so many faces...

i have met more cool people in the last two weeks to last me a lifetime. i actually don't want to meet any more cool people. ever. it's too hard to meet cool people and then have to say bye to them. from now on, it's just you guys, and some sporadic non-cool people in my life. shoot. only 12 minutes left on my internet timer. okay, must type quickly. went to airlie beach and went sailing in the whitsundays with 23 amazing people and the crew was awesome and hiliarious and showed us a good time. and it even rained the whole trip and it was truly wonderful still. even sitting inside and playing cards was fun. didn't get to see any of the beaches we were supposed to...but, we did eat well and played even better. did lots of diving and snorkelling, saw cool things, got to lie in the nets on the front of the boat and pretend we were dolphins. crap, 4 minutes left (stupid msn). okay okay....um, i will finish this at a cheaper internet location.

wake up to the sound of the ocean...

spent the last few days on magnetic island..woke up next to the beach, looking up into palm trees and blues skies and ocean....just sat around and relaxed...went horse riding in the bush and on the beach...got to ride bareback on the horses (ow) and went swimming with them in the ocean. so amazing. luckily, they gave me a fairly skinny horse (whew!), so i'm not too sore...though i am bit bruised....alanna, i cantered! not very gracefully, but cantered never the less.... :) managed to hold on for dear life. also did a walk along the island and saw koalas. so close, i could've touched them...decided not to sinve i've heard they are vicious...luckily there's no rabies here in australia :) am currently in airlie beach, about to go sailing! don't worry, i've stocked up on motion sickness pills....starting to miss home a lot, will be back very very soon!!

love,
kim

This is me sitting 140 metres above the ground, steeling myself to jump. this was actually the scariest part, cause the chair tipped backwards and you felt as though you were falling out that door behind me...

if there's one thing you should do in australia...

it's the uncle brain tour in cairns. one day of being a kid again. seriously. you play in waterfalls, see the rainforest, eat lots of chocolate, get fed home made meals, play games on the bus, sing at the top of your lungs, and SOO SOO much more. one of the best things i've done here in Oz. our tour guide (cousin paul) was absolutely hilarious, joking around the WHOLE time. i swear i almost got a six pack from laughing so much on this trip (covered by a nice layer of cushiony goodness, of course). we rode gus the bus who had an awesome personality (and a girlfriend..a hot milk truck named volvina, and an ambulance (vanessa) lusting after him...who sends him love letters), and even got to see wild platypus...oh, and did wine tasting (not a fan of chocolate wine...). jumped off a cliff into beautiful water, swam through waterfalls....it was wonderful. then, went out afterwards with the people from my group and had a great time at the bar. awesome day. time to leave cairns though, i'm starting to know too many people here, i've been here too long...off to magnetic island tomorrow!

denise, monica, and andre and i standing in a typical setting in new zealand

booyah.

the platform i jumped from into the canyon...had to take a gondola to get to it...

coconuts on the trees

alright. where was i last? new zealand...lovely lovely new zealand. okay...hmmmm....since then i have traveled up the coast to sunny cairns, where the beach is made of mud and the town is full of backpackers. a nice place to meet new people...the first night i got in me and the guy sitting beside me on the plane (dan), walked around the city for 2 hours with our packs looking for a place to stay (didn't book ahead...bad kim). finally found a lodge where we stayed for a night with two other guys who also hadn't planned ahead....nice bed though :) had a farewell drink with tom (who had a 30 hour train ride ahead of him), and lay on the median for a while chilling out. a good place to talk, let me tell yah. met meike the next day and went to a reef talk, by paddy o' something...the irish are crazy, and irish marine biologists even crazier. he was the most animated person i've ever met...sometimes to the point where i couldn't even listen to what he was talking about and just watched him jump around and hit things. chilled out with dan and our other roomate, amir from isreal. played some cards, talked (pop quiz alanna...what does it mean if someone british says i'm on the apples?, or let's have a butcher?) meike and i went to the daintree rainforest (cape tribulation) for a couple days, and sadly, it rained the WHOLE TIME. so, instead of getting all our clothes wet, we just walked around in our bikinis while everyone around us were wearing rainjackets and layers and hats and stuff. had some fun playing on the beach, had a mudfight in the ocean, watched crabs catapult little balls of sand from their holes, saw a flat frog, a feral pig...and then found out later that day that we were playing in crocodile territory. we weren't in much danger, since people walk to the swimming hole all the time...but still.... also went to a exotic fruit eating, love soursop and custard apples, opened some coconuts (well, meike did),went on a crocodile tour (say one croc and some snakes). met some cool people, had drinks with a south african fellow from the navy (liked to call people "pork chops"...hahah), a couple scottish girls. after those two days i headed off to port douglas, a lovely town that i would like to revisit someday. went on a dive tour, and a few minutes after takeoff in the boat, people started throwing up cause it was crazy wavy. luckily, i overdosed myself on motion sickness pills and was totally fine...for the first time in my life! i was so proud of myself :) the diving was okay, but not great visibility cause it had been raining and was really windy, and didn't really get a chance to see anything new...saw some sharks, cuttlefish, etc. meh. not as cool as tom...he got to dive with whales! awesome. should've dished out the extra 600 dollars....anyways, i'm back in cairns now and today i will plan the rest of my weeks..or at least tomorrow :) i'm not sure how to get pictures posted on here without the Hello program, so you may have to wait until i get back into syd, in two or three weeks...sorry guys!
piece of advice: try and do something new everyday. and keep me posted :)

kim

country music capital and sheep and kiwis

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD.....how old are you now,....30?

for my dad's birthday i threw myself headfirst into a 143m canyon. don't worry dad..i'm being safe. my legs were tied to a cord. it's all good.
new zealand is AMAZING. soooo gorgeous...we drive through and are surrounded by huge snow capped mountains and waterfalls every day. i'm currently in queenstown, adrenaline capital of the world....i've been on a tour traveling through new zealand....seen some pretty amazing things. no penguins yet though laura....i think yesterday may have been my last hope :( climbed fox glacier a couple days ago...got crampons (the pokey things on the bottom of your boots) and everything...even managed to not stab myself in the leg! did a short walk through the rainforest and saw glowworms (who are really just fly larvae that don't have waste holes, so they have to break it down inside them...and then when they turn into flies they don't have mouths, and eventually just get eaten by their own larvae....kinda makes you wonder what the point of them are...)
last week i was in tamworth (country music capital) at unigames, where my volleyball team (sydney uni) won first (woot!). slept in tents cause all the motels were booked out...it was pretty damn cold (5degrees each night), but luckily we spent lots of time in warm pubs :) it was one big party...got to see Thirsty Merc play, an awesome australian band who i gather are getting bigger...great concert, rocked out right at the front...

awesome pics to come soon.

love,
kim

put on the wetsuits again...

today was a big step up from yesterday...yesterday i sat at home and watched 4 movies. and of those 4, thomas crown affair was two of them. meaning that i watched it twice...no comment. anyways, today i went white water rafting with Sam from volleyball and her friends. it was crazy fun. much different from the rafting i had done before...this was on a course where the olympic stuff was done....first time round we managed to capsize the boat....no matter though, we all managed to get really good at falling off the boat. surprisingly, i didn't take too many people down with me as i fell...also got to play beach volleyball while we were waiting. really doesn't get much better than that. wait..it does...THEN, we went to krispy kreme (danger.) and us four girls ended up buying a dozen donuts each. don't worry, i haven't touched them...much. a couple of days ago we had my last volleyball party...sat in the pokies room (a room in every bar that has slot machines) and chilled until the bar closed (10pm...), and then headed off to our friends place, where we got stuck in the elevator, then ate jaffles (toasted sandwiches), ate nutella (mmmm.....), drank beer, watched the dubbed italian version of hercules, and then crashed. good times. so sad that volleyball is over for me here in sydney, and i probably won't play again til....PICK-UP....woooooot.

Your step-by-step guide to eating Tim Tams (aka the most glorious cookie known to man): Step 1. Buy and open Tim Tam packets (at least two is recommended, and of different varieties)

Step 2: Bite off a little cookie from both ends (must be careful - the tendency is to get carried away and eat the whole cookie)

Step 3: Dip one end of the cookie into hot liquid (usually tea, but sonia's drink of choice is hot water), and keep the other end in your mouth

Step 4. Suck.

Step 5. Quickly shove the melting Tim Tam in your mouth.

Step 6. Enjoy the gooey aftermath.

Warning: Tim Tams and tea are addictive. Do not expect to ever maintain any resemblance of a good figure ever again. You have been warned.

Note: Special thanks to model, Sonia, for sacrificing herself to the good cause of making the world a better place through proper tim tam eatage.

us+5 cappucinos = us+2 balloons+chinatown

5 cappucinos later...

finished exams yesterday, so me and sonia decided to go to the casino (at 3pm) cause we heard we could get free drinks. so we went, signed up for members passes, and we also got 10 dollars of free gambling money each....but the free drinks didn't kick in for 2 hours, so we had some time to spare...ten minutes later we had managed to spend all of the money on button mashing at the slots (we stopped when three dollars fell out of the machine)...what is going on with those machines? they make more sense on tv... and one losing ten dollar bet on roulette (i streeted it...*cough*) we wandered around darling harbour for a couple hours and then came back and downed 5 cappucinos...which sonia payed for dearly...she is now a zombie and can't sleep (a day later). i felt drunk after so much caffeine, so needless to say we had a nice walk home involving balloons, rain, chinatown, and a videocamera.
went to the bar last night and ended up at three wise monkeys, where we hung out with some friends and had to say goodbye to some of them (*sniff*...), though i don't know if bernd got on the plane....he was still drunk when we sent him home at 4, and he had to catch a plane at 7 for cairns....it's kinda depressing....i'm still meeting new people who i really want to get to know, but i have to keep telling myself that i leave sydney in a week...crazy...

sonja, me, lena, and judith...loving life 

italian alessandro making carbonara at my place 

more pics and more ramblings

last night watched eurotrip, which was surprisingly good ("scotty doesn't know", our new theme song...and by "our" I mean sonia and I, cause we're an old married couple....), and then went out to scubar, one of the many backpacker bars here in sydney for a beer (okay, i'll be honest here...the only reason we went is cause we had a coupon...and everyone knows how much i like to use coupons). met a group of people and one of the guys is an abseiling instructor (going down vertical cliff thingies with harnesses), and he offered to take me next saturday!! yeah!! how awesome is that? hope that pans out...
i'm really tired and sore right now cause i was at the gym (in Olympic park) all day playing volleyball...I'm trying to wake myself up cause Meike, Sonia, and Madu and Vic are coming over and me and Sonia are making dinner for them...anyone have any ideas? me and sonia went to paddy's market yesterday and bought A MILLION vegetables (my fridge looks so happy!), so we're thinking stir fry. there is a thai dish that i've made a few times and Madu really likes it, but i'm thinking i should make her something different...we'll see how lazy i am (also not in the greatest mood - we lost both our games). thinking i'm just going to chill out tonight, do some studying and maybe watch ANOTHER movie...last week i was a total bum and spent WAYYY too much time on the comp - i spent a day on marinebio.com (so interesting), then next on whiteninjacomics.com (so mindnumbing), then spent hours guessing the world flags with meike, and yesterday sonia and I sat here and did stupid things.

i did think of more funny things from this week, too...
Amy (my twin): "hey, does what type of meat does that sausage have, I don't eat beef"
Kim: "let me check...(checks package) *cough* uhhh...you probably shouldn't eat it, it says "69% meat"".

(when out at a bar in king's cross)
Sonia (festive): "hey, i want to stay until the ugly lights come on"
Kim: "no sonia...in king's cross the ugly lights are the sun"

peace, happiness, and fluffy white bunnies,
kim

georg and the boxed wine (aka..."goon" here in australia)  

potluck later in the night...(left to right and top to bottom): vic and madu (singpore), Judith's friend (dutch), georg (german), sonia (US), meike, sonja, and lena (german), judith (dutch), tine (german) 

georg, gwyllim (sorry if i spelt that wrong), and sonja... 

eat eat eat

foooood....you know what i really missed? reese's peanut butter cups. A LOT. you know what jenny's boyfriend brought me? TWO BAGS OF THEM (see picture.) so awesome. i jumped him a little when he gave them to me.

this past week has been one big festival of eating...alessandro, my italian friend, came over and made carbonara, and then tom and meike came over and we had a full day affair of making pizza (from scratch!), and then potluck last night, and sonia and i have our meals all planned for today (and it's going to be delicious...). oh, and that doesn't even include the copious amounts of snacking...did i mention that i'm planning to run a 14k in august here in sydney, and a half marathon in january? even if i'm a thousand pounds.

so, uni is over and all i have left is two exams. and, it's official, australian computers hate me as much as canadian ones do...I spent hours and hours writing a report a few days ago on the library, and was almost ready to print it out and hand it in, when, my computer bleeped and then crashed, and my files all went corrupt. the computer guy was able to recover my text, but all my graphs and tables went to bleep. bleepity bleep. luckily i was so jaded cause i had been staring at the screen for so long i didn't really care, but it may have been a different story if i had had to write it again (can you have two "had"s in a row?).

excited to get out of sydney for a while....planes and trips are all booked. go to tamworth for vball tourny ("unigames") 2-9 july, new zealand 10-18, cairns 19th- whenever! how awesome is that?

watched pay it forward yesterday. bawled. i thought it was going to be a feel good movie...speaking of feel good movies, has anyone seen team america? yes, the one with puppets. i know, sounds stupid....but the funniest american satire ever. sooo soooo funny. hahaha, i just read its rating: "Rated R for graphic crude and sexual humor, violent images and strong language - all involving puppets." yes. there are puppets.

and, of course, some quotes of the week:

Meike (because we were talking about how everyone blames germany for everything that happened in the past): "...but Germany is pretty good now", Kim: "YEAH, compared to Hitler." (who, by the way, wasn't German...) *note: this was in a room full of Germans. so it was okay. I swear.

German joke (translated to english): What's the difference between a phone and George Bush? You can redial the phone number if you misdial. (i didn't get it either.)
Another German one: What's the difference between a horse and a convict? A horse breaks out, a convict breaks in. (my god, these are even worse than my jokes...i think they meant to say "adolescent").

Sonia: (looking at the shirt Georg is wearing, which said "placebo") "i like your shirt Georg, you're a placebo?" Georg: "Yeah, people think I help, but I don't".

shout out to alanna, who is in England (how awesome), and to Ms. Rochester for doing a half marathon a few weeks ago....who has now inspired me to start running (now THAT is a feat!). oh, and does anyone want to do some traveling anytime in the next couple years? my dad turned down my plea to go to nepal (inspired by eric), he told me to, "bring one of your crazy friends". and does anyone want to go diving in egypt...or backpack asia? let me know.

oh hey, check out the pics...i have a twin here in australia. mom, dad, are you sure you didn't have two kids?! apparently people have gone up to her and mistaken her for me a couple times...hahahaha....

still loving australia, the people are awesome, and it's already time to start saying goodbyes (i'm not going to cry, i swear..) i can't believe that time is actually flying this quickly..


kim

last night's potluck...and that's not me sitting on the left 

sonia, me and jenny...the good ol' days when going to the beach meant taking off your clothes 

Lena, Tine, and Sonja...getting cold in Sydney 

Georg: "People think I'm helping, but I'm not" 

last night

a summary:

kim: "knockknockwho's there" colin: "i dunno...who IS there?"
"stop banging on the pot and make me some spaghetti!"
"do you like to kiss?......do you like to kiss now?"
"and the other guy became a crack addict in tijuana...." "tijuana?" "tijuana" "tichchjcuana"
"i could have bought 500 dollars worth of wine instead of a visa"
"drunk on non-drunk touching"

byron bay:
looking at the "toilet is engaged" sign...."I wonder who proposed?"
"potato on potato action"

hahahaha...

yes alanna, i DO remember that time....thanks for bringing it up :) hahaha, good good good memories...keep 'em coming!!


P.S. get better meggie!!!!!!!

just kidding. THIS one is about last night.

two in one day...shocking.

last night i went to a party at one of the residences...it was pretty rocking. a little too rocking...i had to go to the lab at 8 this morning to count larva (woot), and i forgot to set my alarm, so i got up at 7:56am, ran around looking for my pants from the night before cause they had my keys in them, couldn't find them, so i left without them and ran to school (and got a free bus ride out of it..i think the driver took pity on me). got into lab, where tom proceeded to ask me if i had poured a bottle of vodka in my hair (no, i hadn't), and counted my larva. got out, had to finish two papers (on ... oh my god, i can't remember what they were on...symbionts! they were on symbionts!), and then had to go back to count larva again at noon...where is this story going? oh yeah, i was walking home and talking to my friend on my cell phone, when i realized that i was talking REALLY loud and everyone on the street was staring at me...and cursing...okay, they weren't cursing, but they weren't staring nicely. then, i got back to my apartment, in hopes that my roommate was in so he could let me in, when i realized that my keys were in my back pocket (and i had been sitting on them all day without noticing...). and lo and behold, that pair of pants i had lost were on my legs (did i fall asleep with them on, or did i put them on that morning...??)! and life was good again. and then i ate a delicious bowl of salmon chowder and came directly onto the internet to tell all of you the good news. but you were all asleep. except for jerome, who i'm pretty sure doesn't sleep. and....that's all.

byron bay...and last night

since i only write once every three weeks i've decided that you guys should read the blogs in sections. that way, you'll have something to read every day and i won't feel so bad...plus this one's going to be long and somewhat tedious to read in one chunk anyways.

SECTION 1

was sick last week, so there's nothing to report...except that my throat was dripping with mucous. that was unecessary. but i'm too lazy to go back and delete it. went to byron bay last weekend....it's known for it's surfing and it's brownies...there was a mardi-grass (not a typo) there a few weeks ago. the train took 12 hours, but it was an overnight trip so it was alright. well, almost alright...i coughed myself awake a few times (i managed to bounce myself off the bed last week), and the train sounded like it was trying to rip itself apart...but apart from that it was a lovely trip, filled with laughter and avocado dip. then, we got into byron at 6am, but were too cheap to go the hostel yet (have to pay for the previous night cause check in is at 10), so we went straight to the beach, wrapped ourselves in sleeping bags, and watched the "sun rise". unfortunately the sun was not visible (clouds), though sonia and meike were convinced it hadn't risen yet because they hadn't seen it, despite the fact it was bright as day. crazy american. and german. then, the town drunk/crazy came down to us and offered us some shoes...that she had stolen from the salvation army. i was rather confused because i was tired and i had broken my sandal on the train, and i thought that somehow she knew and wanted to help me out. i was wrong. then the beach started filling up and people were looking at us like we were crazy cause we had all our bags surrounding out makeshift bed.

SECTION 2
later we found ourselves a lovely hostel called the arts factory...it was pretty wicked...we probably could have just spent the whole weekend chilling around there...it had beach vball courts, a pool, you could make your own didgereedoo (cool!), fire spinning, or chilling by the fire inside...etc etc etc. took some naps in our cabin....in our really tall beds. the bunk beds were three beds high, and the top one was about 12 feet up. with no side rail thingies. danger. i snagged the middle one (the kid in me always chooses the top bunk...the adult in me reminded me that i had coughed myself off the bed earlier that week). later that day we walked to the beach, chilled a bit and walked along the main road and checked out the cool stores. unfortunately it started pouring (and it was COLD), so we made our way back to the hostel and chilled there and met some new people. that night was a bit of a mess cause we went out for dinner really late and we were supposed to go to the pizza place that claims to have the best pizza in the world, but it was closed, along with everything else...except for take-out pizza, who's pizza was less than stellar. pizza here in australia generally tends to suck a lot. i haven't had any good pizza yet. i miss toppers. anyways, the next day was gorgeous and was spent chilling at the beach...played frisbee for a while, and we got to swim (it's gotten too cold here in sydney to swim) and i learnt how to catch a wave with my body. it was cool, very dolphin-ish. got out and played some hacky sack...two guys came over to join us, and I, being the very sophistimacated person i am, managed to make a fool of myself...

SECTION 3 (aren't you dying to know how i made a fool of myself?)
we were all standing around in a circle and the hackysack went up in the air behind me, so i decided to turn around and try and kick it back into the circle. i swung my leg really hard at it, cause that's what i do when i start panicking in hacky sack, and unfortunately my other leg got in the way. i kicked the other leg out from under myself and they went flying up in the air and i landed straight on my back, with my head in the middle of the circle looking up at everyone, including these two guys we had just met...it was crazy smooth. then a bird pooed on my bag.

SECTION 4 (i know the last one was short, but it was quality).
that night we ... i can't remember. i think we chilled out at the hostel. oh, yeah, we hung out in a teepee (such a cool hostel) and listened to some irish guys who had guitars sing. it was lovely. oh wait, maybe that was the night before. i think we went out that night to the cheeky monkey despite our guidebook telling us it's grope-city. okay, let's be honest...that's why we went there. the FA finals were on that night, so we danced until 11 (on the tables! that's the dance floor! i thought i was going to break my head!) and then settled in to the watch the game. then this guy came and sat in front of me and he turned, recognized me as that chick he had played hackysack with earlier that day and said, "you fell". that's all. you fell. anyways, the game was fun...especially since we were watching it at a bar full of british, so it was rowdy. well, actually, only one guy was rowdy, everyone else was relatively calm...until the shoot-out of course, at which point i lost my voice. though, i must say, losing your voice is much better than speaking/breathing like darth vader, as i had been earlier that week. which reminds me...who's seen star wars?? was anyone else really really sad afterwards? for like, two days? i think that deep down inside i didn't actually believe that he was going to turn bad...is that stupid?

on that note,
SECTION 5 (this section is somewhat boring. if you happen to miss a day of reading, this is the one i would choose)
sunday....uhhhhh....we ate burritos at some point. they were huge, and the food of the weekend. sooooooo good. oh, and a litre of ice cream. ferrerro rocher ice cream. yeah, THAT was delicious. okay, i'm getting sidetracked. smoothies. that was actually the food of the weekend. oh! we went to a market where i managed to eat my weight in food. actually, i didn't really eat too much...i did have a crepe filled with feta and mushrooms..that was wonderful. i did manage to drink two smoothies in the period of an hour though...along with that smoothie i had had earlier that day. i really love smoothies. wow, i just managed to babble on about food for a paragraph. which reminds me, sonia was looking through my datebook and all it has is food and food related things in it...well, that's a lie, it has some important things in there like due dates and such things. it's ridiculous...there are recipes, and grocery lists, and reminders for dinners, and even the quotes i wrote in there last year are about food. i actually need to take a break now to get some food.

SECTION 6 (i apologize about that last section, it was really boring)
caught the train home that night...i learned that i'm a terrible joke teller. for example:
kim: "What did the fish say when he hit the dam?"...
kim: "Knockknockwho'sthere" *awkward silence while everyone tries to figure out what just happened*
sonia is even worse though: kim: "[on the topic of geniuses] ... lots of geniuses have other problems though" sonia: "yeah, like einstein's hair"...or her stories about half tonne man...she really can't get enough of that story...and won't stop talking about it...kim:"hey, do you know 'What's Eating Gilbert Grape'" sonia: "yeah, half-tonne man" (yes...she actually laughed about this one for an hour)
oh, and word to the wise...don't try and explain knock knock jokes to a german...it's just not going to work. funny how such a simple thing that we all learned from young really isn't funny and really just plain confusing if you didn't grow up with it.
hey, it was only a 20 dollar fine if you pushed the big red button on the train... seems like it's really not enough to deter anyone...in fact, the fact that it was only 20 dollars made me want to push it even more...don't worry mom, i didn't push the big red button.
oh, i forgot to mention that tom got a kiss on the cheek from this beautiful girl cause he said something along the lines of, "hi, i'm trying to get a kiss from a person from each country in order to bring us all together in unity and peace". and it worked...it was awesome. oh man...there were some really good lines from this trip that i can't remember off the top of my head...i will consult with my tripmates and get back to you :)

i'm missing you guys,
kim

this is amazingly hilarious. there's even a bit of a video to go with it. 

i don't know why i brought my camera to the dairy queen... 

jen's unbelievably cute bunny 

a sponge with pants...that's gold. 

weekly potluck on my deck 

crash. 

playing twister at my house..who's bright idea was that?!