hacking it up...reminiscent of the good ol' track days...
Thursday, May 05, 2005
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
roadtrippin'
at last...the first installment of my easter adventures...
for some reason the uni's "midsemester" break comes at the third week of school...which is alright, since that means more time for us international students to explore this wild country. after much searching, we found ourselves sitting in two hyundai elantra's (automatic :( ), ready to hit the road. Me, Tom from Guelph, Lena from Germany, Meike from Germany, Sonja from Germany (lovingly called "team germania"), and Judith from Netherlands were all part of this crazy crew. 10 hours later, surprisingly with no major car misfortune (driving on the left side of the road..eep!), we were in melbourne. we visited the market (and bought matching aussie hats), went to the art museum and saw a great collection of aboriginal art (at first seems so simple, and then the more you look at it and read the stories, the more you can really appreciate it). for lunch we ate our usual lunch of bread, veggies, and sweet chilli sauce (btw, can someone please check if they sell sweet chilli sauce in canada? if they don't, i'll have to bring loads of it back) by the water. Lena went up the tower (not i...you know my fear of heights), took us some pictures of melbourne while we all played hackysack (a group favourite).
that night we went to st. kildas, a hip cafe and restaurant area, conveniently close to the beach. we ate, we played, we watched the beautiful sunset. we also got a little wet...except for meike, who, instead of jumping over the water to get to a little island-y type thing, walked over in a handstand (gymnast). awesome.
next day we drove to a surf competition...which, i found out yesterday, had gotten moved anyways...no matter, we went to the wrong beach anyways :) played along the beach and hackysacked anyways. Drove ourselves to Warimbee Gorge, a national park. Did a 10K walk through gorgeous terrain..was a really fun walk cause there were rocks and ropes that you had to hold on to to keep yourself on the rocks...oh, and there was a huge chocolate egg. happy easter. sonja got bitten by a "shitfuckingant"...due to her piercing screams everyone thought she had fallen off the ledge...so we laughed...until we saw the size of the ants at the park. weren't laughing after that. beautiful park...lots of pictures...
slept in tents at a yha that night...played asshole for quite a while, then chilled. surprisingly comfortable. the next day we asked the guy at the YHA where we could see some koalas...he told us "sausage gully". hahaha. accepting the fact that we were never going to see koalas, we drove on....Started down Great Ocean Road, the most beautiful drive I have ever done. 500K of driving directly along the oceanside...beaches galore and stopping every hour to see something new. and lo and behold...sausage gully...and there were koalas. lots of them. just on the side of great ocean road. once we had pulled over, we attracted a crowd (who wouldn't want to see wild koalas?) took waaayyyy too much footage of it on my videocamera (not the most active animals in the world), and everyone else took wayyyyy too many pictures (even of koala poo).
more to come...
for some reason the uni's "midsemester" break comes at the third week of school...which is alright, since that means more time for us international students to explore this wild country. after much searching, we found ourselves sitting in two hyundai elantra's (automatic :( ), ready to hit the road. Me, Tom from Guelph, Lena from Germany, Meike from Germany, Sonja from Germany (lovingly called "team germania"), and Judith from Netherlands were all part of this crazy crew. 10 hours later, surprisingly with no major car misfortune (driving on the left side of the road..eep!), we were in melbourne. we visited the market (and bought matching aussie hats), went to the art museum and saw a great collection of aboriginal art (at first seems so simple, and then the more you look at it and read the stories, the more you can really appreciate it). for lunch we ate our usual lunch of bread, veggies, and sweet chilli sauce (btw, can someone please check if they sell sweet chilli sauce in canada? if they don't, i'll have to bring loads of it back) by the water. Lena went up the tower (not i...you know my fear of heights), took us some pictures of melbourne while we all played hackysack (a group favourite).
that night we went to st. kildas, a hip cafe and restaurant area, conveniently close to the beach. we ate, we played, we watched the beautiful sunset. we also got a little wet...except for meike, who, instead of jumping over the water to get to a little island-y type thing, walked over in a handstand (gymnast). awesome.
next day we drove to a surf competition...which, i found out yesterday, had gotten moved anyways...no matter, we went to the wrong beach anyways :) played along the beach and hackysacked anyways. Drove ourselves to Warimbee Gorge, a national park. Did a 10K walk through gorgeous terrain..was a really fun walk cause there were rocks and ropes that you had to hold on to to keep yourself on the rocks...oh, and there was a huge chocolate egg. happy easter. sonja got bitten by a "shitfuckingant"...due to her piercing screams everyone thought she had fallen off the ledge...so we laughed...until we saw the size of the ants at the park. weren't laughing after that. beautiful park...lots of pictures...
slept in tents at a yha that night...played asshole for quite a while, then chilled. surprisingly comfortable. the next day we asked the guy at the YHA where we could see some koalas...he told us "sausage gully". hahaha. accepting the fact that we were never going to see koalas, we drove on....Started down Great Ocean Road, the most beautiful drive I have ever done. 500K of driving directly along the oceanside...beaches galore and stopping every hour to see something new. and lo and behold...sausage gully...and there were koalas. lots of them. just on the side of great ocean road. once we had pulled over, we attracted a crowd (who wouldn't want to see wild koalas?) took waaayyyy too much footage of it on my videocamera (not the most active animals in the world), and everyone else took wayyyyy too many pictures (even of koala poo).
more to come...
Monday, April 11, 2005
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Sunday, March 20, 2005
sick wave dude
(this is a post i forgot to put up three weeks ago)
g'day mates...guess what i did this weekend? i bruised my foot, cut my knees, bashed my face, rashed up my arms and quads, and battered my muscles...all under the guise of surfing...it was AWESOME. and don't ask me if i can surf now, cause that' s a silly question. i can stand up on my board and catch waves...but i wouldn't call it surfing, per se. but...i'm well on my way.
on friday my friend came over so we could catch the surf bus together...unfortunately i locked myself out of the apartment (with no shoes and holding my sesame street toiletries bag...) and since my roomate is away (and we had to leave for surf camp in 30 minutes), i had to go to the neighbour and ask him to jump the balcony wall and break into the house via the balcony doors...however, when he opened the door he said, "no, i wont' do it for favours"...or somethign random like that...so me and my friends were standing there thinking, "what the heck is this guy talking about??"...anyways, i guess my roomate hadn't told him about me or something so this neighbour kept saying random things about not letting me in and how he wouldnt' do it. i was trying to be logical, telling him to just go into my room and see that i had id in there and clothes and stuff! anyways, after a little crazy talk he finally did it...and then 20 minutes later he came back to the flat..."to ask me for my name" (even though we had already traded names). he's a tad strange. teaches me to never lock myself out though...
anyways, surf camp was about 3 hours away (4.5 hours cause we stopped at convenience stores, bottle shops (LCBOs), and pubs on the way there and back). the camp itself wasn't actually at the beach..it was in a forested area that was somewhat swampy (i got mud on everything)...because there were more people than cabins, we slept in a teepee. yes, a honest-to-goodness teepee. it was awesome. especially since our only piece of technology (the lamp), burnt out the second night. no matter though, the company was good, the party was fun, and the surfing was incredibly kick ass. i would recommend it to anyone. except you in canada. i hear the waves are slushy there.
g'day mates...guess what i did this weekend? i bruised my foot, cut my knees, bashed my face, rashed up my arms and quads, and battered my muscles...all under the guise of surfing...it was AWESOME. and don't ask me if i can surf now, cause that' s a silly question. i can stand up on my board and catch waves...but i wouldn't call it surfing, per se. but...i'm well on my way.
on friday my friend came over so we could catch the surf bus together...unfortunately i locked myself out of the apartment (with no shoes and holding my sesame street toiletries bag...) and since my roomate is away (and we had to leave for surf camp in 30 minutes), i had to go to the neighbour and ask him to jump the balcony wall and break into the house via the balcony doors...however, when he opened the door he said, "no, i wont' do it for favours"...or somethign random like that...so me and my friends were standing there thinking, "what the heck is this guy talking about??"...anyways, i guess my roomate hadn't told him about me or something so this neighbour kept saying random things about not letting me in and how he wouldnt' do it. i was trying to be logical, telling him to just go into my room and see that i had id in there and clothes and stuff! anyways, after a little crazy talk he finally did it...and then 20 minutes later he came back to the flat..."to ask me for my name" (even though we had already traded names). he's a tad strange. teaches me to never lock myself out though...
anyways, surf camp was about 3 hours away (4.5 hours cause we stopped at convenience stores, bottle shops (LCBOs), and pubs on the way there and back). the camp itself wasn't actually at the beach..it was in a forested area that was somewhat swampy (i got mud on everything)...because there were more people than cabins, we slept in a teepee. yes, a honest-to-goodness teepee. it was awesome. especially since our only piece of technology (the lamp), burnt out the second night. no matter though, the company was good, the party was fun, and the surfing was incredibly kick ass. i would recommend it to anyone. except you in canada. i hear the waves are slushy there.
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
well...does it, or doesn't it??
to those who have been asking...
i would love to the answer the all important simpson's question (you know which one i'm talking about...), but the toilets actually don't flush properly here...well, they do flush and all (ew, what were you thinking??), but they kinda just explode in a cascade of water as opposed to swirling around nicely like they do at home.
and, even if it did flush properly, i still wouldnt' know if it was the opposite way from home...since i don't know which way it goes at home....do you know?? if you do, then i'd start evaluating your time and how well it's being spent...just kidding...kinda.love you all,
even if you DO know the way water flushes...ESPECIALLY if you know the way water flushes.
kim
"you got holes in your socks"..."these are my sleeping socks, my feet like a little air at night"
- million dollar baby.
tuesday nights are wonderful here in sydney! $5 dollar movies! woot! last week we went to see hitch...fairly typical romantic comedy...my favourite kind. he's no hugh grant, but will smith was alright. this week we saw million dollar baby...not what i expected at all, but better than i expected. had a little more depth than let's say...Rocky. 5 dollar movie night is also an excuse to GORGE yourself on candy. you're allowed to bring in food here so naturally we brought in a bag of chips, 2 packets of chocolate covered cookies (double layered chocolate Tim Tams and mint chocolate cookies...they really have to bring them to canada), and a huge chocolate bar. add that to the pizza, ice cream, and mousse we had just eaten at my house, and we've got a good night out.
house is still working out well...my roommate is this really cool guy who has his phd in art something and is currently curating an art show here in sydney...unfortunately our scheds don't mesh well so i only see him once every two or three days, but we leave each other messages to keep each other updated! he's actually leaving on thurs for month to go travelling and to do a job interview in singapore, so i have the place to myself.
which means another potluck. i can't remember if i mentioned this in earlier posts, but my last potluck was a bit of a mixed bag. i invited a whole bunch of europeans over to eat, and didn't realize that most of them didn't know what a "potluck" is...we had to give them some clarification, so the my next one will be wonderful. not that the last one wasn't...we ended up with one main dish (german noodly thingies...it was quite impressive since they decided to make the noodles themselves at my place without the right tools..i had the job of cutting the onions...with my snorkel goggles on since i can't handle onions...ashleigh, your trick with washing the onions first...it doesn't work.), and like, 6 desserts. which was okay. no one complained :)
on monday i went to a "canadian toga" party...which ended up being one girl wearing a toga, two people wearing canadian pins, me wearing my huge flag and giv'r shirt, 4 canadians, and 5 americans and germans. hahah...well, it was nice to meet some new people, anyways. the party ended up at a karaoke pub...which i can honestly say i'm not a huge fan of drunken karaoke, so i split early and went home.
alanna - my research project will hopefully be on skates...they look like sting rays, but it depends on whether or not they survive in the lab. i will be taking princip disease DE, so you can teach me everything i need to know!
stacey - hahaha, i have to say that snorkelling is a much healthier alternative to smoking, and i think i'll stick to the former. wait, does that mean the first one? well, if it doesn't, i mean snorkelling..not smoking.
as for my ten things about me...no one has gotten them all right...for good reason...i screwed up... there are actually 6 false things and 4 true things. my bad!!!
p.s. i'm really bad at speaking german. did you know that all the nouns are capitalized? i sure didn't...and when i was "reading" a german magazine i was thinking..."wow, there sure are a lot of Proper Nouns in here". the germans laughed at me.
p.p.s. roomies...i will try and call you at a good hour...i blame the 16 hour time difference. i seem to have class between 6pm and 10pm your time every day...poo! if not, i will continue leaving a series of message at 8:15 in the morning, just after you leave :P
tuesday nights are wonderful here in sydney! $5 dollar movies! woot! last week we went to see hitch...fairly typical romantic comedy...my favourite kind. he's no hugh grant, but will smith was alright. this week we saw million dollar baby...not what i expected at all, but better than i expected. had a little more depth than let's say...Rocky. 5 dollar movie night is also an excuse to GORGE yourself on candy. you're allowed to bring in food here so naturally we brought in a bag of chips, 2 packets of chocolate covered cookies (double layered chocolate Tim Tams and mint chocolate cookies...they really have to bring them to canada), and a huge chocolate bar. add that to the pizza, ice cream, and mousse we had just eaten at my house, and we've got a good night out.
house is still working out well...my roommate is this really cool guy who has his phd in art something and is currently curating an art show here in sydney...unfortunately our scheds don't mesh well so i only see him once every two or three days, but we leave each other messages to keep each other updated! he's actually leaving on thurs for month to go travelling and to do a job interview in singapore, so i have the place to myself.
which means another potluck. i can't remember if i mentioned this in earlier posts, but my last potluck was a bit of a mixed bag. i invited a whole bunch of europeans over to eat, and didn't realize that most of them didn't know what a "potluck" is...we had to give them some clarification, so the my next one will be wonderful. not that the last one wasn't...we ended up with one main dish (german noodly thingies...it was quite impressive since they decided to make the noodles themselves at my place without the right tools..i had the job of cutting the onions...with my snorkel goggles on since i can't handle onions...ashleigh, your trick with washing the onions first...it doesn't work.), and like, 6 desserts. which was okay. no one complained :)
on monday i went to a "canadian toga" party...which ended up being one girl wearing a toga, two people wearing canadian pins, me wearing my huge flag and giv'r shirt, 4 canadians, and 5 americans and germans. hahah...well, it was nice to meet some new people, anyways. the party ended up at a karaoke pub...which i can honestly say i'm not a huge fan of drunken karaoke, so i split early and went home.
alanna - my research project will hopefully be on skates...they look like sting rays, but it depends on whether or not they survive in the lab. i will be taking princip disease DE, so you can teach me everything i need to know!
stacey - hahaha, i have to say that snorkelling is a much healthier alternative to smoking, and i think i'll stick to the former. wait, does that mean the first one? well, if it doesn't, i mean snorkelling..not smoking.
as for my ten things about me...no one has gotten them all right...for good reason...i screwed up... there are actually 6 false things and 4 true things. my bad!!!
p.s. i'm really bad at speaking german. did you know that all the nouns are capitalized? i sure didn't...and when i was "reading" a german magazine i was thinking..."wow, there sure are a lot of Proper Nouns in here". the germans laughed at me.
p.p.s. roomies...i will try and call you at a good hour...i blame the 16 hour time difference. i seem to have class between 6pm and 10pm your time every day...poo! if not, i will continue leaving a series of message at 8:15 in the morning, just after you leave :P
Monday, March 14, 2005
English, who needs that...I'm never going to England
- Homer Simpson
well, hello everyone! where did my last blog end? i dont' remember...so let me just give you a quick rundown of the weekend. fri - saw some bands playing in this warehouse-converted-student housing, then went to marlborough bar, met up with a friend, on the way home saw some other friends, ended up sitting and talking til 4...woke up next morning and went to beach to snorkel. scorched in the sun and ate lots of fries. next day went diving and saw a HUGE (though they tell me it was only medium sized - who am i to argue?) cuttlefish. if you've never seen one of these things in real life, i'd suggest it. the cuttlefish had a liking for one of our divers and tried to mate with him for a while...cuttlefish change awesome colours really fast and look like really funny squid. good times. gotta love sydney - so easy to pop out and grab a drink with someone and any time of night...i use it to my advantage as much as possible
vick, we're not taking any classes together next semester! eeEEeEee. i'm doing comm ecology, polluted water something or other, and marine ecological processes. oh, and either the disease of aquatic animals (which means i can't play pick-up), or the DE princip. diseases (can't take it in class this semester)....and i'm doing a research project too, so i think that's a credit or two somewhere in there. ack. though, i barely have any class on monday and fri, so that would be kinda cool :)
hope everyone's weekend kicked ass...back to school tomorrow! (class in 15 mins for me!)
surfing next weekend...there's still time to grab a plane down here and join me!!!
well, hello everyone! where did my last blog end? i dont' remember...so let me just give you a quick rundown of the weekend. fri - saw some bands playing in this warehouse-converted-student housing, then went to marlborough bar, met up with a friend, on the way home saw some other friends, ended up sitting and talking til 4...woke up next morning and went to beach to snorkel. scorched in the sun and ate lots of fries. next day went diving and saw a HUGE (though they tell me it was only medium sized - who am i to argue?) cuttlefish. if you've never seen one of these things in real life, i'd suggest it. the cuttlefish had a liking for one of our divers and tried to mate with him for a while...cuttlefish change awesome colours really fast and look like really funny squid. good times. gotta love sydney - so easy to pop out and grab a drink with someone and any time of night...i use it to my advantage as much as possible
vick, we're not taking any classes together next semester! eeEEeEee. i'm doing comm ecology, polluted water something or other, and marine ecological processes. oh, and either the disease of aquatic animals (which means i can't play pick-up), or the DE princip. diseases (can't take it in class this semester)....and i'm doing a research project too, so i think that's a credit or two somewhere in there. ack. though, i barely have any class on monday and fri, so that would be kinda cool :)
hope everyone's weekend kicked ass...back to school tomorrow! (class in 15 mins for me!)
surfing next weekend...there's still time to grab a plane down here and join me!!!
Thursday, March 10, 2005
How To Raise Your IQ By Eating Gifted Children
hmmm...if i had a post-it-note i would write this on there...but, for lack of virtual post-it-note:
list #1: classes i am taking (for now...have been changed multiple times and may be changed some more)...in no particular order because i like them all.
1. archaeology (get to visit excavation sites)
2. ecophysiology (get to go on field trip...and make up my own experiments!)
3. drawing (working right side of brain...and enjoying it)
4. energy and the environment (tbd)
list #2: things i will be doing in the near future
1. going to the beach to teach my friends how to snorkel
2. going to the beach to dive with the scuba dive club
3. going to the beach to go surfing
4. going to the beach to do whatever it is normal people do at the beach.
list #3: cool things i have done in the past week
1. gone to the gayest (and i mean that in every form of the word) mardi gras i have ever gone to...and ever will.
2. swam in an olympic sized pool...and lived to tell the tale.
3. raced crabs at a bar..and subsequently ate salty donuts.
4. learnt german while sitting on the beach
5. had a really cool art class that involved being creative and whatnot
6. had a wonderful lunch at the fish market
7. saw Hitch for $5 at the movie theatre...and ate a large bag of sweet chili and sour cream chips
8. played volleyball
9. went to the medical museum and saw walls and walls of body parts..and a two headed child.
list #4: things i hope to get done this week
1. set up internet at my house...don't get excited...it's dial-up...and i have to pay by the mb (don't ask), so i may not be on too often
2. choose guelph courses...HELP (vick?)
3. have a successful potluck at my house
4. if internet isn't successful, then finding an internet cafe where i can upload and post my pics
5. have fun...have fun...and...have fun..
peace,
kim
p.s. the subject of this posting comes from the title of a book by author Lewis Frumkes. i think i'll stick to fish.
list #1: classes i am taking (for now...have been changed multiple times and may be changed some more)...in no particular order because i like them all.
1. archaeology (get to visit excavation sites)
2. ecophysiology (get to go on field trip...and make up my own experiments!)
3. drawing (working right side of brain...and enjoying it)
4. energy and the environment (tbd)
list #2: things i will be doing in the near future
1. going to the beach to teach my friends how to snorkel
2. going to the beach to dive with the scuba dive club
3. going to the beach to go surfing
4. going to the beach to do whatever it is normal people do at the beach.
list #3: cool things i have done in the past week
1. gone to the gayest (and i mean that in every form of the word) mardi gras i have ever gone to...and ever will.
2. swam in an olympic sized pool...and lived to tell the tale.
3. raced crabs at a bar..and subsequently ate salty donuts.
4. learnt german while sitting on the beach
5. had a really cool art class that involved being creative and whatnot
6. had a wonderful lunch at the fish market
7. saw Hitch for $5 at the movie theatre...and ate a large bag of sweet chili and sour cream chips
8. played volleyball
9. went to the medical museum and saw walls and walls of body parts..and a two headed child.
list #4: things i hope to get done this week
1. set up internet at my house...don't get excited...it's dial-up...and i have to pay by the mb (don't ask), so i may not be on too often
2. choose guelph courses...HELP (vick?)
3. have a successful potluck at my house
4. if internet isn't successful, then finding an internet cafe where i can upload and post my pics
5. have fun...have fun...and...have fun..
peace,
kim
p.s. the subject of this posting comes from the title of a book by author Lewis Frumkes. i think i'll stick to fish.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
