September 23

Thursday, did laundry for most of the day and went to class. It was incredibly boring, but maybe that's just because it was the last class before mid-semester break and everyone was a little antsy. We got our grade for our first paper back from another class, so most of us were online checking our scores and discussing via notes in class. I didn't do as well as I had hoped, but I passed so whatever. It'll be interesting to get the paper back and see what I did wrong. Hopefully it's stupid errors that can easily be fixed. She said most people did formatting and referencing wrong, but I don't know. Anyway, then I went to turn in my paper on MLB, now feeling a bit more nervous about it. But oh well!! I met Lina at the grocery store and we did some shopping, then headed home. We were supposed to go out because it's my last night in town, except I still had to pack, so I packed and we drank at home instead. We discussed whether guys should pay for stuff and how guys should treat ladies and booked tickets for Jillian's break in December, etc. Good times laughing with the girls. I'm gonna miss them over my break.

September 22

I woke up around 11, which is the precise time I'm supposed to be on the bus going to class. Whoops! Oh well. I checked and it didn't seem too important. So, I made myself some breakfast and then headed downtown to go to the Vodafone store and the bank. I took the bus up to Paddington and tried to schedule a beauty appointment, but they didn't take walk-ins, so I walked home, in the rain! UGH Watched movies with Lina for the rest of the evening. It feels good to be free!!! Welcome to my mid-semester break!

September 21

Slept in very late because I didn't get to sleep until 4am again last night. This is the first Tuesday in a while that I haven't had to meet for a group project. Although that will be changing again because we have another group project due in ~1 month!

Class was SUPER boring. Kimi even fell asleep in class. So I took a photo and posted it to facebook.

Then, I came home, took a nap, ate some snacks and finished my paper on baseball! Wheee!!! I finished even earlier than the original due date! Go me!

September 20

I tossed and turned all night until 4am. I think because I'm excited for my mid-semester break that's coming up!! So, I dragged myself out of bed in the morning and went to class. It was pouring rain so not many people showed up. I had to because of a group meeting. So, after class I met with my new group and we divided up the research work. Then I went to the library for a hot second to download a few last articles for my baseball paper. On the way home, I decided to stop in Rosalie to pick up some lunch and a few things from the little grocery store. I scoped out the pastry shop and, feeling particularly happy and thankful to be here with such great roommates, before I knew it, I had bought 3 cookies for us.

Then, time to finish my paper. I have currently written 3,500 words and am still missing a conclusion! I'll have to reduce by about 500+ words tomorrow and edit the thing. I feel pretty good about this paper and thought it was a fairly interesting topic. I guess my procrastinating days are really over if I can finish a paper this early!!

September 19

Repeat of yesterday (Grad School sucks!)
Slept in, cleaned the house, worked on paper ALL day/night. 2000 words down, almost done! Somewhere in there, I had a good conversation with Jillian about whether love is enough.

September 18

Slept in late, then worked on my baseball paper ALL day. Read 500+ pages of articles and wrote about 700 words...

September 17

Friday, my group project was due. Luckily I did not have to turn it in, my part was done! Whew... But I went to campus on my day off anyway, because I needed to download some more journal articles for my next assignment on Major League Baseball. I went with Jillian to campus, but halfway there she realized she wanted to go see her boy at the bar he works at, so I quickly went to campus and on my way back, ran into her coming  back from the bar! haha. OH well. Then I read a bunch of articles for my paper and we got ready to go out to where else? Our new favorite spot - Fridays! We ate some dinner at Hog's Breath Cafe (Steak and Burger Joint), then headed down for a night of fun. We met some Canadians, flicked a straw in someone's face, thumb-wrestled and then shared a cab home with a new friend, Lauren with whom we discussed how lame Aussie guys are.

September 16

My group-mate, Jane, texted me late on Wednesday night and said there were some problems with our group paper (due on Friday). She asked to meet in the morning, and of course I agreed. So, on Thursday I woke up and headed to campus expecting to have to re-write half the paper over the course of 3 hours. Instead, it wasn't as bad as she had made it seem and just needed us to come together for a little discussion. She finished up referencing and I turned in my paper for my other class that was due today! I had just enough time to grab a bite to eat with Andy and Hans before class!

Here is where we sit to discuss group projects:

Our Monday lecturer was a guest lecturer for our Thursday class, which was kinda cool because we were already familiar with her. She discussed aboriginal tourism in Australia and the class seemed pretty interested in the discrimination of Aboriginals. After class, I met with another group for a different project and went to the library for an hour or so to download a few articles on baseball (for another assignment that is due in just 7 days!) Then I went home and read some of those articles while I waited to get the finished group paper for editing. I received it at 9pm and it took me 4 hours to edit because many of the sentences did not make sense in English and because the paper was TWICE as long as it needed to be. So I had to discriminate what should be cut out from the paper! I couldn't get it under the word limit, so it ended up being 200 words over. Hopefully we don't get punished for this!

September 15

Made myself a delicious breakfast, then went to class. When I transferred buses, I hurried across the street at mu usual power-walk. I saw a guy on a bike, looked at him through my shades, and just as I passed him, I realized why he looked a little familiar. I'm not sure, but I think it was Pancakes!! Ahh!! He was looking at me the entire time. But I just walked by, neither of us said anything to each other. Awkward. haha. At least I looked pretty hot today!

Then to class, which was boring as usual. I'm the only one that talks in class. After saying things twice, I decided not to offer up anything the third time she asked something and the entire room was dead. During the break, the teacher came up and asked me when the assignment was due. I said, Friday, RIGHT??? Why on earth would she be asking ME?! Jane said I should've told her a different date! haha Oh well.

Anyway, then home to work on my paper except I was VERY distracted, so it took a long time. But I finished just as the girls came home from the market with some fresh veggies.  Then we watched a movie and lounged around for the evening.

September 14

Class, then studied, then watched a movie with the girls. Nothing special

September 13

Slept in as late as I could, then rolled out of bed for a writing workshop class...
Then came home, talked to my mom, napped, ate lunch and worked on my paper. Jillian made a delicious steak and potatoes and worked on her paper.

September 12

Sunday, I procrastinated for most of the day and then got some work done in the afternoon and evening. Almost done with my 2nd assignment about Audi Sponsorship. Ugh. I have to write the conclusion and maybe a few hundred more words. Then I'll have to focus on my group assignment due at the end of this week! Ahhh. TOO MUCH

Lina was very lethargic today, spent the whole day in her room, which is SOO unlike her. I was worried. I called the Poison Information line, but then didn't seem to think it was anything to concern about. The really deadly spiders produce more serious symptoms and the non-threatening ones usually have the symptoms subside after a couple hours. Oh well.

September 11

Supposed to work on my other two papers today, but ended up procrastinating all day with Lina. We sat around in our pjs and napped and watched movies, etc. Didn't even leave the house! Pretty sad.

Lina got bitten by a spider and it was kind of painful. She said she felt a little nauseous and had a pounding headache later, but neither of us thought it was serious enough. Probably a mild spider, not one of the super deadly ones.

September 10

Friday, the day that my first paper is due! I read through it once in the morning for edits and then headed off to campus to print and turn it in. 2,645 words (not including exec summary, ToC, Tables or references). 12 pages. $3.32 to print the whole thing in color. UGH. What a rip-off. Anyway, I walked it over and proudly deposited it into the little slot. I should've taken a photo of this slot. It felt a little weird to submit it to a slot. Are you sure that's gonna make it? And it's not just gonna disappear into some mysterious place, never to be seen again? Oh well. I worked my ass off on this paper, hopefully I get a good grade. I have two more due next week, but I decided to take the night off.

Jillian and Lina and I got all dressed up and went to Sutra, at the Performing Arts Center. It was very cool and I thought halfway through it, MAN I'm soo lucky to be here with two amazing girls that enjoy similar things and what a blessed experience I am having. Here's a video of what it's like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_cMBDeIGAE

Before the show, we went to an Irish Pub to hang out with this guy Jillian's kinda been seeing. He's really cute and very smart, but the best thing I like about him is that we can tell he's crazy about her. He couldn't take his eyes off her, asked us all about her, what her flaws are, etc. And was even willing to let us grill him for a bit. He seems to treat her well, so I am very happy that she has something good in her life right now. She deserves it and I wish she saw that more. But I guess we all have doubts about ourselves sometimes.

Then after the show, Jillian went back to the Irish Pub and Lina and I went to Fridays. We ended up hanging out with an entire Rugby team. We also found a pretty cute bartender who poured extra alcohol and didn't charge as much!! Whoo. He was from Columbia. I got all excited when he said this because Lina is too. Haha, anyway.. After a couple of slightly embarrassing moments, we ended up talking to a semi-pro footie team (AFL). One of them was quite possibly the hottest guy I've ever seen in real life. He told me some little white lies, some shit about being a Lord from Portugal. I was gullible (read: drunk). Anyway, too bad they were 23 and kind of boring to talk to. Lina and I got bored enough to head home around 2am. 

September 9

Another day of class and studying in the library. This time I ate lunch in class and then straight to the library until 8pm. But finally finished my first big assignment! Phew! I know so much about Dubai now.. Also, I curiously found this in the bathroom, posted on the door of the stall:

I mean, should I be worried that people here don't know how to go to the bathroom properly?! Is it really necessary to have step by step instruction?

September 8

Another guest lecturer! Do my professors just get another people to do their job for them?! Sometimes I wonder. Anyway, after class I ate a quick lunch and then went straight to the Library to study. I usually go to the Bio Library because it's open late. I went to the 4th floor (silent floor) and found a lounge for Postgraduates Only. I felt like the big man on campus with such exclusivity! I finally know why there are such things. It's because we have so much work to do that they want to guarantee that we have a quiet, computer space to work. Unfortunately, there is no enforcement, so half the people in there are probably undergrads. Anyway, I stayed there for 6.5 hours, until 9pm then staggered home on one of the last buses.

September 7

Woke up feeling like shit because I stayed up until 1am working on a group project. My morning only got worse. Lots of discussion with a friend, and reading a long email from my mom put me in a pretty bad mood. Luckily Jillian was there with breakfast and a friendly ear. =) Thank goodness my roommates are so good to me! I don't know what I would do without them. Then, headed to a group meeting where my input was crap because my brain was so fried. Then class with lame guest lecturer again. At least he's better than our monotonous regular professor. Then library for an hour or so to study and make up for lost time the other day when my USB broke temporarily. Then home and off to a movie with the girls. Much needed girl time. The movie theater (like all of them here) serves alcohol and food in the theater, so we got a bottle of wine. The theater had really plush seats, so swanky!! The movie was pretty bad, though. Oh well. At least it was a distraction for a while. Which is all I needed. I'm freaking out a little bit about my upcoming papers that are all due very soon!! I don't know how I can work if I'm studying ALL the time. =(

September 6

My class had a field trip today! We went to MovieWorld on the Gold Coast. It's called "Hollywood of the Gold Coast". Very cheesy. And like a miniature version of Universal Studios. With like 6 roller coasters. Lame. So I had to wake up early, go to the bus, called a few classmates to make sure everyone made it to the bus on time, and then we traveled for an hour. Once there, we were split and half the people went into a lecture, the 2nd half had a later lecture. I was in the 2nd group, so we immediately ran for the first ride! It was a Batman ride (like Drop Zone). Quite fun, but we immediately paired off into groups. I hung out with Manuel, Antonella, and Willy (the WINNING team for our awesome water bottles!) After we went on the Batman 2 ride, which was like a really janky version of Star Tours. We all laughed at it and were disappointed we wasted 20 minutes in line!

Then we had our lecture, which lasted an hour and a half!! It sounds like the company who owns the theme park really has their shit together and are great managers, but what was the point!? Anyway, by the time we got out, it was already almost 1pm and we only had until 3pm!! So we decided to forgo lunch to squeeze in some rides! We went to their version of Splash Mountain and got SOAKING wet. Then went over to Lethal Weapon (read: Top Gun!) That one was great, but hurt my head a little bit. Then over to Scooby Doo's Scary Coaster, but after waiting in line for 5 minutes, they were having technical difficulties, so we left. We tried to go to Superman, but they closed it, too! Very annoying. Then, we went back to Scooby Doo and found some other friends in line and cut with them. It was in the dark and kinda fun for being so silly. We got out just in time to head back to the bus, so I got a sandwich because I was starving and ate it on the way to the bus!

Had a good conversation with Andy and Willy on the way back to Brisbane about colleges in their own countries (Korea and Spain) and why they came here. When I got back to campus, I studied in the library for a bit, but my USB drive broke and needed to be reformatted and then refused to reformat, so I basically wasted my time. It sucked. Went home feeling a little defeated. Made some dinner and then worked on a group project until 1am. =(

Here are some photos from MovieWorld:

I love that I have met so many people of different nationalities. My favorite people are in the photo above: Jane (Thailand), Antonella (Italy), Willy (Spain), Andy (Korea), me (USA) and Manuel (Mexico). Not pictured is Hans from Taiwan!

September 5

I woke up with the worst hangover of my life this morning. Took a bath, drank lots of water and napped it off in the morning. During my nap, I was awakened by Lina's scream! She moved a dish in the sink and a spider jumped at her. It was about 3 inches in diameter, the biggest spider she and I had ever seen!!

Together, we just stared at it and screamed for a while. Then I got a glass and tried to trap it, but got scared, so Lina did it. And it was jumping all over the glass! Pretty scary. Then we agreed to let it outside. It seemed too big to kill. It was hairy and had teeth! UGH. But most importantly, we have NO idea how it got inside!! Gross. Luckily Jillian wasn't home or she would've freaked out and might have decided to move. Supposedly, they come inside when it rains, so maybe that's why.I looked it up and I'm pretty sure that it was a Huntsman Spider, they eat cockroaches! Crazy.

Then we worked on our papers for the rest of the afternoon and evening! I'm getting pretty sick of spending all my days studying! And I'm no where close to being done with all of the reports I have to write. Complete with graphs, charts, etc, my 2,500 word paper just turned into 10 pages!! It's a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. Oh well. Summer break is getting sweeter by the minute. I just don't know how I'll be able to have a job during this.

September 4

On Saturday, we studied for most of the day, writing papers. Lina got invited to a classmate's house for dinner and Jillian got invited to watch fireworks at her friend's place. I went with Jillian so we could see RiverFire. RiverFire is the kick-off ceremony of the Brisbane Festival. They shoot fireworks from the buildings and bridges along the river and F111's fly overhead and do a dump and burn. They said this year was the last year they were going to do the dump and burn, but they also said that last year, so who knows. We watched from a rooftop along Coronation Drive, and then played poker $5 buy in. I was one of the last 3, but down pretty much the whole time. Jillian and I bought a bottle of Smirnoff and finished it between the two of us!! Lina met us at the party and then we took a taxi home.

Here's a cheesy video that shows what RiverFire is all about:

September 3

Stayed up late talking on the phone, so I slept in this morning. By the time we got around to doing anything, we decided to figure out our Thailand trip. Something like FIVE hours later, we finally  booked tickets. Some stuff got all fucked up, suffice to say Jillian and I are going to Phuket on Oct. 31 and Lina is coming on Nov. 3rd. Then we'll go to some islands and relax for a week, head up to Bangkok, then Chiang Mai. Lina will leave on Nov. 21st and Jillian and I will depart on Nov. 23rd.

The other thing I booked was my flight back to the states. I will have a crazy November 23rd and 24th. Flying from Bangkok to Brisbane on the 24th, get to Brisbane at 8:35am, switch luggage with Lina who will meet me at the airport, then get on the noon flight to LA, arrive in LA at 7am on the 24th... Then I think I'll be flying out that night for Philadelphia! Wow, what a day...

Since we used up our whole day booking reservations, we did not go out tonight. We are staying in and writing papers and laughing about squeaky barstools and Banjo running into glass doors. We do crack ourselves up pretty frequently and I am happy to have these girls in my life!

September 2

Felt kinda blue this morning (don't know why), so I moped around the house for a while. Then made some breakfast and headed to Paddington to pick up a package. It was my sweatshirt! Yay. I talked to the woman at the post office. She was from Glasgow, Scotland! I asked her when and why she moved here. She said she moved here 28 years ago and her husband and her were deciding between South Africa and here, but chose here because they didn't like the apartheid. They thought the discrimination and segregation was wrong. I challenged her and asked how she felt about the treatment of aboriginals here in Australia. She said that it's a shame what the government did, some have been able to overcome it, some deserve the treatment because they are not trying to overcome it.. She raised her son to treat everyone equally, but ultimately it's up to the individual if they rise above discrimination.

By then, she was getting a line, so I went on my merry way and waited for the next bus. Just then I saw a little toddler run into the middle of the street. At first I was in shock, then I took action and ran after her. I could hear her mom running and calling her, but she was already IN the street. Luckily no cars were around, but I reached her and then the mom came right after me. Pretty scary!!

On campus, I went to the library and returned some books, then headed to class. We learned about how tourism can decrease poverty in places like Cambodia. It was pretty boring. Then I went straight to the library and tried to study for a few hours. I say tried because I was distracted by a couple of friends and then wasn't very successful in my search for statistics. I left around 6pm, as it was getting dark, but then realized I had left my purse in class!!! So, I went back to the lecture hall and luckily there was no lecture going on, and my purse was right where I had left it! Phew!! I lucked out big time.  Went home and cooked some dinner and then discussed our Thailand trip with the girls until late. We are still undecided about it, but are currently thinking of splitting it up so we don't have to try to cram everything in at once. That means less time in the states, though, which makes a few of my friends unhappy.

September 1

Had a good morning, made breakfast and chatted with Jillian while I waited for the bus. Then I lost track of time and realized that the bus departed 1 minute ago!! I rushed out of the house hoping that the bus was late (as usual), ran across the dangerous street and saw the bus in the circle. I chased it down and it started to leave, but saw me and the nice lady driver stopped to let me on. Thank goodness. Here's a photo I accidentally took of the street while I was running:

Then I met Jane in the library and we asked some EndNote questions about referencing websites using Harvard style. It's a good thing we talked to her, because she told us that we should download the updated Harvard referencing style that UQ uses. We could've been using the wrong style for our papers! Then we went to class and the guest lecturer was really boring. He kept going off on tangent stories that the regular professor was just eating up. They were all about how tough the events industry is. Thanks, already knew that it's hard work!! I checked out a couple of books from the library, got my library late fee waived by acting like a dumb blonde "Oh, I was supposed to turn it in over there??" and then decided to study at home for the evening. This was a dumb idea. I'm never as productive at home as I am in the library. But oh well.

As I was heading to bed, I DROPPED my laptop!! Jillian saw the computer chips on the floor and her eyes got big, but I knew it was just the USB drive that was broken. I spent the next 30 minutes trying to hold the chip and USB plug in the computer so that I could get files off it, but it didn't work. I even tried to make connections using tin foil! But it's dead. Luckily my papers were not on the USB drive. It was only my EndNote Library. Which is still pretty big, because I had about 70 references on there. It's gonna take a bit of time to try to replace them. =( Oh well. Could've been worse... My computer is OK and my papers are OK.

Here's the broken pieces: