey all, just back from a 3 day sailing trip on the outer great barrier reef. So pretty out there. I got my leg all scratched up and ripped a nail off my toe in a mishap with some coral..ouch!! Other than that though it was fabulous when snorkeling lots and saw some great islands and just sailed heaps. I was on one of the racing sailboats you know the ones that go competeley sideways when they are sailing, it was so much fun and also everyone on board had to help in sailing so lots of raising sails and holding ropes and sailory type stuff. I got some awesome pictures from the trip I'll be sending out in the next few days. It was crazy living on the boat for 3 days, no shoes, no showers and lots and lots of rocking, I've just now been able to walk straight 2 days later. I'm definetly gonna sail again as soon as I get the chance, there's honestly no greater feeling than sailing into a beautiful sunset..one of my best moments ever!! Also met some awesome people on my boat, nothing to do for 3 days but chat to people to keep yourself entertained so get some good bonding time in..great trip all and all..can't wait to do it again!!

Random Thought

I wish I could learn to sleep with my eyes open. Work/class would be so much more pleasant.

The Best Laid Plans

So I'm not headed to Thailand after all not gonna get into it but there was an ordeal with my tickets, couldn't get the original discount price so had to scrap it. Anyways instead I'm going sailing on the great barrier reef..not a bad backup trip if I do say so myself. Should be loads of fun, I'm going on a maxi sailing boat which is one of those ones that used to compete in yacht races so we should be skimming along the ocean sideways and super fast..fun/scary. It's a 3-day cruise so I get to chill on the boat for a bit, then I'm just gonna hang for a few more days on land up by the reef, probably get some more snorkeling and sailing in then as well. Still no word on where I"m gonna live at but I'll get to it soon enough, lots of my roomies are going home so there's been lots of farewell parties of late..gonna miss everyone but I'm sure I'll meet some more cool people in my next place. Some of my friends though are here for a their whole degree or a year long exchange so luckily I'll still have lots of people to hang with when the semester ends. Okay I need to stop my procrastination and get back to studying.

I'm Still Here!!

I know it's been ages since I blogged but I've been so busy the last month of the semester I"ve had all my major projects due and I've been working. My first final exam is tomorrow and last one the 27th of June..can't wait till it's over but the end is near!! So big news I"ve just booked into Thailand for my 3 week break between semesters...should be so much fun...I have to say that I just booked it today and I haven't done any research and I have no time to check it out but hell it should be a good time..I'll manage to get it together before I leave..as I was just studying for my marketing exam tomorrow I just got into a mini-panic going wait I need travel insurance and shots and probably a visa or something..dammit so much to think about!!! Not to mention that I have to move at some point..which means packing up all my belongings before I leave and storing them before I come back here homeless...the goal is to find a place before I leave that I can move into the day I get back..I swear I'm getting more and more laidback..didn't think it was possible?? Well apparently it is given that it doesn't bother me that I'll have no home when I come back..figure everything will work itself out..always does one way or another hey.

Irish Invasion

This has been a crazy week..I've had 2 major assignments due that I never thought I'd finish and now work for the next couple of days..I have to say I'm rather exhausted. This weekend however I've gotta buck up though b/c the Irish are coming to town, Conner and Danielle that is my lovely roomies from Sydney are up here in Queensland for a last hoorah. Sunday I'm meant to go down and meet them in Surfers Paradise which not only has some of the best beaches on the Gold Coast but some of the best nightlife as well..so we're gonna have a rowdy Sunday session and then it's back to Brissy and class for me, until Wed. when they get to my house and stay for 3-4 days..should be a good time I'm already stocking up on water. In Brisbane roomate news on Tues. night my roommate Tim was super drunk and decided he was going to show off his new breakdancing skills..until about 1:30am...it was a joy to all I tell you..there is a reason why a) 18 years olds shouldn't drink and b) the bowls clubs (these are lawn bowling clubs--kinda like bocce ball) shouldn't be allowed to serve $3 mixed drinks 24/7. I've only got another month until I'm done with finals and everything I can't wait..I majorly need a holiday on a warm beach with no thoughts of looming assignments or work in my head.

German Party!!

Friday night I went to a German party at this bar in the West End of the city it was a really cool place with this awesome courtyard/patio in the back..the perfect place for a yoddelling competition and bratwurst eating competition!! It was about half Germans and half French people there don't ask me why but the French always pop up everywhere. This big german girl won the bratwurst eating contest and you know what she won--you guessed it..lots of german beer!! My roommate Jann has been telling stories all semester about this crazy french girl he met and how he had to save her from drowning one time when she was so drunk, kept running into the ocean. Every once in a while he'd have another random story about her and then finally on Friday night I saw her and wouldn't you just know it, it's this girl that's in 3 of my classes and she seems really quiet I would've never thought her the type. Now she probably won't talk to me in class anymore thinking that since I know Jann I must know about her drunken antics..so embarass. I also discovered that almost every french girl seems to be called Astrid, it must have been the popular name there back in 1980 or something. Afterwards we went to a club that has a pool in the middle..nothing but trouble I tell you..I'm surprised no one has drowned in that thing. Today I'm in the library trying to finish 2 projects that I have due next week but after that I'm done until finals...so exciting can't believe my first semester is almost over!!

Eviction and the Mining Games

This week has been super busy for me not only b/c of the amount of assignments I have due but b/c I got an eviction notice on Wed. and then freaked out and had to figure out what the hell I was gonna do about a roof over my head. I managed to work things out with the new owners of my house and so will be staying for about 6 more weeks thank goodness b/c yesterday every place I had called had already rented out their rooms!! So this weekend is Labour Day weekend here and unfortunelty I'm not able to go anywhere b/c I have a huge presentation on Tuesday and a paper due. I was meant to just study all weekend but well earlier today I got a call from one of my roommates begging me to be on his team for the International Mining Games. Apparently they have to have one girl on their team and being that it's all mining engineering students girls are few and far between. Here is what I've apparently agreed to participate in tonight:
Delegate Social Evening - Friday 29 April 2005Hosted by: UQ Mining and Metallurgy AssociationTo start the mining games this traditional evening includes the boat races where bonus points for the mining games will be given for team attendance. The races will consist of one "crew" of five people per team competing in the mining games, with a minimum of one female per crew. Meet and compete against your new friends in a relaxed social atmosphere. (Venue TBA)
Cost:
Races will be paid for, all other costs at the expense of the individual
Apparently this game involves lots of beer!
Also these are some of the events:
Team Events
The list below is to be used as a guide only for the type of events to be held at the mining games. The events chosen to be hosted at the University of Qld. Mining Games is at the discretion of the Mining Games committee who's decision is final. A full list of events and rules will provided once Mining Games registration is complete or will be available in due course via The AusIMM website.
Rock Drill
Boulder Drilling
Burn Cut Drilling
Crushing
SG Determination
Mass Balancing Exercise
Hand Mucking
Timber Settling
Rail Settling
Face Tie In
Slot Tie In
Gold Panning Ventilation
Surveying
Sounds like I will be needing a hard hat..I promise to have lots of stories, also I'm sure it's not safe for one to be doing rock drilling the next morning after drinking ungodly amounts of beer in some sort of boat race!! The hand mucking event sounds interesting though I must say.

Update on my previous warning!!

As you may recall a while ago I blogged a warning to my group members from my Logistics class who had yet to identify themselves..so here's an update, one of them dropped out of the group altogether and the other Lisa Liang well she might as well have..first she told me that she couldn't be there to present with me b/c she had to go to China and now I get a couple of e-mails from her..I will post them below.
This is one she wrote to the professor and copied to me, mind you I hadn't discussed this with her yet.
Date: Thu, 07 Apr 2005 06:23:29 +0000From: "Lisa Liang" <> Add To Address Book This is Spam Subject: Re: Tutorial case presentation (IBM410 ) To: ma.cox@qut.edu.au Cc: a2.hernandez@student.qut.edu.au
Hi, Michael,
Richard suggested me to discuss with you regarding my absence from next Wed tutorial presention of case 13 & 14 due to my work commitment to China for Canton Trade Fair which I should return by 25 April as per current schedule.
The team member Adrian and I will do the written preparation together but only Adrian will present during the tutorial.She is ok with it but I wonder if that's ok with you and if that will affect my individual mark.
Regards,
Lisa Li

Adrian,
I am now in Japan for work and will not attend the IBn410 for two weeks. Could you please help me to print out the attached CAS to Richard for this coming Wed tutorial ?
I am working on our case and will email you my part of work soon for you to present on next Wed. Do you do one group report of CAS or individual report?
I haven't heard from Michael Cox but never mind, you might get extra marks to present all. :-).
Please confirm you received this email and ok for you.
Thank you very much.
Lisa
So now apparently she's in Japan and not only that but she wanted me to turn in her assignment for her and furthermore we still haven't discussed anything for the presentation I'm just hoping she does e-mail me something as the presentation is this Wed. and dammit I better get extra marks for doing this by myself it's lots of work!! I may have to write her a strongly worded e-mail!!!

The Century Club

Many of you may have heard about the Century Club and no I 'm not talking about the one at A&M, I'm talking about doing 100 shots of beer in 100 minutes. Tonight my male roommates are set to do just that..I see disaster looming. For one thing last night a couple of them wanted to practice by just doing 50 shots..so there I sat for 50 minutes shouting DRINK every minute and then helping them to frantically refill their shot glasses before the minute was up and well a couple of them almost threw up just doing the 50, mind you they were already drunk when they decided to do this. So tonight they've decided they won't drink anything before they start which I think is wise. It's shaping up as an epic match up between the Canadians and the Germans, the Germans of course saying that the Canadians won't make it all the way through to 100 we shall see I'll have to update you as to the no doubt sad and messy outcome. Also by the way someone barfed in our living room last weekend and also broke a window..come to find out it was my roommate Colin (An Aussie) who had been out on an epic piss up. Also he fell down the stairs and had bruises and scratches everywhere but like the trooper he is he was drinking wine the next night--that's what happens when you're 20!!

Fun in Southeast Asia

Okay so here's a tidbit from drunk Mary (my former roommate in Coogee and all around cool gal) who is now wandering around SE Asia..she's so funny will remind you of Bridget Jones when you are reading the travelouge but it's worth checking out..so read on..


Hello lovely people! I didn't manage to send these e-mails to you the first time around, so I am afraid I have sent them as one extremly long one now!! SORRY! You can read it in stages...one a week, so that you dont actually die of boredom! I am now in Vietnam, but about to head to Cambodia. Laura... How's the restaurant and the monster? Hope both are not causing you too much trouble!! I miss you and Nick and Coogee! Lots and lots of hugs xxxxx Drey... my love how is Brissy? How is life? Was thinkin bout you today, and thinkin what lovely friends I had in Oz! Loads of love xxxx Oh and I have been a very good girl, so should manage to stay out of a Thai prison for the moment... HOWEVER...I have been practising my kareoke version of "like a virgin" in a wonderbra just in case! xxxxxxxx Saibadee from Laos! This is one of those totally boring travel updates, where I bleat on and on about the wonders of elephants... so if you choose to read it and then start to worry about my pathological obsession with large grey animals, then it is your own fault as I did warn you. Ok... so some of you are aware that I am now hurtling around South East Asia at quite an alarming pace, do to my unfortunate need to return to the oh so cold splendour of the U.K on May 11th to watch one of my money obsessed city broker cousins wander down the aisle with his poor deluded bride....who, to get with the theme of : "we have monay yah yah...we want more money...yah yah...we never shut up about money...yah, yah", will be attired in a v, tacky gold dress! I therefore must return to England to witness this debacle, and to carry on my traditional behaviour at family gatherings of getting utterly spasticated and then puking on somebody posh. I started my trip with the most fantastic couple of days out in the countryside a few hours away from Bankok, in Kanchanaburi. It was fascinating seeing the real 'Bridge over the River Kwai', and visiting the museum there. The poor P.O.W's had a shocking time, but there was a photo of a group of friends from the camp, who had all lost limbs while working on the bridge. They were wearing their prosthetic legs, grinning madly and hugging each other, on a visit back to the bridge, this time as paying customers. I have gone elephant mad over past couple of weeks... I met a baby elephant at the bridge and paid to feed him which was gorgeous, then I went to stay at an elephant camp. I got up at 6.30 (unheard of I know) the other morning to ride my favourite one called Leaf (he loves eating leaves of all kinds), down to the river and wash him. It was so scary at first as you dont feel at all safe, but after a while I just wedged my thighs firmly under the poor creatures ears and wobbled on. It was Amazing being in the water with him! He kept ducking under the water and then spraying me with tons of water from his trunk! The photos are hilarious, of me clambouring all over this poor elephant, scrubbing his back and tusks, falling off, standing up on him, and being liffted up backwards on his trunk...with my whopping butt in the air! I didn't want it to end... its definitely the most fun you can have at 6.30am. I had to keep dodging the huge poos floating past me in the water!! My massive mouth was as usual wide open so I almost caught one in the gob. I then had a ride on another elephant, but this time it wasn't bare-back...it was on one of those two-person seats with my new Slovakian friend Roman (exceedingly yummy but too young...dammit!). It was so much more relaxing and far more comfy, than clinging wildly to an elephants ears! I then got to feed four elephants... I just adore the way they search your whole body for more bananas with their agile trunks. They blow warm air in your face to say "hurry up...I'm ready for another bunch"! They are definitely my favourite animal this month. I may even go back to the camp when I return to Bankok, to see them again. The camp was just so relaxing, as where I was staying was on stilts on the river, so I could hear the water flowing past at night. The people there were so lovely and there were the most gorgeous little kids running riot everywhere, having the most amazing childhoods. Kids as young as four can ride the elephants and give them commands... you should see them clambouring over them like its the most natural thing in the world. I played with 2 little boys loads, they loved having raspberries blown on their bellies, and rolling around in the dirt wrestling with me (I have never been so dirty...it was great!). They followed me everywhere, running after my elephant while I was riding him... we waged war on each other with imaginary guns... pow pow! As I left (floating down the river on a raft) they blew kisses at me and followed the boat down the river.... I have come to the conclusion that I have been wasting my time on grown up males, as the ones under four feet are obviously far more into me! I met an interesting Belgian girl my age who fell in love with the country, the elephants and a man here so stayed. She is the main Elephant trainer at the camp and can speak to them in Thai, BUrmese, and Cambodian! Elephants apparently are multi-lingual!! Her new baby, Ellie (v. aptly named), will apparently ride to school on an elephant and she already loves being on them and pulling their trunks! She was sooo squishy! I had a fantastic time there, which was only slightly marred by the fact that they lost my bag, so would you believe that I managed several days without soap, toothpaste or any products of any kind couple of days!! This would not seem too disastrous if I hadnt slipped on my way into the camp...slidfing down a large wet muddy hill, which was covered in elephant poo! Therefore I spent a lovely few days whiffing of Eau de L'Elephant. I ALSO got to stroke tigers at a temple in the middle of nowhere...they are quite fluffy really! Nice of them not to eat me I thought too! Especially as I am so rolly-polly now that I have plenty of good eating on me!! I made friends with the most beautiful, adorable little thai girl on the train too. She loved Bruno (I believe most of you have been introduced to my large bulldog stuffed animal...who is currently still the love of my life) and me, and I played with her for hours. She loved us so much that she abandoned her own bed and climbed in with me for some of the night. She was absolutley fascinated by my digital camera, and took tons of photos.... mainly of her own eye, however, as she loved the flash going off in her face (hope I haven't blinded her or anything!). She was also fixated by my electric toothbrush! She very kindly brushed my teeth for me (only causing me mild injury when she managed to hit the back of my throat!), in the night and morning and also took great pleasure in doing her own little teeths with the wildly vibrating contraption! So funny and cute! I really adore the children in Asia. They are so happy and unwhiny. They are easily pleased and have no problems amusing themselves with the little they have,( I'm going to adopt some instead of having miserable Brit children who will be injecting acid into their eye balls by 9.) There were loads of them jumping off walls into the river like little lemmings! I also went to visit an orphanage in Chiang Mai the other day, to sign up as a volunteer...unfortunatley the process took too long and I had to leave before I could do any work for them, such a shame! But I took the kids some toys (demonic yapping battery operated dogs with green flashing eyes...bound to be adored despite their hideous appearance!), and made a donation to put towards more resources. Such a shame I dont have more time here. I am now in Laos and think its just gorgeous! I have just come from Luang Prubang and just wandering around the town is fascinating. The buildings and temples are so characterful and beautiful, and the river with mountains rising up behind it caused me a sharp intake of breath as I turned a corner in the street and was faced with this stunning vista. There are hundreds of monks milling around the town.... I do love the vestments they wear...bright orange...as tho they've been tangoed! I am now in hippysville Van Vieng, which is utterly stunning. I have the most amazing view of the blue limestone mountains from my balcony, as I'm staying on the river. I spent the whole day chilling out on a raftlike platform over the water, watching more elephants having baths in the river.My peace was shattered when I was involved in a frenzied attack half way thru my relaxing day however, when I was bombarded by balls of riverweed by seventy or so local smiling kids. You will be relieved to hear that I sustained only minor injuries (to my sense of dignity) in the onslaught, however I was left looking like some variety of swamp monster. Reminded me of something from Doctor Who. I also made a right plonker out of myself when I decided to tackle a "happy pizza" last night, Fuck it was strong man.... I almost whitied on the way home, and then was violently sick in an alley, almost hitting a poor unsuspecting dog. Be warned... the stuff here is strong!! Either that or I have now turned into a total light weight and will have to give the stuff up entirely (which I almost totally have anyway), before I continue to humiliate myself further. Anyway, I must go as have lots more exploring to do and am then going to reward myself with trying a Laos massage...mmmmmmmmm! Hope its more relaxing than Thai style...which left me yelping in pain and rather bruised.... I really thought at one point she may have broken my back and rearranged all my internal organs (however, I must remember that I am a hopeless hypochondriac and a melodramatic drama queen and probably imagining it!) ............ update...have just had Lao massage....was performed by a ladyboy who's hormones must not have really kicked in yet (hint of a moustache). I hope you all had a fantastic Easter.And hope this long, droning account of my travels hasn't bored you to tears. Loadsa love. The intrepid adventurer and lover of elephants (in a purely platonic sense of course), Mary xxxxxxxxxx Dear God....have just re-read this e-mail and I either sound like a budding peadophile or a seriously clucky female who needs to procreate immediately. I assure you that I am neither of these things... its just that I do find children are more on the same wavelength as me at the mo...which is possibly more worrying??

Casa Muy Loco

So now that everyone has been livng together in the house over a month it's getting kinda hectic in there. Starting to realize everyone's quirks and most of all to notice just how damn noisy it is in that place!! Everyone plays their radios super loud..no one louder than Nigel who lives in the room behind mine..at times his bass shakes my windows..not acceptable!! Then there's Sebastian the wacky German who brought his trumpet with him all the way from Germany to torment all of us practicing. Couple of weeks ago Sebastian got his bag "stolen" from a bar..called my phone at like 1am in hysterics, slurring..saying they took my bag and I don't have keys..so once he got home he then couldn't get into his room so he decided to break down the door...kept running at it full force just like in the movies until he busted it open..ruining the door frame, he had been on a law school pub crawl when his bag was "taken", the next day he got a call from a bar saying they found it on the floor. Ever since then we've called him the incredible hulk. Then there's Jack the 18 year old who always has his TV blaring, I was woken up at 7am yesterday morning by Mr. Burns saying "Excellent". Jann who has the room between me and Jack's is always banging on Jack's wall for him to turn it down which is of course just as loud if not louder than the TV. Jann has his share of music on but he only turns it on when he has a woman in his room, which surprisingly often, he's currently sleeping with 3 of the girls in the house, he's such a skeeze and I told him so..he didn't know what that meant but I explained and he thought it was funny and he's all yes I am in fact a skeeze..crazy germans. Also I'm Jann's hairdresser, he often knocks on my door to have me tidy up his haircut..in exchange for beer of course. Then night before last when we were out bbq ing apparently the police came to our house looking for my roommate Warrick..nice..glad I missed that.

My Life: An Update

Okay so I haven't blogged in a while, last week was mid-semester break (known at home as spring break but being that it's technically fall here they had to name it something else). Anyways I went to Sydney for a few days and hung out with Conner and Danielle my old roomates the wild Irish we had an absolute blast. That weekend was the Easter Carnival at the horse races and we got all dressed up and went to the track and drank champagne and had a merry old time then we met up with Conner's Gaelic football team for a mad night on the town. Sunday we woke up and went to an Aussie Rules football game. I have to say I think they're tougher than american football players..no padding whatsoever just shorts and a sleeveless top and they hit the ground pretty freakin' hard..also all the players are totally hot they have to be in awesome shape to play the game since they are running around for 2 straight hours. As we left the game these pubs were having a promotion and were handing out free drink cards, we walked to several different parts of the staduim to get as many vouchers as possible and ended up with 21 between the 3 of us..good times. Then I came back to Brisbane and promptly got a cold so I've been out of commission for the last 4-5 days, how I can get a cold when it's 90 degrees everyday I don't know but I managed it. Then this past week I had my first presentation in one of my classes or shall I say my first grilling by the professor and her special guest a senior australian trade commissioner. The whole thing turned out alright but it was definetly a challenge and harder than anything I ever had to do in undergrad. With that over last night me and some of my roomates had a BBQ out at Southbank which is this huge lagoon, swimming area that's right on the river..my roomate Andreas is headed back to Germany today so we had a going away party and grilled lots of food and drank lots of course. Also I ate kangaroo last night for the first time..I didn't like it much..everyone kept saying it tasted like beef but it was like beef with a kick or something not suited to my taste. Since there were loads of Germans at the party we ended up singing German folk/drinking songs and getting generally rowdy. My roomate Amanda was drinking box wine which we all know is a bad idea and she somehow just ended up getting so obliterated it was unbelieveable. Anyhow she got up to go to the bathroom and in one of those moments that you can see happening and it seems in slow motion but you can't do anything to stop it..she fell and hit her head on a lamppost..thank goodness she was okay..popped right up and didn't feel a thing but immediately this HUGE lump started to form right in the middle of her forehead and just kept growing bigger and bigger much to everyone's amusement..needless to say she woke up this morning having no clue what happened and why she had a big ass bump on her head..so embarass!!!

Norwegian Party Pics

They posted a few pics from the party this past Wed. that I refer to in my previous post..this helps explain what I mean by everyone with cowboy hats and masks on..enjoy!
http://norskstudentcom.web2.sircon.net/norsk/gallery/gallery_details.jsp?gallery=33

Swedes say the darndest things

Last night there was yet another event for the Norsk Norweigan Drinking Club. I swear these events get more and more bizarre, last night when we got to the bar they gave us all straw cowboy hats, zorro masks and glow sticks..dont' ask me what for but everyone was wearing them..I skipped on my glow stick and mask but I did have my hat on..so when I describe to you the following conversation you have to picture it taking place in a bar full of people with cowboy hats and zorro masks. I was there with my roommate Kim who I love to death but isn't always the brightest creature you've ever met. So as we're walking trough the crowd this guy stops her and says "Hi Kim" and Kim looks at him all confused clearly she can't remember where they met, but she says oh" Hi how have you been?" and most normal people at this point would keep on walking but not Kim she stops and says "I'm sorry I'm not sure where it is I met you" and he says, "I met you last weekend when you were with your boyfriend" (Mind you Kim doesn't have a boyfriend so at this point her eyes get kinda big and she's really super confused) and she says "Oh who was it you saw me with?" (Once again she should have just kept on walking) and he says "Yorg" (who's some other Swedish guy that Kim hangs out with sometimes) then she goes onto explain unnecessarily and in slow english (she's american but is talking to a swede so it was necessary) " Yorg and me we are not together like that there is just not lots of chemistry you know passion and I feel like I need time on my own and I like Yorg but I just don't feel like lots of sparks b/c of his quiet personality..etc" and she goes on and on about why they aren't together to this poor swede who #1 is obviously Yorg's friend and #2 was probably like I just wanted to say hi...but then the Swede says, "oh yes I know this problem I made out with a girl yesterday and today I must call her and tell her it is over."

Reading Rainbow

So since I basically have no material possesions and live in my bare room with just my clothes I've been reading alot..which is actually a good thing. I joined the local library here and have been going through a couple of books a week (not counting all the reading I have to do for class). The latest book I've been reading is The Opposite of Fate by Amy Tan (which is basically like her autobiography..but kinda more than that) anyways I would highly recommend it..here's one of my fav quotes from it..which is really from her mother, she says her mother used fear to keep them from doing things they weren't supposed to and the following is a fine example:
"Don't ever let boy kiss you, you do, you can't stop. Then you have baby. You put baby in garbage can. Police find you, put you in jail, then you life over, better just kill yourself."

Also I'd like to shout out the following public service warning to:

LIANG LULU
LIM YANG LENG

You two have been put in my group for my Int'l Logisitics class and we have to do a presentation and you 2 aren't ever in class..the professor says if you 2 don't pop up at some point I'll just have to do the project myself..this does NOT make me happy..so Lulu and Leng..get with program dammit I don't want to have to track you down and yell at you and believe me I have nothing better to do..except perhaps do a 3 person project by myself..so I'm warning you Lulu and Leng get ahold of yourselves..get it together and get your ass to class!!!!

If I could live my life all over, I still couldn't stay sober

That paraphrases Robert Earl Keen but well it's true..I have kind of a do-over of college life at the moment..it's like I can start all over and be an academic star this time around. But well lets be honest I'm still tempted to go out and have a good time as opposed to keeping my nose in the books all the time. Although this time there are a few things I've set out to do differently:
1. I plan to actually read the chapters before class, I think this will help lots. 2. I plan to start assignments sometime before the day they are due. 3. I plan to be organized. 4. I plan to not go to class hungover. All of these are easier said than done but with week 2 behind me I have so far succeeded in those tasks..now if I can only keep it up for 11 more weeks I'll be golden. Although I was hungover in one class last week but since I had done the reading well in advance I had some idea what was going on..so I think if I do the first 3 then that partially compensates for a failure on #4. Also the university I go to is down the street from Queensland Parliment and the courthouses so there are always lots of men and women walking around in powdered wigs..yep they still wear those here for court and such...it's super bizarre and always throws me off. I especially like that most of them carry wigboxes around with them.

The Norweigan Student Club

So last night I became a member of the Norweigan Students Club or Norsk as they call it. I came home from class yesterday and my German roommate Jann (who has a nose for sniffing out all things related to alcohol and women) asked me if I wanted to come with him to the Norwegian Students Club pub crawl b/c he had joined as a member. He then informed me that it's the best club on campus and they are known for their pub crawls every couple of weeks so I thought I'd check it out. We get to the first bar and it's absolutely packed..for $8 you get your Norwegian Students Club card, one free drink at every bar on the pub crawl (there were 5 we made it to) and membership for the rest of the year. Then they gave us a necklace that had a card attached to it where we wrote our name really big and it also had all the pubs listed and what group you were in (the Norwegians were very organized about the drinking I tell you), anyways there were so many people that we had groups A-F and would rotate pubs all ending up at the same club at the end. I lost my group after there first pub and so after that just started following anyone that blew the whistle and held up a letter. I met loads of norwegians and swedes, heard lots of talking that sounded like fluten flagen and had loads of beer as well. It was a really fun night..I'll definetly be hanging with the norwegians again.

First Day of School

So today was my first day of school as an international student. I'm actually getting excited about my classes even though I have just now changed around my entire schedule. It was necessary b/c one of my classes was Friday from 6-9pm which as we all know is unacceptable. So now I've changed it so that I just have class Mon.-Wed. So there are some differences between going to school here and in the states the most obvious which is the grading system. Thank goodness the professor in my first class was kind enough to explain it to us. They go on a 7 point GPA system here so 7.0 is HD (High Distinction), 6.0 D (Distinction), 5.0 C (Credit) 4.0 P (Pass) and 3.0 LP (Low Pass) and you can't get more than like 3 LPs in order to graduate. It's all very confusing considering that having a 4.0 GPA here means simply that you passed. Also at the beginning of class we all had to go up and say our names and where we were from and what our first degree is in and our work background. It was kinda intimidating at first but well everyone in there I'd say is between 25-28 so have roughly the same amount of experience. The crazy thing was though that I am the only American in that particular class and there are people from 16 different countries in this particular class, mostly from Europe (Germany, Sweden, Norway, France) then you have some from Asia (Thailand, China, Japan) then India, Sri Lanka and about 5 or 6 Aussies then me the lone American, should make for an interesting class and also will be interesting to work in groups with people that are from so many different places (if not a bit maddening!) It definetly looks like I'll have my work cut out for me though judging from the unit outlines my classes are no joke and I'll be writing loads of papers and doing lots of presentations, at least I have the advantage of english being my first language.

My new abode

Alright so today I found a place to live. It's in a suburb of Brisbane called New Farm (http://www.ourbrisbane.com/living/suburbs/new_farm/home/) which has loads of shops, restaurants and nightclubs in it. It's also right next to Fortitude Valley which is the biggest cultural and arts center of Brisbane. The house I'll be living in has 20 rooms..yes 20 and 5 bathrooms. It's in a style of house called a Queenslander which is a huge house with a wraparound porch that is set a bit high off the ground to make it cooler in there. My room has windows that open out onto the wraparound porch. From my house I can either take the rivercat ferry to school (river bank is about 2 blocks away) or I can take a 15 min. bus ride. I move in tomorrow so I'll try to get some pics soon for everyone!! I can't wait till someone comes to visit me and my 20 new roomates (none of whom I've met yet) at my new place.

Delinquent

Okay so I’ve been delinquent about updating the blog but well I’ve been busy. Here’s the latest: I’m leaving on Thursday to move to Brisbane to go to grad school for International Business. Right now I’m in the process of trying to get my student visa which believe me is a freakin’ ordeal of ordeals and costs lots of money. Also I’m moving out of my place and staying in hostel for a few days so not getting much sleep sharing a room with 8 people who are coming and going at all hours. I will be so glad when I can get up to Brisbane and find a place to live. I think I’m gonna live in a share house with probably 5-6 people but I’ll have my own room so that’ll be good. So yesterday was Valentine’s Day and also my first night in the hostel. In the hostel bar they had traffic light night which means that you are supposed to wear a green, yellow or red shirt—green for let’s go, yellow for maybe and red for taken. It was kinda wild down there and some good people watching. I refrained from picking a color and wore black—it was best..everyone down there was super drunk, although lots of greens seemed to hook up. The best though was one of my roommates in the hostel Simon—a crazy brit, he had this green silk robe that he just got in Vietnam with a big yellow dragon sewn on the back and he wore that..he however did NOT hook up but he did almost step on my head when he was trying to get into his bunk at like 5am. Also there was a guy wearing a shirt that had an arrow point up that said The Man and then an arrow pointing down that said The Legend, classy that one. Also one of my other roommates there is a flight attendant and he had this huge bag full of mini bottles that he was sharing with all..I have to admit I did have a couple mini bottles of Finlandia, he was drinking mini bottle after mini bottle of Chivas Royal..gross! Anyways so that was my valentine’s day..chillin with the hostel crazies and getting not much sleep but well I’m having a good time and really looking forward to my move.