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!!!!!!!
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Friday, May 27, 2005
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.
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
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
Thursday, May 26, 2005
Monday, May 09, 2005
diving with sharks!
still have all my limbs! wonderful weekend up at port stephens...the first day we had two boat dives right off in the morning (6 am wake ups! woot!)...within the first hour of boating we saw a pod of about 20 dolphins, who flew alongside our boat for quite a while. they were soooo close and so amazing, it was awesome. i've seen more cool things in the wild here in australia in the period of four months than i have my entire life...i love it. then, we did our first dive, saw some cool sponges, fed some wrasse (a huge friendly fish that can be found almost anywhere in australia) a sea urchin, came up for lunch (which i passed on, except for the soup, cause i was QUITE motion sick), then went for another dive. saw SHARKS. didn't poke them. came out alive.
sadly, no pictures...hopefully i can get some pics off one of the guys who had an underwater camera, but i couldn't spend the money to buy one (20 bucks for the camera and then 15 for the developing!)....however, i've posted two pics of a couple animals i saw...(grey nurse sharks and pufferfish), courtesy of the internet. the waves were so strong i thought that i was going to get pushed into a shark, but i managed to hold onto the plants with a tight grip, so it was all good. they really came quite close and would stare at you. luckily i was fighting off bouts of nausea, so i wasn't focusing too much on getting eaten. btw, i found out that if you throw up underwater, the sharks won't eat you.
then, we headed back to our place and chilled and ate lots of food. complained a lot about having to put our wet wetsuits back on (not as bad as you'd think). that night, went on a night dive....it was exactly how i had pictured scuba diving to be like in the beginning. you go down, and it's a pitch black abyss, except for whatever your torch lights up. the colours are awesome, and there are so many different animals out at night. we saw octupi, cuttlefish, tons of fish, and cool things that glow in the dark if you poke them lots. and THEN, near the end of the dive, our divemaster indicated for us to follow him, and we could see him poking something behind a rock, and then he brought his hands up and there was a BLOWFISH. i yelling something into my reg cause i was so excited (funny enough, everyone else seemed to have heard me underwater), and then we played with it. it was so ridiculous, the poor guy can't do ANYTHING after it blows up....his little fins and tail are completely useless. soo, you can put him upsidedown, you can push him up and down, you can spin him in little circles and there is nothing he can do but bob around....it was awesome. it was bigger than the picture i have posted, about 20inches in circumference probably, and it was the highlight of my trip...i'm addicted to night dives now.
the next day we woke up early again and did a shore dive in halifax park, and it was gorgeous. i wasn't going to do the dive cause my ears were bothering me, but i popped a few sudafed and all was good. we went to about 25 m and saw moray eels (don't touch them), rock cod (stonefish...don't step on them), numb ray (don't go near them, they have electric shock), and we even got to play with an octopus....we managed to get it out from under its rock and he was wrapping his legs around our hands and everything...they are STRONG buggers....our dive master had to brace himself on the rock so that he didn't get pulled under the rock (and beaked...octupus have beaks that are quite sharp). it was wonderful, and when we came up it was even sunny (it had been raining all the previous day), and perfect. i encourage everyone to get their dive certificate....so cool.
p.s. happy mothers day!
sadly, no pictures...hopefully i can get some pics off one of the guys who had an underwater camera, but i couldn't spend the money to buy one (20 bucks for the camera and then 15 for the developing!)....however, i've posted two pics of a couple animals i saw...(grey nurse sharks and pufferfish), courtesy of the internet. the waves were so strong i thought that i was going to get pushed into a shark, but i managed to hold onto the plants with a tight grip, so it was all good. they really came quite close and would stare at you. luckily i was fighting off bouts of nausea, so i wasn't focusing too much on getting eaten. btw, i found out that if you throw up underwater, the sharks won't eat you.
then, we headed back to our place and chilled and ate lots of food. complained a lot about having to put our wet wetsuits back on (not as bad as you'd think). that night, went on a night dive....it was exactly how i had pictured scuba diving to be like in the beginning. you go down, and it's a pitch black abyss, except for whatever your torch lights up. the colours are awesome, and there are so many different animals out at night. we saw octupi, cuttlefish, tons of fish, and cool things that glow in the dark if you poke them lots. and THEN, near the end of the dive, our divemaster indicated for us to follow him, and we could see him poking something behind a rock, and then he brought his hands up and there was a BLOWFISH. i yelling something into my reg cause i was so excited (funny enough, everyone else seemed to have heard me underwater), and then we played with it. it was so ridiculous, the poor guy can't do ANYTHING after it blows up....his little fins and tail are completely useless. soo, you can put him upsidedown, you can push him up and down, you can spin him in little circles and there is nothing he can do but bob around....it was awesome. it was bigger than the picture i have posted, about 20inches in circumference probably, and it was the highlight of my trip...i'm addicted to night dives now.
the next day we woke up early again and did a shore dive in halifax park, and it was gorgeous. i wasn't going to do the dive cause my ears were bothering me, but i popped a few sudafed and all was good. we went to about 25 m and saw moray eels (don't touch them), rock cod (stonefish...don't step on them), numb ray (don't go near them, they have electric shock), and we even got to play with an octopus....we managed to get it out from under its rock and he was wrapping his legs around our hands and everything...they are STRONG buggers....our dive master had to brace himself on the rock so that he didn't get pulled under the rock (and beaked...octupus have beaks that are quite sharp). it was wonderful, and when we came up it was even sunny (it had been raining all the previous day), and perfect. i encourage everyone to get their dive certificate....so cool.
p.s. happy mothers day!
Sunday, May 08, 2005
Friday, May 06, 2005
snoooooow!
so i was chiselling off the ice in my freezer today, and it reminded me of home, which led me to thinking about how i miss people, which led me to thinking about how i haven't been keeping in touch, which led me to feeling overwhelmed cause there are way too many people i want to talk to right now, which led me to realize that i should keep my blog up to date....for you, and for myself.
so, here i go....what have i been doing this past month? well, i never finished off my last story of my roadtrip..after melbourne we went to adelaide, and then through the outback to get back to sydney. it was an awesome trip. slept under the stars on the last night (in our cars), it was wonderful. we set up a camp stove and ate under the stars, laid out our towels and relaxed...the next day we woke up and got out of the cars...and found a dismembered kangaroo arm, right where I was sitting....hahahahaha. teaches us to set up camp in the dark. it was the highlight of my trip :D
i'm not even going to attempt to summarize the last month. all you need to know was that it was great, and this month is well on its way to being great also.
last weekend i played at a vball tourny in newcastle, which was awesome, except that i finally bought knee pads and they apparently don't work, cause my knee has a massive bruise going from the middle of my calf up to the middle of my quad. so, i've given up the skirts and shorts for a while cause people will ask if my boyfriend beats me. this weekend, i will be going DIVING WITH SHARKS. how cool is that? i will definitely write a more interesting blog on monday, complete with pictures and everything. i promise. unless i lose my arms (just kidding dad).
cheers,
kim
quotes of the week: "don't touch me like i'm drunk", "we should all learn how to speak dolphin", "excuse me, i don't know how to use this stapler, could you help me?", " 'why didn't you do anything for the long weekend?'....'because i had a baby last week' 'oh....you must be......tired'", "kim, stop hiding behind me, i'm smaller than you!", "muffin top"
so, here i go....what have i been doing this past month? well, i never finished off my last story of my roadtrip..after melbourne we went to adelaide, and then through the outback to get back to sydney. it was an awesome trip. slept under the stars on the last night (in our cars), it was wonderful. we set up a camp stove and ate under the stars, laid out our towels and relaxed...the next day we woke up and got out of the cars...and found a dismembered kangaroo arm, right where I was sitting....hahahahaha. teaches us to set up camp in the dark. it was the highlight of my trip :D
i'm not even going to attempt to summarize the last month. all you need to know was that it was great, and this month is well on its way to being great also.
last weekend i played at a vball tourny in newcastle, which was awesome, except that i finally bought knee pads and they apparently don't work, cause my knee has a massive bruise going from the middle of my calf up to the middle of my quad. so, i've given up the skirts and shorts for a while cause people will ask if my boyfriend beats me. this weekend, i will be going DIVING WITH SHARKS. how cool is that? i will definitely write a more interesting blog on monday, complete with pictures and everything. i promise. unless i lose my arms (just kidding dad).
cheers,
kim
quotes of the week: "don't touch me like i'm drunk", "we should all learn how to speak dolphin", "excuse me, i don't know how to use this stapler, could you help me?", " 'why didn't you do anything for the long weekend?'....'because i had a baby last week' 'oh....you must be......tired'", "kim, stop hiding behind me, i'm smaller than you!", "muffin top"
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