Nordicfest

This past weekend I spent down in Decorah, Iowa. Why you may ask? Well because Nordicfest was going on and it was the easiest way for me to meet up with heaps and heaps of mates from uni(<--a very Aussie worded sentence there :-) ). Anyway Leah and I made the trip down on Friday night. After getting a bit of a late start because of traffic I ran into on the way to her place, traffic on highway 52 and a freaking detour down in Preston, MN we made it down in three hours and made our way to Rachel and Allison's. We were heaps excited to be going down to Decorah to see everyone but once we got there it was quite anticlimatic. Rachel was home but left to get Chris and Allison was out getting drinks. Finally a group of us congregated and we made our way to the streets of Decorah to check out the Nordicfest goodness. The night was dedicated to the pubs and hanging out outside on the street. So good.

Happily the next morning Leah and I awoke with no hangovers and headed to breakfast at McDonalds and then to get Darci for the parade. The three of us spent most of the day together hanging out at the parade then the festival trying some Norwegian food. Yum! We really enjoyed the small town fun. All day we had issues trying to get a hold of another group of friends but we managed. The three of us took a beautiful little walk/hike at Manaphy Falls ( I think I got the name right, whatever). It was so awesome! the trees so green! The cobwebs I kept running into though not as cool. We made it to the falls and had some fun around there for a bit. It's so great to experience the cool little things in decorah! It really is a beautiful little town! We went to dinner later that night at Sabor Latino , the service took forever! I guess the kitchen lost our order but no worries , a guy sang "Margaritaville" to us and since our dinner took so long we got some free margaritas! ;-) We spent the night checking out some more of Nordicfest and running into friends which was so good! Went to a couple pubs and I got my phone call from Australia again! So good to hear Sarah and Sunny this time! Hadn't talked to them in ages! It really excited me ! I later went to find Suzanne and hung out with her for the rest of evening, walked home only to find no one at Allison and Rachel's and so waited for one of them to arrive home. It was a lovely night out so it really wasn't bad sitting outside on the step!

The next morning we were lazy and took our time to get going. Britta stopped over and we had a chat with her which was lovely. Finally Leah and I made our way back from Decorah and the loveliness that was Nordicfest. Overall--good weekend! Enjoyed every minute of my time there.

Crazy stuff though... I got to learn about all the drama and what not that happened while I was away spring semester! craziness really! I reckon it was good that I was not around for it. It was spectacular to get to see so many people and talk about moving back to school at the end of August! It will be so good! I am so excited to see people and to be living with a great group of girls. It will be even better if I can get Maggie talking to me again before then.

Today is probably my last day of summer freedom during the week. I will most likely start working in the warehouse at Asset Marketing tomorrow or wednesday! It's been a good day althoguh I'm pissed that the art museums are not open today! psh! what is that?! bummer! I did however get to chat with Shannon and Sunny again today which was lovely of course and put some brightness into my day! Well thats it for now I reckon. Not much else to report. much love all!

-em

It's August 1st!!!! 12 days til my birthday!!!!!! YES!

in the news...

Today I have acquired a job and so I will be paid money for the next month to work in a warehouse at my dad's place of employment Asset Marketing! score! money is something I could use lately! It's a bit of a drive and I had to take a drug test but whatever I have a job for the next month before school! yes!

randomness for the day: I was reading the paper today and read that the awesome Minneapolis based rock band the Olympic Hopefuls, have to change their band name because of some copyright law for the word "olympic" how crazy?!!?! so stupid. The band THe Postal Service ran into trouble with the US Postal Service at one time too but they are allowed to keep their name for some reason. So sad though that the Olympic Hopefuls are now just the "Hopefuls". Stupid copyright law and people being silly about the word olympic. Psh... I don't see how anyone should be allowed to own a word! crazy stuff.

so... this just in: my buddy Joe (Schwan as I like to call him) just informed me that he got engaged! shit! not another one! Davina and I were just discussing weddings this evening and decided that we don't need anymore weddings or baby showers to go to! fuck! YAY for them though! wow! just so random and crazy! geez! I think I will put this kind of thing off for quite awhile. (Davina I am NOT getting married anytime soon! I do NOT have a future husband like you do! ;-) By the way D hope the conversation with him went well ;-) )

and now...THIS just in: went to tell Dad about joe's good news and well Dad gave me some bad news:-( Grandpa Wes called and said that him and Grandma Elaine are going to sell the farm! I am seriously bummed out now :-( I LOVE the farm! it is SO good! shit. really. so sad right now. I am NOT happy with this news. What will the 4th be like now??!?!? no more farm!?!?! sad!

I can't decide if I should continue with the post and write more things or just go wallow in my sadness over the farm. Or chat it up about Joe getting engaged. Sigh... decisions decisions!... think I'm out... but if anyone wants to check out a great post about religion do direct your attention to Shannon Schwarz's blog: http://cheesebandits.net/schwarzblog/?p=87

Happy!

Happy! So happy! It's come to my attention that really it is so much better to think happy thoughts and look for the good in things rather than get pissed off and upset. I don't have much to really be mad or sad about. I've been coming to the realization that you can find good things in heaps of stuff. I find so much joy in the simiple things lately like children's books! How lovely are they?! SO lovely! spending the day looking at books with Justin was so much fun the other day. I am so happy to be able to find the time to appreciate things lately. Really I am so lucky to have all that I do have. I got to go to Australia with my parents unwavering support! Shannon mentioned to me how lucky we are to be a part of a middle class that is well off. Not that Ihave heaps of money in my family but we are always doing fine with money and never have had many if any problems with it. So greatful for this! It's so great to have someone to remind you about these kinds of things in life. It's so true that "Life is Beautiful" (also a great movie). I may be sounding a bit sappy but hey, I'm allowed to be happy. People should try it more often. Of course you can't completely ignore the bad but I choose happiness. I choose not to get sad over not seeing friends.

Other things to be happy about: Have an interview for some summer work tomorrow! YES!
Nat called back tonight and said she'll be in f-town for my birthday! YAY!
Krista will be in town the night of my birthday too! It's been almost 15 months since I've seen her! She might not be able to go out with us that night but so excited that she'll be around for part of the summer before going back to school!
What else?!
how cool is it that Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France again!? it was his 7th time? His story is pretty awesome.
Oh yeah... still stay happy over the fact that I met some of the coolest friends in Australia and that we have done well in keeping in touch since I've left! They're amazing.
This coming weekend--> going down to Decorah to visit with Luther friends! Leah and I will make the trip together and are staying with Rachel and Allison. So many people will be down there I can't wait! The frisbee kids and others from Luther! will be SO wonderful!

Happy! :-)

-em

birthdays, frisbee, and stillwater fun.

Well what can I say? what a great past few days and an awesome awesome weekend! Friday night was Em's birthday and even though I couldn't go out to the bars after and was the only one under 21 i still had fun hanging out with the group of people and going to dinner. The next morning was a wonderful day. Although it stormed later that morning I was still so very excited because after driving over to Lauren's where I met up with not only her but also, Britta, Rachel and Sarah we all headed off to Maple Plain to play frisbee in the Aquatennial Frisbee tournament! We were playing with a bunch of Luther friends! SO good! Guys and gals from the mens and womens teams down at Luther for a co-ed team! It was sooo good to see everyone and to play some fun fun frisbee. We had a first round by and our first game was at 10:30 which is when it started to pour!!! So needless to say our first game was postponed for awhile.

After the first great day of playing frisbee we all went to Old Chicago together to eat. Later I went to Lauren's again and some of us girls watched the fireworks for the Aquatennial. They were soo good and there was sucha good view from Lauren's place! The next day was just as hot again but still heaps of fun! We only played two games but still i had a great time. After some of us went to Taco Bell as we tend to do after tournaments and spent quite some time there just chatting and eating. It was lovely. We then dispersed and most of us went to Lauren's in hopes of going in the hot tub. Sad to say we found the hot tub out of comission. It was actually gone. They are re-doing the apartment building she is living and making them into condos so heaps of things are being fixed or changed. Instead we went in the swimming pool and had a blast. I had quite the headache and stopped after awhile. Too much sun i think for me. After we said our goodbyes and dispersed I came home and crashed. Was soooo tired! Had a good 12 hours of sleep and woke up this morning at 9 feeling well rested but still sore.

I spent today not doing much at first except I did catch up with Blair, Bec and Shannon. Later I went out to Stillwater to spend some time with Justin since he doesn't work during the day. So we spent the afternoon chilling in stillwater and it was great. Got coffee and food, shared drunk stories. Spent time in downtown Stillwater walking around and going into some book stores where I found some great children's books. The second bookstore we went to was great and full of old books that all seemed very interesting! IT started to rain and so we headed to get more coffee, chatted with some of his mates for awhile and then headed back to his place. I left for home right after. it was pouring! But I made it home safe and sound and it actually didn't take too long! Came home to an empty house so I had time to myself. Wrote an email or two and later started to watch Garden State only to learn that my dvd is messed up! :-( so sad! oh well...

Overall...great day! can't complain. Hoping that tomorrow will be good and can find some work with the temp agency in town. Here's hoping!

much love,
em

the other side of the world called to say 'hello'!!!

Today had to be one of the most exciting days for me since I've been home. The other side of the world called to say hello!(BIG SMILE :-) ). Yep, i got to talk to Mel, Jess, Bec and Shannon today over the phone which was fabulous! Chatting on the phone is just a bit more personal than emails and im-ing people. I was so excited about them calling that I felt like it was Christmas when I went to bed last night! Mel told me a crazy story that did NOT happen :-), Jess told me about the tim tams she sent to Amber (twice), Bec and I talked mostly about her trip home that would begin in a few hours time, and Shannon and I chatted about music and much more! Overall I really really enjoyed my time on the phone with everyone. I felt like I was back in Adelaide chilling with everyone in Shannon's room again. Oh it was SOOOO good! I really really miss them all so much. Even when we had some random silences on the phone I was content because I knew they were on the other line and it just felt good. Needless to say I was ALL smiles today! :-)

I was actually somewhat productive with my day in that, I washed the dishes, washed my sheets, made my bed, and cleaned up my room a bit. Not bad...:-)

I also made a trip to get coffee with Davina again, and looked at books at the bookstore. Oh i love this. I hit up the art books again tonight and then the children's books. It was great to find the books that I grew up with like Harold and the Purple crayon and also the book Where the Wilde Things are. (sooo good ;-) )Davina was so much fun in the bookstore. She is a great listener and listened to me talk about Australia again, and listened to me read. There were some childrens books that I wanted to find but couldn't remember the authors (Shannon... who are the authors' of the goldfish story and some of your other fave children books?). I read some Shel Silverstein to Davina and I think she rather enjoyed it! :-) He is so good. I love his books. Simple poetry and illustrations but soooo good! I really really wanted to buy some of his books but I kept myself from doing so. I really wanted to buy so many children's books while I was there. But the fact that I have about $200 to my name keeps me from doing so.

other things ...
Yesterday was Amber's birthday and I got to chat with her on the phone too! YAY for phone's!
read in the paper today that Canada legalized gay marriage. I guess it is only civil unions but hey still something to be happy about. knowing tha tthe world is becoming more open minded and giving people the rights they deserve is great! I think it is now Canada, Spain, Netherlands, and Belgium that all allow gay marriage. There are three states in the US too that grant at least civil marriages. YAY!
also some joy was to find some pictures that Darci gave me from frisbee which made me very happy!

This weekend should be pretty good. Tomorrow is Emily B's birthday. I get to hang out with my sister again which is cool! Saturday is the frisbee tournament which means I get to see Luther friends! YAY! Think that's all i've got. --I'm out.

much love,
em

Charlie... = good movie!

what to say....hmmm
well... monday was good. At least the evening was really good. Playing frisbee and then jogging with Mikhal and Lauren. We then had pizza and beer after that and just chatted for quite awhile and they made fun of me, but I loved it. I got to be my stupid silly self and laughed with them! it was SO good!:-)

What else... so today (Tuesday) I felt productive by writing a letter and writing out two cards to friends! I'm still trying to think of things to send to my mates in Australia. Want to send a big package to a few of them but I can't think of something to send some of them. Hopefully something will come to mind.

Oh! Today I saw the movie 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'. Was so good! Loved it! I am a big fan of Johnny Depp (not just cuz he's good looking but because he can act) and the story! I was reminded just how fun the story is and now I want to read the book! I don't know if I ever did as a kid so I think I should now. I guess this movie version was much more like the book inclduing the same words to the songs that the oompa loompas sing! The design and sets for the chocolate factory also were really amazing and fun to look at. I got reall excited during previews too for Harry Potter and for Corpse Bride (Another Tim Burton film coming out soon which is more like his Nightmare Before Christmas movie--cartoon-ish). Anyway that was the excitement for my day. I was in a pretty good mood all day which was pleasant! After the movie I made some yummy ham salad, and was astonished and maybe a bit mortified when I realized my dad was using my Cooper's glass to drink his beer at dinner! So not fair! :-) hahah. Davina and I went for some coffee again and I had two Chai's. YUM. But only because I found five dollars in my wallet randomly! YES! That was a great find! Davina and I had a nice chat on the way to get coffee and on the way home about how much we love Minneapolis. Great sky line for one, and there's just always so much to do. I love to look at the posters and flyers in Pandora's to see what concerts are coming or what plays or productions might be going on. Plus the city pages always have heaps of stuff in them too!

That's all I've got for today i guess. Besides the fact that watching Conan tonight with D was also heaps good! He's a funny guy!

later all,
much love,
em

missing the other side of the world like MAD!

the weekend was great. If you read this you probably already know how great friday was so I don't need to touch on that again.

What else did i do this weekend? Spent saturday sitting at Caribou with D having a chat and also doing some reading in my book 'God's Politics' (so good. some great reading) I went over to Leah's Saturday night and it was wonderful. It was great to feel so loved by Leah and all her questions about Australia which were mainly focused on a certain Australian she wanted to know about ;-) We were girls and watched Love Actually and just hung out. Had some daquiris, ate popcorn and then some ice cream out of the carton! ;-) with hot fudge of course! We ended up watching Chocolat after the ice cream and then fell asleep. Her mom was ever so cute and made up a yummy breakfast this morning! we had bowls of fruit, so yummy and then biscuits and gravy! Mmmmm my favorite! ;-) Ok so I LOVE all breakfast food.

Today I spent at home after getting back from Leah's and we had a bbq! Threw some snags on the barbie and had some mates over for a good time! It was a bit depressing going through Australia pictures over and over again telling people how much fun I had there. It's hard. People are more interested it seems in the places I went, but really the people I met are what mattered more to me. I so badly want to share every story possible i can with people back here about what we did over in Australia. Everyone cracked heaps of jokes at me about drinking today, which though are very funny, i got a little sick of. Sucks to not be legal. less than a month! -- Anyway I think I was most happy that I got to see Ruthie and Nate! Gave Ruthie her wedding gift (Tim Tams!) and also seeing Justin was wonderful. have missed the crazy kid like mad! Once people left I just stayed home and have been watching movies that haven't really kept my attention. Am thinking about going to bed a bit earlier than usual. It would be good for me.

So i miss the other side of the world like MAD and long to hear an Australian voice on the phone! I know it's afternoon over there now and I so badly just want to call Mel or Shannon's room to see if they are there cuz i know they're around for break. sigh... I think sleep wins over my craziness. I long to hear Amber's jersey accent over the phone too! I miss my life from the past five months. Like Amber said... we did not have long enough! we needed more time. I could have definitely used heaps more time! Heaps...for so many things! (BIG SIGH)

i'm out--
em

Birthdays and concerts!

Hey all! Such an exciting day today.
1) today was AJ, Blair, Nick and Aunt Lori's birthdays!
2) Blair called me and so I got to wish her Happy Birthday! I Miss her and love her!
3) Went to lunch with my sister and her friends Mike and Jen. Yum food was good!
4) AJ let me have a beer at her house! ;-)
5) We were watching tv at my sister's place and I saw FOOTY on tv in America!!! So exciting to me... not so exciting to the others! I really wanted to watch it but yeah. (oh and funniness...we also watched some 90210 on tv and Sesame St...it was good fun)
6) We went to the Aquatennial Block Party in Minneapolis and I saw Missy Higgins (she's aussie) and it made me think of the lovelies that I left back in Adelaide! Especially Sarah. I think the others liked Missy's sound which was cool. It was nice to hear an Aussie accent again! Oh andI bought her cd, got some good pics taken of her and also got her to sign my cd and a flyer! Woo hoo!
7) Ben Lee, Mike Doughty and Howie Day were all awesome too! It was fun going to a free concert with four great artists! YAY!
8) got to chat with Jon and Jo this evening and haven't talked to them in awhile! YAY!
Alright.. i Think that covers most of it. So in general it was a spectacular day! w00t! The rest of the weekend is going to be great too! Will relax tomorrow and then going to Leah's and sunday is the bbq! yum! well I better get outta here... love you all.

cheers!
em

"God must be Australian"

Still no job... but my parents helped me figure out ways to keep busy. Basically by cleaning the house and doing odd jobs around here. They suggested I repaint my room. First I have to finish unpacking and then clean before I do any of that.! Apparently it doesn't bother my parents too much that I don't have a job. I guess we'll get by. I just have to stop spending my money! eek! Went to lunch with Lauren today and then we both ended up buying cds at Best Buy! Shoot!

quick note: I hate not being 21 yet! Some of my closest friends are 21 already and what do they do at night for fun?! go to the pubs, which I can't do! :-P

So tonight I was nice and made dinner for mom and dad. Yumm spaghetti! I broke a glass in the sink though and cut myself on it and cut my thumb. BLEH! It's really not bad at all but dang could that sucker bleed! Other cool thing... my friend Kelly called. I was thinking about her the other day. See what we like to do is go to Barnes and Noble and look at books while we drink our Starbuck's Frappucinos. We also always make a trip to buy planners (diaries as an Aussie would call it) from Barnes and Noble. This was the meaning for the trip. I ended leaving with not only a planner, but also two books: The Bell Jar (because Shannon mentioned it in his last email) and a Spanish Dictionary (because I left the other one in the care of Shannon when I left Australia.) Anyway.. Barnes and Noble is dangerous... I wanted to buy HEAPS of books! I have a list started of books I want to read that I feel i should really shoot for. I don't have a job! i should read more! but I have to finish the book I am currently reading! SO anyway it was a good night hanging with Kelly and telling her about Australia. I love the book store so much! I love to look at all the art books. I really want to take an art class now at school for the heck of it. It'd be good. I should just start drawing again! I do have a sketch book.

Well tomorrow is my sister AJ's birthday, it's Blair's and Nick's Birthdays and it is also myAunt Lori's Birthday! Crazy day for birthdays i guess! Tomorrow is also the Aquatennial Block Party which I'm going to with my sister and her friends to see Howie Day, Ben Lee, Mike Doughty and Missy Higgins! SO excited! Should be heaps good!

oh on a random note... the title.. it's a quote from Davina...funny girl. When we were at Caribou Coffee the other day chilling ... she said that God must be Australian when she read the word 'heaps' in the Bible. :-) I asked her though how it was used in the sentence. The Bible was refering to someone 'heaping' something into a mound or a pile. So although it was not used as how Aussies tend to use the term 'heaps' it was still really funny. Love you D! haha.

Anyway i think that's all i have for now. Nothing special just whatever. I'm going to go write in my planner now for fun! I'm a dork!

much love,
em

a day well spent...

Another bum day but I did get some things done! Go me!

The day started with getting up a bit later than I wanted to but not too long after I got a phone call from one of my lovely room mates for next year Maggie! For those that don't know she was my roomie fall semester. She's great! What was exciting was that she said she has her tattooing license! How awesome is that?! she can already pierce people but not tattoos are added to that list of things she can do to people's bodies!

After the lovely phone call instead of working extensively on any job applications, I put off finding a job by cleaning the house! Well I didn't do too much but I did vacuum and sweep a lot of the house. Cleansliness is nice. I at least feel like I accomplished something. After getting the feeling of accomplishing something i sat and watched Oprah. It was actually really interesting. She had the second part of her interview with Brooke Shields and her struggle with Postpartum Depression. It was interesting to hear about what mothers can go through after having a baby. Having visions and thoughts about wanting to hurt or maybe even kill your child, seems "crazy" but it happens and it's real. It was interesting to hear Brooke Shields and other women talk about the problems that they had and just to learn about the depression in general. There were stories that they took from the news about women who had actually either ended their lives or their childrens' or both! There was a blurb about a woman who threw her two children (infants I believe) over a bridge into the river and then she jumped too. Guess where that happened? Here in Minneapolis. I was actually on that bridge later after it happened to watch fireworks at the Taste of Minnesota with some friends! I guess I never knew that postpartum was the reason for that lady doing that! The things I learn! Anyway watching this Oprah episode made me think about Tom Cruise again and his interview and the things he said about this type of depression when talking to Matt Lauer. There was a psychiatrist or psychologist, don't remember which one she was, that was on Oprah and she talked with the ladies about how it is a chemical imbalance, but that environment is a factor too. Back to Tom Cruise, I wish he would have watched this and taken it into account. Maybe he did watch this episode of Oprah and if he did I wish he had listened a little more. Basically I was thinking that the psychiatrist that Oprah had on the show knew a bit more about depression than Tom Cruise did and so it just makes me a bit more angry at what he has said. I just think it's not cool. Seriously, what does he know about having a child? Granted I've never had one but really... As Lauren said to me later "he's probably one of those guys that thinks pms is just an excuse". It was really neat being able to talk to Lauren about this later too because she was also a psych major. But yeah, Postpartum is really interesting to me and I'm thinking that I should do my senior paper on it. I'm just feeling quite passionate about the topic now after hearing both sides. I think I'm probably just more mad at Tom Cruise but I guess I can thank him partly for getting me interested in it!

ok so now that I'm done ranting... Something else that highlighted my day was going to frisbee tonight! Women's pickup was great! Nice ladies to play with and although I will be so sore in the morning and I was dying on the field, it was still heaps good! I haven't played in awhile so I was happy I got out and played for awhile. I'll probably be going to another practice/pickup/league thing on Wednesday and then maybe sunday. Coolest thing was that they invited Lauren and I to play with them in the Aquatennial Ultimate tourney! I'm totally up for that?! Playing with women would ge really great! We'll see what happens. Luther is getting a co-ed team together, so I might do that too. Who knows! It was a great time though!

Alright I think that's all I have for now. Hope this all made some sort of sense, especially that rant! much love all!

cheers!
-em

p.s. Oh it's Fiona's birthday today! YAY! ( i don't think she reads this but...) HAPPY BIRTHDAY FEE! :-)

Basillica Block Party = Awesome!

Last night was the Basillica Block Party here in good old Minneapolis! If you don't know what it is the Block Party is two nights of great music sponsored by the local radio station Cities 97. The block party is held at the Minneapolis Basillica and some of the streets surrounding it. It's so fantastic that the Basillica holds this event! Although you can't get in without some sort of religious affiliated group handing something out or speaking loudly about the scriptures or how you should repent. It's all good though, people just do their thing. I only went to the performances on Saturday night and they were heaps awesome! It was a very hot day and evening but we did not let that get us down. I went with a group of guy friends from high school and had a blast. We first went to watch The Olympic Hopefuls who are from Minneapolis. They are excellent, I am a HUGE fan! They came to Luther first semester this past year and they were so much fun when they were there so I was heaps excited to see them again! During their set I ran into Zoe and got to meet her fiancee! Crazy! She'll be getting married next May! After the Olympic Hopefuls we hung around for Carbon Leaf and they were pretty sweet too. I enjoyed my time listening to their music although some of it got kind of mellow and so I started to get tired! I saw my sister and two of her room mates at the block party too and got a chance to chat with them. They're great!

After the first two acts at one stage the guys and I headed to the Star Tribune stage to watch Better Than Ezra, who was the act that we mainly went to go see. They were awesome! They played a lot from their new album but still played some of their great older songs! It was a fun time and I especially loved when they asked someone to come on stage and play with them...play the cow bell with them that is! Some guy Andrew got up there and he was alright, but he could have been better. The lead singer Kevin kept telling him to be more rocking...and he tried, but he probably could have been even more rockin'! The best was that they were in the middle of a song, I forget which, and once they started the cowbell they started to play "Don't fear the reeper" by Blue Oyster Cult! I looked around for my sister for this one... If you don't already know the hilarious-ness that is this song and the cowbell you must see SNL and the Best of Will Ferrell! You have missed out if you have not seen this! Hilarious skit! Anyway BTE proved to be awesome once again. I am rarely ever disappointed. As we left Nick and Mark decided to take the sign that said "free church tours". Yes, i guess techinically they stole from the church! haha! oops i mean.. that's not funny. (but it is)

Overall it was a great night and good fun had by all. Next weekend... Aquatennial Block Party on my sister's birthday! w00t! Headliner: Howie Day. Accompanied by Ben Lee, Mike Doughty and Missy Higgins! So pumped for next weekend!
cheers!

em

Amber is Awesome, drunk sinner phone calls, and the lever is back!

Amber is Awesome!: Amber and I talked this evening (now early morning) about how we should go back to Australia sometime together. Both of us have J term and we were thinking if we can get the money together and if I don't have to take a j term class we will try to make it out to Australia to visit friends in Adelaide again and maybe do a bit of traveling again.:-) we are funny girls but it made us feel sooo much better! We even talked about meeting up in Europe or something half way with mates from Australia :-). But if those don't pan out we might just meet up with eachother because we miss eachother just as much! Sigh...it would be so great to be able to do that and make a trip to Australia again! Although i feel like I should travel some where else than Australia because I do want to travel so many places. Other ideas I've had for j term have been taking a trip to Africa with school. How cool would that be?!

Drunken Sinner Phone Calls: :-) This one makes me smile! I love Davina so much, and with all my heart. she is the funniest! Tonight was her sister's bacholerette party. She went out drinking with her sister and her sister's friends. A lot of the time she feels like a sinner, but she really isn't a terrible person. So one night I told her before I went out to the pubs that I was going to go out and be a sinner and be the best sinner that I could be. She quoted me on that tonight on her xanga website and all I could do was smile! the sinner thing is a bit of a joke with us... and when she called tonight a bit drunk it was even more funny. I told her how great she was for putting that up there. She's awesome. You should all get to know her! :-) D you're the best and I hope you had a good night! No worries, if you're going to hell... i'll already be there waiting.

the Lever is BACK!: One thing that I am very happy about for being home is the fact that I can watch Late night with Conan O'Brien!! He is HILARIOUS and just the other night he brought back... yeah you guessed it the Walker Texas Ranger Lever!!!! This is such a funny segment! Davina and I cracked up over the internet about it the other night. If you have not seen the shows with these clips you should! They are so funny and so random! Much love to Conan!

that's all i have.
Basillica Block Party tomorrow! Woot! should be fun!

much love,
smuder

Tom Cruise is kind of an Dickhead!

So some things have changed since I've been gone...first of all... The state of Minnesota is shut down right now. The government is anyway. The only state thing we can access right now are the state parks! I am freaking out that I won't be able to renew my license in a month that will state that I am 21! I know people might be getting a laugh out of this...but as funny as it could be it still sucks! How can the state of Minnesota be shut down?! I guess the deal is they couldn't decide on a budget or something. I should probably read up on this issue a bit more but seriously?! how random!

Other things that are different...well Ruthie is married, I knew that was happening but it's weird to think that she is no longer my high school friend Ruthie Falink. Ok well she's still herself but she has a different last name! Other things...there's road construction, a few different buildings around, nothing major.

One nice thing about being home realizing the many other clothes that I left here. I finally started re organizing things in my room and started to put clothes away and I decided that green is a good color and I should get more of it! I also started to try to get rid of some t-shirts and other clothes that i know I won't wear! Again I didn't get that much done today but it was a start. clothes are finally put away but there is still heaps that needs to be done.

Life in general? I'm missing Aussie friends like mad! It's only been a week!
Life here? I love to read People magazine when i go up to the farm to see grandma and grandpa. I picked up the latest that grandma had and read a bit about Tom Cruise and his interview with Matt Lauer from the Today Show. Cruise is a scientologist and well, what he had to say to Marr Lauer seemed fairly informational but he kind of did it in a dickhead sort of way. Even though I'm not studying psychiatry it is related to psychology which is my field of study and when somebody who is not studying that subject says that they KNOW it (psychiatry in this case) and proceeds to bash it, i'm sorry... i can only feel a bit offended. Sorry Tommy Cruise... but babe there is the possibility that chemical imbalances are a reason for depression and other mental illnesses. The fact that he flat out said that a chemical imbalance is basically crap, well gee, wow! thank you Dr. Cruise! :-P yeah... no! I guess I'm just open to the possibilities of psychology. I really believe that it could be a chemical imbalance for some people and maybe not for others. I don't agree with diagnosing things like depressiond and ADD extensively, I do believe it gets abuse and so do the drugs that get prescribed. I also know that these illnesses can get over diagnosed and that's not cool either. I'm totally against this stuff, but really there are villians i guess you could call them in any field of study that can ruin the name. I agree with Cruise when he says that there are other ways to cure things like depression. THere really can be. I don't believe that drugs are for everyone to help them out with their depression or whatever the case is, there is definitely the need for some people to just be counseled and to find other ways to deal with things but hey, it could be our bodies too. Granted there is no REAL proof that these drugs that are used are the answer but they seem to help so far. There is just so much behind this stuff and I feel like Cruise was being a bit ignorant. I wish I could have seen the interview he had, it would have been interesting. Maybe I will have a chance to read up more on it, but basically i have come to the conclusion that Tom Cruise was kind of a dickhead and that's not cool. Not that I feel like he was really pressuring his scientologist beliefs on people but it was not cool to say other people are wrong. Any thoughts?

Anyway that's been on my mind for awhile and I hadn't talked about it or wrote about it so I thought I'd share it now.
Life is complicated. People are complicated. Religion is complicated.
I want to share with you D's take on life lately. She's awesome, she asks some of the best questions. help her out if you can: www.xanga.com/davina22

cheers everyone!

I'm a bum...

So I haven't posted anything for what seems like ages but really it's only a few days. I got home the fourth in the early AM and since then it was a trip to grandma's and fireworks...yesterday was sleeping in until 3pm and coffee with D and Jeff later at Pandora's! oh how I missed that place!!! and Today I slep til 1pm and then hung out with some frisbee mates from Luther! Love those girls! Throwing the disc with Lauren and Leah was fantastic and I got to share stories about Australia. Later I went back to Lauren's to hang with her room mates and their friends and Mikhal came over too and we had some fish and corn on the cob! mmmm yummy!

it's been great to be home and I feel like things are falling into place fairly easy and that not much has changed. Well a few things. THere is now a pharmacy at the corner where I turn to get to Jeff's which really confused me and Pandora's is remolding some stuff and you can no longer smoke in there...which i find a good change! Since I've been back I have of course really missed everyone back in Australia and the Americans that are in different states. It's pretty hard trying to share stories to the pictures that I've shown people but still things are alright.
i have had a craving for coffee and coffee houses for the past three days and feel like I could go every day but that might kill my wallet...Plus I don't have much money to spend. Tomorrow will hopefully be devoted to finding a job. I haven't done much in general. I haven't even done anything to stimulate my mind like read! I just sleep and bum and then go out. such a life.

alright so I'm pretty boring. I should probably go to bed so i can get up in the morning and run some errands and stuff and be productive!

much love all!

home again, home again, jiggity jig...

hey all! real quick post because it's early morning back in MN and I need to get myself to sleep and get back on MN time...but hey! I'm home... alive and well after a day of traveling. I have had no sleep lately either! Eeek. All of my flights except the one to Sydney were late and I actually missed my flight in Chicago but was lucky to get another one at a later time so I didn't get fly in til almost 1 am! whew! big day tomorrow at grandma's birthday party/fourth of july celebration. It hasn't hit me yet that I"m home...i'm just like yeah...whatev...it's home. I didn't bawl when I landed like I thought I might but I reckon I will be an emotional wreck for awhile!

Miss you all you lovely Aussies! I miss Australia! But Home is good too.! love to all!

much love,
smuder

saying goodbye

so...it's sunday early freaking morning... a few more hours and we will be headed to the airport to say goodbye! It hasn't hit me yet, I haven't had any very emotional goodbyes yet although I'm pretty sure I will break down soon enough.

This is so weird. I don't want to do this. These people have been my friends, they have been my life for the past five months! Adelaide has been my life. Uni Adelaide, the frisbee team, Aquinas College, lower "H", has been my life and now I have to leave that life. I'm sorry by how depressing this is but I need to get it out of my system. Luckily I am not bawling and crying all over the keyboard yet. I want to write little letters to everyone, but I think it may take me too long and I'll never get to say as much as I really want to.

It's dead silent here in Lower Hannan and I'm not quite sure who to go visit now... I'm using some alone time, which I don't want too much of, but i definitely feel the need to collect my thoughts about every five minutes. All my mates are scattered around the college grounds, either packing or helping in the packing process. Writing notes, and addresses down, reminding ourselves that we can keep our friendships alive half way across the world.

these goodbyes are not going to be the easiest things I've ever done...wish me luck!
I'll be home soon!

em

the goose is flying the coup!

sorry everyone it's been a week since I last posted, it's been a busy week. Well not really busy, more like lazy and I've barely spent any time in my room. I've spent most of my week either out, or in other friends' rooms. It's bee wonderful. So...what's been going on since Monday? well... here's a run down if you care to know...
Monday: finished my exam, shared a bottle of scotch with Shannon to celebrate being done, went to a movie with some mates (our scotch and coke in hand in drink bottles-oh the wonders of Nalgene bottles!), ate some pancakes came back and hung out watching movies til the wee hours.

Tuesday: can't really remember what I did all day. Pretty sure I laid around my room or in someone else's room just hanging out and getting stuff ready for the trip home. That evening I believe was Bec's celebration of the end of her exams. That evening most of us just sat in Shannon's room drinking. Me? yeah... half a bottle of tequila. I ended up falling asleep and sleeping hard til the next morning. I needed that sleep!

Wednesday: Ah my very last pub night! It was a blast. I actually went to frisbee first that evening and got to play once more with all my frisbee mates! YAY! I then made it home for pub night. This was Sunny's night to celebrate the end of exams. We all got together and made our way to the pub for the night where we stayed til they closed and kicked us out pretty much. It was a wonderful night getting the chance to hang out with whoever else is still around. A chance to see people for the last time. This night was also to celebrate mine and Amber's birthday's since we won't be in Australia for them. Basically we wanted people to buy us a jug of something, which they did, and then they sang the skulling song to us while we stood on the bar. People complimented me for a job well done, but really it took me a long time to get the whole thing down. What was my jug of choice? oh yeah...Tequila and Orange Juice...what I drank the night before. This was also Ann Marie's last night in Adelaide so I had to say good bye to her, but the evening was well spent hanging out with friends, getting pizza after the pub, and hanging out in Shannon's again.

Thursday: Oh what a day. WE spent part of the morning/afternoon at the Central Market buying food for a picnic we wanted to have in the park. IT was a blast, and I tasted THE best yogurt i have ever tasted! I think I could move to Adelaide just for that little yogurt shop in the central market. After we finally made some decisions on sandwich food we headed back and just went across the street from college with blankets and some music and sat and had a lovely little picnic. We also decided to play some Twister, which we plan to do at the airport too, and we had fun rolling down the hill. It was a great day. After that I went to Blair's to meet up with her and Warren before the frisbee party. This was the last night I had with the frisbee kids. Chantal who is an amazing girl, threw a party for the American frisbee players who would be going home. Basically it was for me and Blair. It was a good time although I felt mostly depressed the whole time and good byes didn't seem that hard, I didn't cry, because I think I felt like I would be seeing them again. This was also the last night I got to see Blair. She's been such a wonderful friend to me, and i love her! We became good friends over here and I had a blast playing frisbee with her and getting to know her. She left Friday morning with her family to do a bit of traveling before she goes back to the states. sigh...it was a hard goodbye but I didn't cry until I was sitting in Shannon's room later reading a note that my mate Ric had left for Amber and I. He went home to Perth that same night and he left us a lovely note saying good bye and keep in touch. Lovely boy. I kind of sat around being sad most of that night, but still hung out with everyone. People had gone to our friend Tom's for the night but slowly they returned and we just all hung out again watching vidoes and chatting and what not. It was an emotional night.

wow, this is getting long, but bear with me because this blog isn't only for you guys, it's for me so I need to remember what i did!

Friday: I started packing friday and it was not fun. I've just been saying good byes mostly. But anyway... Amber and I spent most of the day trying to get ourselves to pack, and I think i was the more successful one but whatever. We just hung out most of the afternoon. Later in the evening Bec threw Ben, Amber and I a party, again to celebrate our birhtdays! How nice! it was great. They even got us little gifts and we had cookies and ice cream! Oh and they bought us alcohol! We sat around in Jess and Mel's room all night and had some drinks and talked and had a blast. Again a bit sad, but still it was a good time nevertheless. Ben had some sparklers so we lit those and threw them off the balcony which was pretty exciting and got me thinking about the 4th back home! So excited! So yeah, we chilled all night and just had fun! I am hoping that Sarah will make a copy of the tape that she used to record us being silly. I sound terrible on audio. Barely got any sleep once again.

Now it's Saturday, I woke up today and started the day pretty much with good byes to Ben, Glen, Greatzy and Cagney. Lunch was kind of a fun experience, quite a few of us all sat together at the head table and chatted for quite some time. Then I spent the rest of the afternoon with Lauren, Terri, Sarah, Jess, and Amber doing some shopping down on Rundle Mall. It was a lovely afternoon and now I have a bag FULL of freaking souvenirs! Sorry if anyone doesn't like what they get. I can only be so creative. Anyway, the rest of the night is to be spent hanging out and having as much fun as we can. I need to finish packing up stuff and need to say good byes and all of that. Then it's off to the airport bright and early with my heavy luggage to first say bye to Amber and Lauren at about 6am and then I leave at 9. This is going to be a very crazy time. I think a lot of the IES kids are on my flight which will be weird to see them because the only ones I really hung out with were Blair and Amber and Dave. But yeah, I probably won't talk to them much anyway, will need all the time i can with everyone else who will be hanging out at the airport.

SO yeah, this might be my last blog until I return home. Wow, that's crazy... but I leave at 9 and make my way to Sydney then LA to Chicago and then home by about 10 pm. ! it's going to be a long day! I'm excited to see AJ when she picks me up and it will be good to be home, but it will be sooooo hard to say goodbye. I reckon I will be a HUGE mess when I get home so be prepared all of you back home to console me! Anyway I'll be home soon and we'll see where I go from there... until then... I love you all you lovely Aussies and I will miss you! I will write more to you all later! much love to all! Until I return home....

em

DONE!

WOOO HOOO! I am done with exams! I had my one and only today at 2 and it actually went alright. I really can't complain. There are probably parts that could have used more writing and thinking and all of that, but whatever! It's done! Now not to sound like a complete alcoholic or anything but my plans for the evening, and also my reward is to share a bottle of scotch with Shannon. After tea sometime it's scotch and coke for the night. The Machinist is playing at one of the movie theatres in town so we're going out to see that too! excitement! Fun! YAY! OH the Machinist is a film that has been out in the states for quite some time I believe because I remember wanting to see if before I left but it just came to theaters here in Australia a little while ago. It stars Christian Bale and it just sounded cool.

Anyway I'd like to explain the craziness that was this exam. Ok well it wasn't that crazy but the exam process was SOOO different from back home. First of all it was at the show grounds, not on the campus at Uni. Secondly, there are just HEAPS of people, with quite a few exams going on at once in this very very LARGE warehouse room, that holds probably as many kids as actually attend my school, Luther College, back home in the states. They have a lady on the loud speaker whom you really can't understand and sections and sections of people. My exam was only two hours long and we were the first exam to get done but if you're taking a longer exam you have to sit there and listen to all of the kids from the two hour exam get up and leave the HUGE warehouse room, push in their chairs and all of that! UGh! glad I wasn't one of those kids with a longer exam! Anyway it all went alright. I started coughing quite a bit at the start of the exam and felt bad for the people around me, but it stopped after a bit and I made it through!

I really could go on and on about how excited I am that I AM DONE! but I can't quite think of anymore words to describe the excitement that is being done! Here's to the week before I leave! It shall be a good one no doubt!!!!!!

-em

the start of goodbyes...

Well it's on to doing some actual studying finally for my exam on Monday. I have barely done any today but plan to do more tomorrow. It's hard because everything is coming to an end so I'm trying to spend as much time with my friends as I possibly can. I don't plan to sleep at all this week. I got only four hours last night. I think I can last on that most nights this week! Maybe it will help with sleeping on the plane ride home next weekend.

News in my life... Since thursday it's been mostly hanging out. I was feeling a bit sick on wednesday night, I didn't have much of a voice which I could really tell when trying to talk to Mel in the early morning. Thursday was pretty good, I went to the city to run errands with Sunny. He needed to buy a few things and get a few things done for his trip to Europe. He is so lucky, he is going for three weeks to places like Rome, Paris and London! One of his sister's actually lives in London so I'm sure that will be heaps cool! I'm so excited for him. I wish I could go to Europe! Anyway we did that and came back and I hung out for most of the night. Watched Life is Beautiful in Cat's room and later almost fell asleep in Sunny's room because I felt a bit more sick. Bec was kind though and took care of me by buying me soup and making it for me! I felt heaps better after that.

Friday morning I woke up to a phone call from my mum about my flights back home. One of my times had changed so I needed to check with student universe and make sure it was ok. Things are fine, I decided to ask for my full itinerary just in case but all is good. I should be arriving home on July 3rd around 10 or so i think. The rest of the day I spent hanging out with Bec shopping and then bumming around all night, watching movies and spending time with friends. I stayed up til 8am watching the sun rise. The night was so good overall. I had a blast just hanging out watching movies. Sunny, Shannon, Bec and I were all super crazy by 5am, but it was a good crazy.

Today... well it's now sunday early morning here in Australia, and Beth and Joe's flight leaves at 6am today :-( . A bunch of people went to the pub tonight, but I was feeling under the weather so I am waiting for their return so I can say bye to Beth before she catches her flight. I've come to the realization that maybe why I feel a little bit like crap is because I stay up late, eat like crap and barely sleep. Oh and throw in a few nights of drinking too. Anyway I'm sad to say bye to Beth and Joe. Joe gave me an amazing cd full of pictures. He's quite the photographer. We've done the exchanging of numbers, and email addresses so we're good, but still, they are going bye bye. And I will be in a week.

Right now I am also missing Ruthie's wedding! It's about 11:11am back home in good old Fridley and Ruthie Marie Falink is getting married today (it's Saturday the 25th back home still). I'm so excited for her and wish there was an easy way to know if I could call her but I'm sure she is super busy. Sigh... it is a big bummer to have to miss out on this. I tried my hardest to talk Ruthie and Nate into having their wedding in July, but it didn't work. I will miss the wedding by a week :-( Well it's off to find Beth and Joe and people so I can get one last good bye in.

This is hard stuff.

-em

few things to share

it's been a really quiet day. Nothing has gone on. I stayed up all night and I said bye to Amber (australian amber). My night last night was pretty good. I spent the night with friends drinking and going to pub night. I played my first drinking game and we had a blast! Pub night was good, lots of fun, but sad because it was Beth and Joe's last pub night. They are great friends and I'm going to miss them. I wish I had gotten to know them sooner!

So have I mentioned how much I love my friend Davina! She's awesome! We have the best conversations even over the internet while she's in MN and I'm in Adelaide! Most of it is about relgion and relationships(well either those or coffee, and coconut shrimp :) ). We tend to have heaps to say about them all. Anyway she is also heaps cool because after introducing her to Shannon and Shannon's comic she posted in her online journal about it. She knows funny when she sees it. :-) so anyway i wanted to share her web journal, it's on xanga so you can't post, but it's fun to read! ALong with hers here are some other friends' blogs...all are good reads.

davina: www.xanga.com/davina22

my sister aj's blog. Hopefully she'll put pics up some day! (she's a photographer and she promised photos) she's so awesome and is the best sister ever. I love her! : www.ajsmuderphotography.blogspot.com

Bec is a friend of mine I met over here in Australia. She's from LA and she has her own blog sharing stories about Adelaide and Aussie fun. give it a go! : www.rawadelaide.blogspot.com

Mel is my mate from Australia. She's a true blue aussie and if I may say so and use this word, she is a legend! She did this quiz thing on her blog that got me thinking about some of the great little things in life. She's awesome..you can read her quiz answers, mine and shannon schwarz's along with heaps more interesting stuff about her aussie life here: www.elementsofchaos.blogspot.com

Shannon Schwarz is the guy who posts as "Thin" on here. He's quite the character and loves to rant and rave himself. He does so on mine, bec's and mel's blogs and he also does some of his own on his own site where we also return the favor: http://cheesebandits.net/schwarzblog/

one other one I think I will share is the site that Shannon Mason and Shannon Schwarz share together and that is their comic Cheesbandits. It's heaps hilarious and although it's been ages since they've put up a new comic, and I'm not quite sure what's going on with it all, it's still good! A little bit of Aussie Uni student humor from two of the funniest blokes i know: www.cheesebandits.net

So yeah that's all I've got. I just wanted to share those things. I'm sure I could keep blabbing away about religion or something but it's close to tea time so I'm going to go. Much love to all. Oh by the way the post before this one i wrote while drunk last night in Mason's room and it is a toast that Lauren and Beth taught all of us girls last night. :-) Great times!

-em

here's to...

Here's to the boys that we love. And here's to the boys that love us. But the boys that we love aren't the boys that love us. So f*ck them and here's to us!! -- Beth and LJ :-) I love you girls!

Cairns!

I don't know how much I want to do this right now, but I'm going to do it anyway and fill you all in on the trip that was Cairns!

First of all it was amazingly great. The weather was lovely, it was actually warm, a bit humid and sunny all three days! It started with an early morning plane flight that Ann Marie and I couldn't take any longer by the time we left Sydney for our connecting flight to Cairns. We made it though and all was good. I made it through the jerk next to me taking up heaps of space with his stupid elbows...

The first day we just chilled and kind of checked out the city. We got about $24 back from the hostel each because STA had booked us for three nights instead of 2. This we used as an excuse to spend more money. Basically we shopped for things not really needed and then for food that wasn't really needed either, but we did it anyway. I think Ann Marie and I are are a terrible combination when it comes to shopping in the sense that we are just bad influences on eachother. The shopping trip was good, it was all rather funny especially when picking a color towel (neither one of us had remember to grab a towel), she wouldn't let me choose black, so I chose purple and she was pleased.

Our second day consisted of spending the whole day, a very beautiful and sunny day, on a sailboat and snorkeling in the reef. We went on the trip with the Passions of Paradise boat and crew who were all completely awesome and good fun. The ocean was beautiful and the hills/mountains all around were amazing as we left the dock. We did two dives and both were amazing. Ann Marie and I both had issues with our snorkels at the first spot but were able to get them working so that we could enjoy ourselves. THe first spot was Paradise Reef, the second was Upolu Cay. Both had heaps of coral and sea life to see. At the second spot we swam to a little island and chilled there for a bit. Needless to say we got a lot of snorkeling in and also heaps of time just sitting on the boat soaking in the sun and taking in the wonderful views. I don't know how else to explain the gorgeous-ness that was our day. Ann Marie made friends with Simon one of the crew members who was heaps cool. We got back and we walked around the city more and spent more money that we shouldn't have. Got dinner and ice cream. Ann Marie ended up buying almost 21 postcards! Haha. this again is where we are bad for eachother, we let eachother spend too much money. We were completely pooped from the day and laid around most of the night and were out by 10 pm, again.:-)

Our third and final day in Cairns began with us not wanting to get up once again, but we did anyway. We checked out and all that good stuff and then we went on a half day excursion. We did some horseback riding in the rainforest. IT wasn't real rainforest, it's kind of low on the rainforest scale but technically it still has some of the qualities of one, which we learned from one of our guides Glenn. He was awesome. He was adopted by aboriginals and lived in the rainforest for something like 13 years! The best thing he had to say was what he learned while living there which was the concept of "no worries". If you're worrying, you're not living life. The horse ride was really neat. I had never ridden a horse before so it was really cool to experience it for the first time. Nope, girl scouts or nothing I was involved in ever took me horseback riding. My horse's name was bob tail. He liked to stop every once in awhile, but otherwise he was cool. After that we went back to the hostel and chilled until we could get a ride to the airport. We sat in the airport and some how when I tried ordering a flat white with a vanilla shot, I got a flat white with no vanilla and then a "vanilla milk shake". I was so confused. The "milk shake" was terrible and I tried to put some of it in my flat white. I was too nice to go back and say that they fucked up so I just drank both drinks. It was kind of a waste of $7. We were really good on the plane to Brisbane. We had our cosmo and we had some energy so we kept ourselves fairly busy for that whole trip. We even had a chat with the lady next to us. We got off in Brisbane for a couple of hours, had a shit dinner, and then waited for the flight. The flight seemed to take forever...we got really tired and cranky again, but we finally did make it to Adelaide where Ann Marie's boyfriend Nick was there to pick us up!

Overall I had an amazing trip. Ann Marie and I had a great time and we got along really well which was awesome. I'm sad that we hadn't spent more time together before this trip because she is so awesome and that this trip is where I really got to know her because we have to leave eachother in two weeks! :-( She's awesome and we've already made plans to get together when we are back in the states. :-) Oh the wonderful joy of making friends!!!

Anyway I'm pretty buggered now and I'm amazed that I made it through this post alive, but hopefully it explains most of what went on. Hope you enjoyed reading that one. It's great to be back in Adelaide except that it's freaking cold and rainy! :-P ah well... I love this place no matter what!

cheers!

smuder

One Last Trip

It is already 1am here on what is now Sunday morning and I'm getting on a plane one more time to go to Cairns. This is my last trip, my last travel in Australia. I have barely any money left so I can only afford one more trip. I am pretty bummed I never made it to the outback which sucks, but it gives me reason to come out here again some day! Yeah the whole outback part is kind of a let down. :-(

Anyway I am fulfilling Lauren Soderstrom's command of needing to see the Great Barrier Reef because I am in Australia! Cairns will only be a three day trip so nothing too long, but Ann Marie and I will be able to fit in a trip to the Reef. That is pretty much the reason for our trip. I am getting bummed that there are places that I have not been to and have not seen. There is just too much to do and see here! And I only have so much more time and only so much left for funds. But it is definitely not a complete loss. I will be so happy to come back to Adelaide after my trip and be able to spend time with the wonderful friends that I have made. Oh and possibly study for an exam in there too ;-).

Many of my American friends will be leaving on the 26th so when I get back I plan to spend as much time with them as possible and with the Aussies that Iwill not be seeing after I leave. I think about this stuff everyday and it's getting harder and harder to deal with. These are great friends I have made and I don't know how I can leave them, but I know that I have great people waiting back home for me. No worries, I have many many plans already for the people here. We have already agreed to call and write (even when drunk. i mean... ok yes I did mean that). We already have visits planned for the Aussies to come to the U.S. and us to go back. We have plans to meet up somewhere in the U.S. for different celebrations or just for the heck of it (us Americans). We have all these plans but I still worry. We have talked about emails, and messengers and phone numbers...I hope that none of these get lost. We have plans and I definitely plan to keep them and see them through.

Well maybe I'll catch some sleep before I head off in the morning. Only a few hours left. Still have to get up early to call a taxi to get us to the airport. oh joy! I'm very excited for this trip. I can't wait! I'm looking forward to some warmer climates up north too! :-) I probably won't write until I get back.
cheers!

em

I am BATMAN!

Alright so I went out to see Batman this evening. OK well friday evening it's now early Saturday. Anyway... I LOVED it! I don't think I talk about this much but I am a HUGE Batman fan! It was always my favorite cartoon, I used to watch the old tv show with Adam West and I've now seen every Batman movie! Batman Begins was wonderful. Christian Bale did a wonderful job at being Batman. I'm not quite sure if they made the story fit together with the first Batman movie. What do I mean by this? Well the Joker was actually the guy that killed Bruce Wayne's parents in the first movie but in Batman Begins they make it look as though the guy who killed his parents died in the very beginning after he tried to get parole or something. Not sure. Whatever. I think too much about it. But really, I do love the movies and was very very pleased with this film. It wasn't really anything like the ones Tim Burton made with Michael Keaton, but I was still very pleased. Yay for good movies! Oh and of course the good friends who accompanied me to the movie! :-) May I also say that Cillian Murphy was wonderful as the scary doctor/scarecrow. He's the lead in 28 Days Later, and I think he's a great actor but he doesn't really get noticed. I think he was also in The Girl with the Pearl Earring but he only had a small part in it I think. Oh and I was actually also fairly pleased with Katie Holmes in the movie. I was actually convinced she wasn't Joey Potter from Dawson's Creek. I was happy, she didn't ruin the movie for me. Sometimes they pick crap women for these movies.

"I am BATMAN" (anyone who has watched enough celebrity jeopardy's from SNL will find that funny... anyone? anyone? Bueller? AJ you should at least be able to find it funny)

So besides my crazy batman-ness the day was pretty good. I spent most of the morning in bed relaxing and then got our for a run with Amber and then threw the frisbee with Blair. YAY! She talked me into going to some party tomorrow (Saturday). Meh, it's for Dutchy's girlfriend. Dutchy is a frisbee player, who I don't even feel like I know THAT well and I know his girlfriend even less so I think I might feel weird going. The rest of the day I tried to read for a bit and then hung out with Mel. We decided to watch Wayne's World before tea. We didn't get to finish but we were both reminded about how hilarious that movie can be. ( "I'll have the cream of sumyoungguy" -- Mel's favorite quote it seems :-) ) A group of us went to theBatman movie after tea and then I spent the rest of the night in Mel and Jess's watching random movies on tv. Overall a day well spent. Tomorrow's plans are not plentiful...I have kitchen duty in the morning and then will probably be packing for my trip to Cairns. I leave bright and early on Sunday morning. 6am flight! blah! I plan to sit and read for most of the day or maybe sleep!

cheers!

em

random news

It's early in the morning here in Adelaide on Friday. It's about 1am. My thursday was great. I slept in, I chatted with Beth and Cagney for awhile. Later I went to lunch with Sunny. Just me and Sunny. It was rather nice to get a chance to just sit and talk with him (he's been busy studying all week and I haven't seen him much). We had some great food and great conversation just about life, friends here, and all that. Oh and how I'm leaving in two weeks and how we'll all be BIG messes when we say good bye. Anyway... the rest of the day was spent being lazy and writing in my journal mostly. Later after an interesting conversation with Kareem and then Tea, Jess and Mel every so kindly let Amber, Bec and I watch tv in their room. This is all i did all night and it was soooo lovely. Mel, Jess, and Bec ended up going out to the Banque for some drinks and Amber and I stayed back watching Batman Returns, getting ourselves ready to go see the new Batman movie tomorrow night. Another thing on my mind... Bec has been thinking about throwing some of us a little party. I guess mostly for Ben, Amber and I because our birthdays are all in the summer and we won't get to celebrate them here. Bad news is that her planned date is the same as that of the one Chantal decided on for throwing a frisbee party for some of the americans who are leaving. Overall I'd say I'm screwed.Bec wasn't happy about this news so now I have it on my hands to figure out if we can switch things around. UGH!

I'm sorry that this is not a very exciting blog post but as I was sitting here checking my email before I headed to bed I got an email from my dad. It was actually an email from my mum that he forwarded. Sad news appeared. My mom's uncle Dewayne passed away on Monday the 13th. The funeral is this friday. It's sad to learn this information while overseas. I am hoping that mom is doing alright and the rest of my mom's side of the family. Dewayne had some form of cancer. I don't remember what kind, I just know he had been getting treated for it for some time now. He was a great guy. I think i used to be scared of him when I was little because he was kind of big and always had long hair and a long beard. That never changed. I'm wondering so much what home is like right now and how mom is doing and how my grandma and auntie mary are all doing. mom is going to Duluth thursday and kyle and dad are going up friday. It's all kind of weird. Don't know what to do or what to think about the whole situation. I haven't had a family member die since my great grandpa did when I was... oh i don't even know how old i was. all I know is that I didn't know what was going on. My other grandpa's brother died, and I think my dad's uncle did too some time since then, but I didn't really know them. Wow how depressing can I be? I just needed to get these things out. I'll stop here. no need to say any more. If you do it and think it helps, pray for my family. Thanks.

much love,
em

lazy day

Well it's bee a few days since my last post and what have I been doing for the past few days? Oh, nothing too exciting. Seriously it's been a whole lot of me finishing up that last essay I had to write and now it is finally done! YAY! I am officially done with essays! I am now allowed to sit on my butt and do absolutely nothing until my trip this coming weekend and then my essay on the 27th! The days before the essay was due were spent well. Sunday I spent time researching and writing a bit and then watched the movie Chocolat with some friends. Such a good movie! loved it! great story! After that I spent time in my room with Bec eating pizza and then we were visited by Shannon, Sarah, Cagney and Drakey. Needless to say not much more got done that night. Monday was spent writing all day and I actually went to bed early that night even after going to the Grace Emily, and got up a bit late but managed to finish my essay before 4 anyway!

The turning in of my essay was still well celebrated with a pint of pale at unibar. Beer tastes even better when you have one after turning in a dreaded assignment, and also when it's free. Yes I didn't even have to pay for my beer, Shannon was kind enough to buy me the beer as a reward for completing my assignments! It was Sooooo Good! :-) The rest of the evening was well spent by just sitting around. Oh the concentration that takes up! haha no. I watched Office Space with some mates and then Secret Garden and Never Been Kissed. A random range of movies but a well spent night nevertheless. It was nice to hang out in Jessicas room for most of the night. Later Joe(another american) played some tunes for a bunch of us in Jessica's room. Jessica is going home for a couple weeks before next term starts and she won't get to see Joe again because he'll have left before she gets back. :-(

Today was my laziest day ever since the beginning of the semester and it was wonderful! I got up to have breakfast but went back to bed after that. I just laid in bed all morning until lunch time. After lunch I actually got my butt up and went to Uni with Ann Marie so we could book our trip to Cairns. We're only going for three days but it should be fun. The most ridiculous thing was the cost of the plane tickets! ugh! Anyway we are happy we finally got our act together and booked a trip. Yay for us! Tonight will be spent well with frisbee possibly and then pub night. It's kind of cold and wet out so I'm no so sure how excited I am to go to frisbee and get cold and wet but I didn't go last week so I might as well. After frisbee I think I will go to pub night which I have not done in ages!!!!!! Anyway that's about it. Nothing too exciting.

I just had to add this last bit and say thanks to Mel, Schwarz and D for sending me great comments. Oh and no worries Mel and Schwarz. I'll watch out for Sunil :-)

Wildlife Park with Will...

Yesterday I spent the day at Cleland Wildlife Park. It's up in the Adelaide Hills and so it was about half an hour bus ride. I met up with my friend Will at the bus stop and we went from there. (this is American Will who used to go to Luther--frisbee player). The day looked like it was going to be really nice. It was a bit cloudy but the sun was peeking through. So we rode up into the Adelaide Hills and once we got up there it started to look a little bit more cloudy. We got to stop at Mt. Lofty for a few minutes to try and check out the view of the city but you really couldn't because of the clouds, which completely rolled in just as we were leaving. The bus then took us to the wildlife park. It rained for a bit while we were on the bus but stopped soon after.

The wildlife park was great! We sawe heaps of great animals from Australia. Kangaroos, which loved us when we gave them food. I had about four around me at one time that i was trying to feed. Will was nice enough and took pictures for me. We actually got to see a wombat that wasn't curled up and sleep in its hole. Saw a tasmanian devil, and got to watch him be fed. Saw all sorts of wallabies, some red kangaroos, some little animals that we weren't sure what they were, possible bandicoots. Will also tried to feed the Emus but they were not interested. They are scary looking animals. There was this animal called a Euro that looked pretty much just like a kangaroo. Saw a dingoe and a koala (actually saw it move! they are never moving when I've seen them.) Saw some cool birds, snakes, one of which actually moved, otherwise we assumed they were all dead, and we finished the whole park in like 2 hours. thing was that we had to kill another hour or so because the bus wouldn't be back until about 4:20. It was pretty funny because Will had said that it would probably take us four hours to really get through the park and see everything. I guess it would have taken longer if we would have sat in line to get a chance to hug the koala but I wasn't game to stand in line. So we got some food and sat and talked for awhile. Caught the bus again and went our seperate ways home. Overall a good afternoon. It was nice getting to hang out with Will and have a chat with him all day. Most of which I guess I did the talking. It was nice to talk about home and talk about MN and Luther and have someone know what you are talking about. Like when I asked Will as we passed a mongolian bbq place if he had ever been to one and he responded with "Khan's Mongolian BBQ off 494? yeah." YAY! love that place!

So one would think that once i got home I would eat tea and then go to do my homework, and get started on that essay of mine. Well I went to tea, had a chat with Amber and Sunny, then fell asleep, woke up at 10, 11, 2:30 and then just went to bed and got up about 8:30. Sunny, Amber and I were supposed to watch a movie later after Sunny and I had done some homework, but that didn't happen. heh. oops. Anyway, today I will hopefully get most of my research done so that I can type away tomorrow. I just need to actually sit down and concentrate!:-)

much love,
smuder

2 down, 1 to go...

sigh of relief! The labor studies essay is done! Finally!!!!!! I had the intentions of never going to bed last night but I ended up catching about 3 hours of sleep and spent all morning and afternoon hurrying to finish up the paper. I'm actually kind of mad that i had to rush it because I wanted it to actually be good. I ended up with about 20 pages! maybe a bit less, 17 references when I was suppose to have 20 and yeah, I don't know what else is wrong with it. probably heaps, but I can't be bothered to figure out what is still wrong with it.

The relief and joy that i experienced from handing up this assignment was SO great! it was sweet as... I then spent a couple of hours at unibar with a great group of friends and enjoyed myself for those two hours. We basically got kicked out because a concert was going to be happening and we had to have tickets for it and so we all departed into the rain a bit drunk some of us, and some of us still with beers in hand. I insisted on jumping in the puddles and amazingly i did not wipe out while running around on the sidewalks. Ben and Shannon headed to a movie and the rest of us got some food. mmm mmm good. Hungry Jacks cheeseburgers, how good are they?! especially for 2 dollars?!sooo good! I shamefully had three! :-P yes I am a fatty. Really badly lately actually because I keep eating food and don't need to. I ate a whole bag of chips last night, had three pepsi colas, and quite a few tim tams. Fatty right here. The rest of the night I spent chilling with most of the group that had gone out for food. Once Mel got back from work a few of us decided to watch Sex in the City. This show... funny... entertaining. yep those are the words that I have to explain it. Now it is a debate of whether I should just hit the sack or maybe go visit people again before I do so. I'm going off to Cleland Wildlife park with Will tomorrow and am heaps excited! He is a big fan and has suggested it to me allllllllllll semester!

by the way, I am a big fan of my mate and neighbor Lucy. She just got back from work and stopped to say hi, and to tell me she can spot my smell. Apparently it is a good smell though, like shampoo. :-) haha. she makes me laugh. Anway, overall good night, ok day...the paper is handed in and now I have one more to go. My last assignment is for politics. Hopefully it's not too crap when I hand it up on Tuesday. i can't wait to be done with writing essays!!!!!!!!!!!! I feel like my move to spend the day at the wildlife park is not the best plan, but I got to get it in sometime!

much love all!

em

not holding my breath...

Philosophy Essay done and handed in!(It's not the best thing I've ever written but I guess it will do. Here's hoping for another Distinction, but I'm not holding my breath) One down two to go! Labor studies is due tomorrow...can't wait to get that sucker in! I'm a little scared about it just because I did so poorly on my first essay. I could really use a good mark on this one. I don't want a terrible grade for the class.

So anyway I get my essay done fairly early today and what do I do? Do I work on my other essay due tomorrow? No. But I did clean my room a bit, made my bed, spent too much time at lunch, then finally got my act together, walked down to Uni with Bec and LJ, walked to Rundle for some juice, stopped at a travel agency for Bec (LJ found a weekend surfing trip... i really want to go! we might do it!!) and then walked home. Now it's a matter of do I take a nap before tea or work on my paper for an hour and a half? Eventhough I haven't done any work since lunch time I don't feel that bad about it. When it's 2 am and I have heaps of writing left to do then I'll stress! I've decided that getting crabby about all the work I have to do just doesn't help the situation. Instead I choose laughter, humor and goofy-ness! :-) I choose to be ridiculous! HA!

Other thoughts... the other night while sitting in Shannon's room listening to Bec talk about Judaism, I found the need to pry and ask her if drinking and getting drunk was considered a sin in Judaism. What I found out was that it's not at all, and that they have a celebration, or a holiday in which they are to drink heaps. I could try to tell the story of why they do so but i would do a terrible job at it, so just take my word for it. I found this all very interesting and so I was thinking just yesterday that maybe I should become Jewish just for that. It's a terrible reason but then I wouldn't have people telling me I was doing something I knew was wrong. Or maybe I still would, I guess I would still get people who think Judaism is the wrong religion telling me I was a sinner still. Well I'm not really going to become Jewish... it's terrible reason to become Jewish just for that one holiday to drink. Now I sound kind of like an alcoholic. hmmm. I also don't think I have the drive or the ability to become an actual practicing Jew. Mad props to Bec for being one!

I could keep going but I will stop. Time to work on that huge assignment! Wish me luck!

cheers,
em

Swans, too much work, too little money

Wednesday is already here and what do I have to show for it? An introduction written for my philosophy paper and a few sections of my labor studies paper written. UGH. The philosophy paper is due tomorrow afternoon. I probably could have done more work yesterday but instead I spent most of the afternoon with Ann Marie (another american) planning a trip to Cairns. The scariest thing is that this trip is going to cost me HEAPS! at least $700 AUD which I do not have! I shamefully wrote an email to dad asking for money :-P My parents are great, because they love me enough to give me money to keep traveling and living here in Australia.

On to happier topics... Monday night I forgot to write about, but it was heaps good. Sarah (Tiny) insisted that we get a group together again and head down to the Grace Emily. She also told American Dave that he was going to play at the open mic. She's very persuasive like that :-) So we got a group of like 10 of us to go down and watch Dave on his guitar. Open mic nights are great at the Grace Emily. There are always so many talented musicians that get on stage. We stayed until about 1 am watching people on the mic. Shannon, Amber and I walked home together while most of our group caught a ride with Sarah's friend Joel. I was in such a good mood all night -- just very goofy so I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Our walk home was very entertaining. We took a little detour and walked down by the Torrens (lake that is shaped like a river) and there we stopped to watch the Swans and their babies in the water. To say the least...it was precious and "So Good" :-) Most of us spent the rest of the night up late in Shannon's room chatting again til about 5am.

Yesterday as I said was a pretty crap day... it was a beautiful day outside but I just didn't get anything done! I did however go back to the spot where we had seen the swans the night before and found them there again. The best was when this older man came by all the birds kind of flocked to him. He had bread crumbs for them and it was as if they knew him by sight. It was neat! I intended to do work after tea but I fell asleep twice! After taking a walk and having a chat in Shannon's room and then the dining hall a couple of my neighbors joined me Bec and SHannon in a chat. I finally kicked out the remaining two Bec and Brad(my next door neighbor--we call him Cagney or Cags usually) at about 2:30-3:00. Now to start off Wednesday... it took me an hour to wake up this morning. But I am determined to get things done. I also have wash to do! ugh! Have the philosophy essay due tomorrow and then labor studies due friday. I have weekend plans for Saturday but hopefully I will still get my politics essay done on time for Tuesday. Ugh!

A Footy kind of Weekend!

ok so wow...that last post was pretty long huh? no wonder no one reads these!
Alright, so... know how I was going to do all that apologizing and talking with Bec? Yeah, it kind of happened but not really how I wanted it to because I haven't shared all the other things I wish to share with her. But on to other things in life....

It's been a footy kind of weekend! Saturday night we were suppose to go to the footy game but it ended up being sold out so we couldn't get tickets that night.:-( Instead Mel, Amber, Bec and I decided to sit and watch the footy in Mel and Jess's room. It was great. It's such a fun game to watch and I wish that I had a way to watch it when I go back home. The Adelaide Crows smashed Essedon (forget where they are from) so it was an exciting game but then we just knew that the Crows were going to win so our attention kind of shyed away from the game. I ended up kind of falling asleep on Mel and Jess's futon while Mel got ready to go to work and then I finally went to my own room and hit the sack by midnight-ish but not without receiving a few hilarious text messages from Mel. My favorite was the one I found when i woke up in the morning stating that Shannon Schwarz is a drunken bafoon. :-)

More Footy happened yesterday... Glory Glory to Aquinas!!!! It was the Grand Finals for the college footy teams. Both Aquinas chicks and blokes were competing against St. Marks college down the hill. I was quite unhappy that I never got put in to the chicks game but it sucked even more that we lost! sigh... The girls were soooo bummed and it was pretty sad, but we didn't stay sad long because we had the blokes to support! And they kicked some St. Mark butt! (We don't like St. Marks much. There is quite a rivalry with them) The rest of the day/night was pretty damn good and was full of people drinking it away. The guys all buzz cut their hair, which I hear made quite a mess.
Well there we go... that was a bit shorter than usual. No need to take forever. Not only that but i have work weighing on my mind. much love to all!

cheers!
em

p.s. D-- thanks for the comment :-) you're a hilarious girl!I sure hope people stop insulting you!

All apologies, being bold and comics

so I have a lot to say...
Let me begin first with this notion of "all apologies". Ah yes, lyrics from a wonderful Nirvana song, but today it is kind of my theme and probably has been for awhile. Apologizing. I feel like I don't do it much except for the occassional "sorrys" for small little things, or when someting bad happens to someone and all you can think to say is "sorry" even though you have nothing to be sorry for because you didn't do anything to make it a bad situation. Again I don't find myself in many situations where I feel like I need to apologize for what has happened but today I have found a reason to actually apologize to someone. I've been a bit of a dickhead lately to Bec and so after missing her music night performance because I was out with other friends, and after feeling guilty, then not guilty, mad, sad... everything I whinged about it all for awhile, went to bed and now think I should say something. I think my issue was that I felt like I catch all the flack on this kind of stuff, and that I have been given almost very high standards in the mind of Bec. I love Bec, she is my dear friend and although I have my times where I am annoyed I still find joy in hanging out with her and I also find a wonderfully interesting human being. But i am going to stop being a dickhead and I am going to be a real friend and talk to her about what's on my mind and tell her sorry but that I do not feel guilty for having a fun night still. I hate feeling guilty. I just felt like a jerk.

To give a bit of background...last night was music night here at Aquinas College. We have many many talented musicians that were performing. Anyway, after footy practice (our last before the grand final) I went out with some friends to the unibar and just had a blast hanging out. We of course were bad with time and I didn't go back to Aquinas until a little ways into the second half of the Music Night. I left the pub feeling guilty about Bec's performance but was still able to enjoy myself and just smile while watching others show off their talents. We spent the rest of the night just hanging out and I think overall I talked and maybe yelled a bit too much because now I have a sore throat. UGH! anyway that was the jist of my evening from yesterday. Tonight I was meant to be going to the Footy game but we caught a bit of bad luck and the tickets sold out a few days ago. Our plans now are to watch the footy on tv maybe and just hang out. There is a frisbee party tonight too but I doubt i will go. It's for a player's birthday and I don't know him that well and I really can't have a big night of drinking or anything because of the footy game tomorrow afternoon! I am so excited for this and can not wait for the game. I hope I get to play! I'll be pissed if I don't get to!

On to the topics of being bold and comics. In what i consider my spare time (which has really been time that I just don't want to write my papers) I have been reading Shannon and Shannon's comic online Cheesebandits. I find this so entertaining because the humor in their comics is definitely them! Does that make sense? It's just that I know they are like that and their sense of humor is great on both ends. Reading it also makes me wish I was talented enough to be that witty, artistic and funny. Maybe some day I will be and will start a comic myself... I was thinking this today because of the conversations I have had recently with Davina. We can be pretty funny together sometimes. Lately her and I have talked a lot about religion which always seems to come up in conversation with us. She has been through a lot with religion stuff, mostly in a bad sort of way. People just never seem to understand her and she always seems to get the dickheads that don't make religion sound good because they are too absorbed in telling you that you're a bad person for the things you do. This is just ever so ridiculous! Doing this kind of thing does NOT make people want to become Christian or whatever relgion it might be. Two of my most favorite things that have been said to her were when she was told she had "issues" for having been out drinking one night and along with this one came the statement from the same person that they couldn't see why she would drink and get a bit drunk when she "knew what she was doing was wrong". Ahem...she's 21! she's allowed to drink! oh and the other favorite thing that has been said to her lately was the one about how this guy just couldn't find a datable girl(there are options but...) because " most of u girls just aren't bold enough in where you stand" We got a laugh out of this one. Yes...insult someone, that will get you a girlfriend ;-).

But seriously, I guess I am not the most BOLD person, but really what does one mean by being bold? I have my beliefs, and I stick by them. They may be all around the place; bits and pieces of different sets of beliefs, but I will always be ready to tell you what I think about certain things. Now if bold is to be defined as being one who goes out and preaches their beliefs to people (that's alright, i guess, i mean yeah, let people know what you think) and then tells them that their beliefs are no good enough or that they are believing the wrong thing, than I am sorry, that's crap. Again go for it and preach what you may, we have freedom of speech and maybe along with that comes the freedom to be a dickhead, but really... that's not going to get us very far and it's certainly not going to get you anyone to want to be religious, for example. I guess I'll just find my own idea of what bold is (I'm sorry if this has gotten completely off track and no longer makes sense. really... "All Apologies") Anyone who cares... here's a link to the word bold. enjoy! : http://www.webster.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=bold Hopefully it works!

alright I should stop with the rambling. I'm only putting off homework that desperatly needs to get done and a sore throat that needs to be taken care of. Much love to all!

-smuder

"...done, done and I'm on to the next one..."

So I find this title very appropiate, because 1) My brother Graduated today (June 1st, 2005) and so he is done with High School and my whole family is done with the Fridley School System after 19 years, and 2) I'm listening to Foo Fighters. Good lyrics. But yeah... My little brother has graduated from high school and I am so excited for him! I got to listen to it over a pay phone at uni this afternoon after my last class. I actually didn't really hear his name because it wasn't the best of sound and I wasn't in the quietest of places, but I got to hear the excitement and pretend like I could see him walk across the stage. Good news...he didn't fall on his bum as he walked across the stage. I got to talk to him and my whole family (two sets of grandparents included) on the phone after I made it back to Aquinas and got on the phone! Yay I am so proud of my brother. He is done and we are all excited!

I also got to talk to my old soccer coach/ good friend's dad Mr. Falink (Bruce). I will not get to see him again for probably a very very long time because he is moving to Chile on June 27th. Two days after his daughter (my good friend)Ruthie's wedding! He spent last summer in Chile and I got to house sit for him all summer with some friends. He's a great guy and I am very excited for him as well. I hope that I can go down to visit him in Chile sometime for so many reasons! 1) I would get a chance to travel again, 2) I would get to try to use my spanish, which is lacking, but it could be good practice and 3) I'd get to see him again. This is the guy that pretty much taught me how to play soccer back in like 8th grade. I had good times playing soccer and that first year was super awesome. I remember learning soccer with my friend Emily and we always called Bruce, Mr. Falink, just because it irked him so much. :-) He took it all with a grain of salt, we were dorky 8th graders. (yet we still didn't stop after that. All through high school we still did it) Best part was explaining to him that I was in Adelaide, Australia and he responded with "there's a song about Adelaide.." YES! yes there is! 10 points to him for knowing that!

Anyway ...it's been an exciting day so far getting to hear Kyle graduate, talking to the family and Mr. Falink. YAY! Plus it was my last day of class and class was pretty good. Chatting with some of the people in my class after was great, they are such nice people and the walk to uni was so entertaining thanks to the wonderful singing/dancing talents of Beth and Lauren. You would not believe how well these chicas can groove and walk at the same time while listening to Beck.

Things about yesterday...Ugh... nothing special I went to frisbee and had the most random bursts of energy imaginable. I think i was most excited to see Blair and to hang out with her. The rest of my evening consisted of homework, and chatting with mates over coffee. One of the Shannon's told me that for a souvenir I should just bring home an Aussie. I looked at Sarah and told her she was coming home in my suitcase :-) She's definitely small enough...it would totally work! I would love for any of my Aussie friends to come and visit me in the States. Shannon and Anna have both talked about coming to the states next year, and if they do I hope they visit me! or I'll visit them! I love them! I love all the people here!

alright well that's it for now. Gotta jet. time for lunch and heaps of studying!!!!!!! mucho amor a todos!!

-smuder

An Early Farewell

Ok so really I feel like this stupid thing never gets read. And it saddens me( i know there are some people who do read this and I thank thee!) I still hope this gets read once I leave this wonderful country.... and Really I try to be witty and all! sigh...

Alright well I'm going to talk away in my usual way now... I left you all with Monday in the last post, which was not very exciting at all besides hours and hours of sitting in the library finding nothing much for my papers and wanting to pummel the computers! Monday was probably the nicest day in a long time too! The sun was shining, it was nice and warm when I left for uni...it was great! but I sat in the library all day!:-( hmph! I was not amused.

Usually Tuesdays are my days that I loathe, and this one was not unlike any other, except that I did not have my three hour class in the morning starting at 9! YAY! Instead I went to uni fairly early still to try and find more references for my papers. :-P I still had philosophy lecture and a philosophy tut at 12 and 2. I got Mel to thinking that she was going to be Mr. Nigel-no friends because I didn't ruck up to philosophy lecture that early. No worries though I did make it and she was not Nigel-no friends. I think we both got to the point of almost falling asleep and not caring because the lecture notes always go up online and so there's no use to actually copy them down. Along with the fact that it is almost completely impossible to do so because the lecturer goes through the notes quickly. To make the most of our afternoon, Mel skipped her tutorial for philosophy and had lunch with Amber and I instead. Something that was somewhat exiciting , or maybe just a relief to me was that I met with my professor for my labor studies class to talk about the HUGE paper we have to turn in. SHe was helpful and I think I can get on track with it now! WHEW! too bad I didn't work on much of it after that...

Last night I got to experience an early farewell. It was really rather odd, but it was good nevertheless. We had a farewell get together with our IES program. They provided food and drinks. And well after a very long search for the room that it was in i made it there and thought to myself..."who am I really going to talk to?" I mean I have Blair and Amber whom I see all the time and hang out with quite often but there was quite a handful of kids that I never really see or talk to anymore. The night was still good, and entertaining, had a few beers, had some chats with people (which actually turned out really nice), then made my way back to Aquinas. I don't like to think about this whole leaving thing, but it was brought to my attention this morning that I seriously have 1 month left! 4 1/2 weeks! and what will I be doing in that time? -- writing papers, studying, traveling, and hanging out with my mates until they get so sick of me we'll maybe be ready to leave eachother (probably not really)

other things going on.... Kyle graduates today, June 1st even though it's not June 1st back home yet. My little brother...sigh... this is a weird feeling. I'm heaps excited for him! My parents are planning to give me a call from the graduation ceremony. I have class tomorrow morning but hopefully it will all work out. I'll at least get to hear my brother graduate! I hope he doesn't fall on his bum when he walks across the stage! :-) I proudly display his graduation announcement that my family sent over to me, along with his open house announcement and graduation picture. :-) Not to sound too dorky, but this makes me smile. Alright I think that's it for now, must get a move on with the day.

much love,
em