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