girl, you gotta understand the modern man must hustle.

I'm really annoyed with myself right now. Last night I just spent the entire night stooping down to the level of the people who have been running their mouths. I hate feeling like that. I refuse to fight fire with fire. I'm just gonna stop while I'm ahead and ignore everything, be civil but not overly nice, and take it from there.

On another note, the Ultimate Party bus turned out to be ultimately lame. Maybe I was just having a bad night, but I didn't find it that fun. Definitely not worth $25 dollars + drinks. I knew I should have stayed in...

Today will consist of finishing my essay, doing laundry, hopefully booking our hostel for Byron Bay, and that's about it. Also, Andrew is going to join us in Byron Bay for a few days when he gets off work and I'm pretty excited about that.

with your cowboy mouth and your curfew plugs, who among them do you think could resist you?

I am the worst procrastinator in the world, I think. I stayed up until 2am last night to finish a presentation for my Venomous Australian Animals class that I thought was supposed to be given today. I had a really hard time sleeping last night to top it all off. I crawled into bed when I finally finished, laid for over an hour trying to sleep, dozed off for about two hours then woke up at 5:30am, dozed off for another hour and a half and then woke up at 7am to go to lecture (for the third time all semester, mind you). Even though I was a bit disappointed to find that the presentations aren't even going on this week, the lecture was really cool. We had a toxicologist come and talk to us about first aid for spider/snake bites and jellyfish stings. What a cool job would that be? I'm actually considering looking into it as a possible career.

During practical today, we are supposed to be doing first aid practice but instead I decided to stay at the lodge and write my essay for Indigenous Studies (let's just hope I'll never need to utilize any snake bite first aid...!). It's not due until Monday but I know if I don't do it today I'll be hating myself for it later. It's such a gorgeous day outside and it sucks to be stuck indoors, though. I use my frequent cigarette breaks as a way to escape from my stale room and get some fresh air. I'm about a fifth of the way done with my essay and it's only 1:30pm so I should be able to finish by this evening. Hopefully.

On Saturday we're doing the "Ultimate Party Bus" thing for Margerithe's 21st birthday. It should be fun, I'm looking forward to it. The theme is "tight and bright" so I've got to go to Salvation Army at some point and find an appropriate outfit. I'm crossing my fingers to find some sort of awesome gold, sequined dress or something equally tacky.

I'm really looking forward to the two weeks that we have before exams start. Due to financial reasons, I didn't think that I'd be able to take any trips or do much of anything, but my mom was a doll and threw some more money on my card. So now Lauren, Cece, Jeanne, and I are taking a five day vacation down to Byron Bay and I am mega-excited. We found a sweet deal on plane tickets ($240 round trip to Brisbane) and we'll take a bus from Brisbane to Byron Bay. Andrew was a sweetheart, also, and is going to book us a room at a backpackers hostel and is getting us the first two nights for $30. Total cost for travel and accommodation is going to be about $410 AUD, which is less than $300 USD. Sweet deal. We're going to eat sandwiches and canned soup to save money. We're also looking into going hang gliding while we're there and the hostel rents out boogie boards for free. It is going to be awesome.

Okay, enough procrastinating with blogging and Facebook. Time to get back to work on my essay and listen to some Bob Dylan.

it's usually so typical, a piece of you for a piece of me.

These days I'm finding the greatest pleasure in the little things. I'm straying from my old self, I feel, towards a new, not necessarily improved, but different person. I find my desires to do certain things I used to find really fun are quickly diminishing and I prefer to spend my days being a bit more productive. It's nice for a change.

I had a really good conversation with Owen on our bike ride yesterday about all the things we've learned since being in Australia and all the people we've met. We both realized we have pushed ourselves out of our comfort zones in so many different ways during our time here. We've become friends with people that we never thought we'd be friends with. He and I, for example. He's a dedicated runner who isn't a big drinker and doesn't smoke and I smoke cigarettes all the time, pot occassionally, and I drink excessively sometimes. Yet we've become really good friends. Same with Jeanne - I was thinking about it the other day. When I first met her I never imagined that we'd be as close as we are now. I'm just really grateful for all the people I've met and how much they have affected me and the way I live my life. It's really incredible how much of an impact people can have and I'm pretty convinced that everyone has come into my life for one reason or another. Life is so good.

Anyways, today is another Wednesday off for me. I'm going to spend it doing a few little things that I've been meaning to get around to. I have some stuff to pick up in Smithfield so maybe I'll ride my bike over there. I've also got some work to get done for next week, so I think I'll start some of that today as well. For now, though, I'm just waiting for lunch while listening to my 8500 songs on shuffle on my iTunes.

i don't snap on like you want me to because it still hurts my eyes when they turn red.

Phwew. I am exhausted. I drank my weekend away. Friday I went out with Sherie and Michelle and it was a really good time. I danced until I was sweating my ass off and drank free cocktails at Mad Cow. Saturday I planned on going out but ended up staying in, smoking with the boys, and drinking red wine. At around 1am I got a phone call from my mom saying that she had talked ot Qantas and if I wanted to change my flight I needed to do it right then. So I drunkenly called Qantas, and after an hour of brief conversations and lots of hold music, I changed my flight successfully. I now leave Cairns on November 22nd and leave Sydney to come back to the states on December 11th. The change cost me almost $700, which is absolutely ridiculous, but I'm hoping that it will all be worth it in the end.

Sunday everyone got back from the field trip and was ready to go out, so for the fourth night in a row I downed the booze and went out dancing. We went to Mad Cow and the Pier. It was a good night. I didn't fall asleep until 5am, though, and had to get up at 8am for class. It was awful, needless to say. I went to class for half an hour and then decided I desperately needed to come back and sleep. I napped until dinnertime and then spent most of the rest of the evening working on our group photography project that is due tomorrow. It's very tedious and still not finished. We're all going to work on it tomorrow before class. We are very bad procrastinators.

I can't believe how quickly I'm running out of time here. It makes me sad to think about whether or not I'm going to see everyone again. This has been the most incredible experience ever. I'm going to enjoy my few weeks here. I plan on getting as tan as possible, continuing my running, going out occassionally (but not too much for money's sake), and just chilling. I've got quite a few assignments due coming up, too, so I should probably get those done...

i want to take you far from the cynics in this town and kiss you on the mouth.

Yesterday I went to the beach for what seemed like the first time in forever. Cece and I rode bikes down to Trinity Park and camped out there for a few hours. I tanned topless for the first time in my life and I'm regretting that I didn't slather on some sunscreen because BOY are my boobs sunburned. Besides that, it was really nice to get some sun again. I sat out with my book (Down Under by Bill Bryson), a chilled bottled of white wine, and my iPod and spent four hours unwinding. It was very nice, needless to say.

I didn't go running yesterday because I was exhausted from the sun and wine. I fell asleep pretty much as soon as I got home. I woke up in time for dinner and ate, then went and bought some mighty fine boxed wine. We spent the rest of the evening drinking, playing pictionary, chatting, playing guitar, and adventuring to campus to climb on roofs. We laid on the roof and looked at the moon and stars and ate cheese and bacon balls and talked, every now and then having to hide from janitors and security guards. I also almost set the roof on fire by dropping my zippo, after which we decided to entitle the Facebook photo album "The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire". We're clever.

We came back to the lodge and I caught a gecko, we played more guitar, I badly bruised my leg during an attempted cartwheel, and then, realizing it was already 5am, I decided to go to sleep. Not suprisingly, I slept through lecture this morning. I woke up around 11am, quickly (and half-assedly) finished my powerpoint presentation and e-mailed that and my essay (which was due last week...) to Jamie. Then I fell back asleep and woke up around 2:30pm to find that I had slept through lab. Shame on me.

The upside of all this is that today is Friday and it is the weekend. I'm feeling good about things. I'm still in shock that classes end in three weeks and I'll be leaving Cairns in six. I'm excited about having a few weeks in Sydney to relax and reflect on where life is going to take me.

so now let all the light that collects on your plants keep your warm, make you smile.

I feel like I need a serious emotional, physical, and spiritual cleansing ASAP.

you're the best thing that i've ever found, handle me with care.

My first week back from break has been, well, like an extended break. I still haven't been to class since the Monday before break. I was all ready to go to class today and then Grant reminded me that it was canceled because Jaime was going out of town. Fantastic. So now I have the entire day to myself. I should be doing homework, really, because I have a ton to catch up on, but I'll save that for the remainder of the weekend.

We've just been watching a ton of movies and hanging out at the lodge. Tuesday evening we watched Deathproof and I was so glad that everyone loved it. It's such an awesome movie, who wouldn't? Wednesday I watched the Patriot and it definitely wasn't as good as I remembered. I found myself getting incredibly bored. Last night we watched Planet Terror to complete Grindhouse and it was awesome.

Tonight is supposed to be Oktoberfest in town, but I'm not sure I feel like going out this weekend. I feel a bit burnt out, honestly. Plus, I have all that work to do. Who knows. We'll see where the day takes me. But for now, a little bit of It's Always Sunny and a nap sounds key.

OH! I almost forgot! I got another tattoo yesterday. It's a Banksy piece. Check it out:

don't worry i'll catch you, don't ever worry.

Wow. What can I say about the past ten days. They were seriously amazing. I did some things that I never thought I would do (skydiving), met so many awesome, wonderful people, got closer with my friends, and learned a lot about myself. As we're all going through the pictures from the trip, it's just reminding me of all the good times we've had. It's good to be home, though. I'm definitely planning on heading back to Sydney at the end of the semester if money permits... And now, here are some pictures from the trip. Only a sample, I've got over 300 of 'em.

Our friend, Greg, whom we met at our hostel in Melbourne.

The view of Melbourne from the observation deck.



Feeding a giraffe at the Taronga Zoo in Sydney.



Surfing outside of Sydney (I stood up on my first try!)



Skydiving.

I feel like one damn lucky human being.

this shit is bananas, b-a-n-a-n-a-s.

Surfing today was amazing. We did a lesson on shore about how to stand up and how to paddle, then we jumped into the water. Apparently I'm a natural because I was up and riding a wave my very first try. By the end I was standing up and riding every single wave I tried. I am ridiculously sore, though. Everything from my waist up is just stiff. Very worth it, though.

The trip ends tomorrow with skydiving, then our flight back to Cairns.

hold up, hell no, like britney spears i wear no drawers.

The last leg of our trip is proving to be a very adventurous one. Thursday we went to The University of Sydney's gym and used the rock wall. It was my first time rock climbing and it was a little bit scary and quite tiring. I had a really good time, though. After we got back to the hostel, we ate some food and then went to Scubar for a few drinks. We came back pretty early, though, because we had to get up at 6am this morning for sky diving (!!).

We woke up and caught our bus to the facilities. It was rainy so we had to wait around for a while to see if it would clear up. Unfortunately, it did not and we weren't able to jump. We're rescheduled for Monday, which means we will go jump out of an airplane (14,000 feet in the air) and then we get to go get back into an airplane and head back to school. I'm quite horrified to think about what the free fall will feel like, but hopefully it will be fun and go smoothly.

Tomorrow, Lauren and I are doing a day long surf trip. I'm really excited about it. I'm probably going to be awful, though, because I'm usually just not good at these sort of things (ie: water skiing, wakeboarding, etc). This trip is proving to be an amazing one.

ooh girl, shock me like an electric eel.

Currently in Sydney at a little internet cafe next door to our hostel. No time for a full blown update, but let's just say Sydney is awesome and we've met some cool people and our hostel is neato and I got to feed a giraffe at the Taronga Zoo. We're leaving Monday, and over the next three days we have rock climbing, surfing, and sky diving in mind.

I'll update when I get back to Cairns (which I'm very much looking forward to, traveling is stressful!).