ellen's match-box

hello world

2009-10-31T23:16:00.002+11:00

i have not blogged in ages! well not on this blog anyway. i blogged a little bit on my other blog, but that's just random thoughts i have or images i like. not really about my life.

it's been a while. my first year of university has ended, which is strange. it's gone very quickly and makes me wonder if the rest of the 3 years i have there will go as quickly.

i'm a little bit worried about my marks. i've been doing ok, but not consistently so. i have to get a distinction average for my 4 psych subjects next year. that scares me quite a lot, i've been finding it hard to get even a credit for psych. it's very different to anything i've done and i'm only now starting to learn how to approach it properly. hopefully i can do some learning over the four month break as well. it would be a shock to the system to get right into statistics if i didn't do anything for four months.

i have many small holiday plans.
first of all i'm going to the southern highlands with mum straight after my exams finish (literally), for 2 nights. we're staying in a little boutique hotel in the country that only has seven rooms.
after that i think my dad is coming back and we'll have christmas, and sometime during that period i'm going down to melbourne for a few days to see an old friend, who grew up with me in hk but now lives in germany. he is visiting family with his mum in melbourne, so we thought we'd go visit them too since they are over our side of the world.
i want to have a new years eve party. we'll see how that goes.
the first week of january i'm going on summerfest, an urban mission on the central coast. we team up with central coast evangelical church and run a week long program for kids. i'm in the team leading year 7-9 kids, should be fun. i've never done anything like this before.
after that i'm heading to hk and maybe thailand for 2-3 weeks. my friend from chinese at uni, rachel, will be coming with me which i am very excited about. mum will also be there for a while and with the exchange rate, i am told, being at nearly AU$1=HK$7 the shopping will be greaaaat. then i'm going to koh tao for a few days, blaise is working there for a month and asked me to visit. apparently it's mega cheap too.

i have also applied for a summer casual job at the opera house. i would be a tour guide, showing people around the opera house as well as doing some admin work. i haven't heard back from them, but i hope it goes well.

-ln

i am travelling again

2009-05-12T17:29:00.002+10:00

tomorrow i'm going to hk. ok, it's only for 4 days, but it still counts. note, i say travelling and not holidaying, because that's not what i'm doing.
mum is having her book launch - it's going to be so cool to see her book on the bookshelf and be able to walk into a bookstore and go, my mum wrote that. the powerpoint should be good too, it's all very exciting. but the other reason for going is because my grandma is sick, that's not so nice. they thought she had tuberculosis, but i don't think it's that. but still, mum says i should see her because she might not last so long anymore...

so i'm preparing for a massive 4 days in hk. as hk trips always turn out to be, it'll be intense and jam-packed with a billion things to do. dad will also be there - also nice.

today i also booked all my flights for june/july. it's so exciting, and i'll be paying for some of it myself which I feel proud of. but it's going to be a wonderful trip, whatever happens. i'm so excited, i love having things like this to look forward to. and to see all my wonderful friends over there!

update about hk later.

-ln

the night i met keane

2009-04-20T18:28:00.002+10:00

i've never really met anyone famous before, well excluding jimmy barnes maybe, but his daughter was in my year and i don't think he knows who i am anyway.

saturday night hannah and i went to see keane. it was at the metro theatre in the city. the show wasn't sold out which was really a plus - we arrived an hour after the doors opened but it wasn't crowded, and we got within 1 person of the barrier. the metro is actually quite a cool venue too, covered in posters of previous gigs, you can sit up the top and it's sort of tiered like in a normal concert hall except all standing. we'd missed the supporting band (the ivy i think they were called) and only had to wait about half an hour for keane to come on.

it was really such a great concert. han and i are both fans but didn't quite expect it to be so good. frontman tom did a really good job to communicate with the crowd, and came up really close to us. and contrary to other concerts, there was no pushing and getting squashed when tom came close to us, everyone just stood and enjoyed the music. i guess that might've had something to do with the crowd - it can't really be described as a young crowd, most were around mid 20s to 30s i guess. even some older couples.

the night before i was waiting outside the metro to give the tickets we'd originally bought to a friend, and there was a boy from florida waiting to sell 3 tickets. he ended up selling them to a couple who were around 40...we chatted a bit - turns out he sings at hillsong and came to sydney to take some lessons in jazz piano and guitar at the conservatorium. i love meeting random interesting people.

keane promised us that this (the 2nd and last show) would be heaps better than the first one and it definitely was the case. they played their hearts out, coming out for 2 encores even though they were completely knackered and finishing with queen's under pressure. it's difficult to describe the kind of elation you feel after a concert - i've been to so many and everytime it's a bit different. i guess this was just a kind of contentedness, being very pleased at what you just heard and paid seventy-odd dollars for. i guess it was also just the simplicity of keane's music - they don't try to do lots of fancy stuff but keep it to some beautiful melodies and words.

han and i stayed on after and i very politely asked one of the roadies for the setlist which i subsequently got! i've never gotten a setlist before so it's pretty exciting, even if keane aren't my favourite band. we found it to be raining outside so to protect the setlist i stuck it to myself under my cardigan. there were some people gathered outside waiting for keane to come out and we decided we'd follow along and see if they'd sign my setlist. after waiting in the cold and rain for a bit they finally came out, all 4 of them signed my setlist and tom even added under pressure at the end. and jesse, the bassist who isn't actually part of the band, asked me if i was from america because of my accent. they're were nice boys, down to earth, and i got a photo with tom and his rosy british cheeks.

i guess it's bands like these that you CAN meet because they're not all hyped up. i'd never have a chance to meet muse or someone like that, i'd be wayyy overexcited if i met them too, but meeting keane was just like meeting normal people, except they'd been standing on stage an hour before...

-ln

happy easter

2009-04-10T17:18:00.002+10:00

happy easter everyone!
i like spending my easters quietly at home. mum and i read the bible together about jesus' death and i shared what i'd learnt from public meeting with her. we're going to watch passion of the christ too, which i've actually never seen and i guess easter is the appropriate time. apart from that i've done some exercise this morning and played some piano and singing practise for choir (having not been to a rehearsal for 3 weeks...), and maybe some catching up on work now.
that's it for now.

-ln

much has been a-happening

2009-04-02T18:21:00.002+11:00

i am currently writing chinese characters in a little charater-writing book i bought in china. yes, back to that! practise practise practise.

i have become busy. my week looks like this -
mondays i start uni at 10 with a chinese lecture, though the chinese lectures and tutes are much the same really. i enjoy my 4 hour break on mondays too, gives me time to do some decent work and/or hang out with friends. last monday my friend liv and i went to her college and sat at the piano in the common room singing, it was great. i then have my music tute at 4 which i enjoy greatly. some really nice and interesting people there.
tuesday i also start at 10 but with a psychology lecture. at the moment this is the neuroscience lecture which is also interesting, having not done any since in about 3 years. tuesdays i usually have lunch with my friend jaime and our luncheons are spent complaining about how much work we have and how tired we are (tuesdays are the worst days for both of us). at night i go to switch at church, bible study :)
wednesdays are piano lesson mornings. this is usually preceeded by being worried because i've only practise once in the past week, and sometimes leads me to wake up extra early to do some practise. or, as is also sometimes the case, i wake up to finish my asian studies tute work due that day (i always leave my readings too late). i try to go to the EU public meetings on wednesdays, but it also happens to be the only time where mik, hannah, lucy and i all have a break at the same time. we had lunch this wednesday, first time probably since berlin last year that we've been together, just us four. it was great :) i finish at 3 on wednesdays and usually go home before coming back for choir at 7. intense 2 hour rehearsals really leave me breathless! but they are great fun too.
thursdays begin at 10 once more with another psych lecture, this time social psychology. today i spelt in though, missed it. bad ellen. my EU small group meets on thursdays too.
fridays are a bludge - 1 hour psych lecture to be attended at either 10, 1 or 3. sometimes i go at 10, sometimes at 1. that's the day to catch up on work/social life.
saturday SHOULD be my uni work day, but isn't. bad.
sundays is working at coaching centre in chatswood for chinese nerds (yesss alliteration) from 9-5, followed by church.

and that is my life until june 23.

-ln

an insight into uni life

2009-03-20T17:55:00.002+11:00

today is friday and i had 1 lecture - my 1pm psychology lecture. i came late and took a seat on the side near the front, because strangely enough there are always free seats near the front even in a packed lecture. the lecturer bashed religion, homeopathy, acupuncture and japanese ki energy, while saying that science is the only thing that is reliable in this world. pretty average science lecture, really.

i then made my way to sit outside fisher library (the main big library and biggest one in the southern hemisphere i think?) to wait for a friend. might i just point out - fisher library=best place to be targeted by religious fanatics. oh, and the socialists usually have a stand set up outside too. so i sat there and there was a lady sitting next to me, who i didn't really notice. until she got up and said 'it's a really hot day but the steps are kind of cold still!' (we were sitting on stone steps) and I kind of smiled and agreed and then she proceeded to ask me what i studied etc, and me, i'm sitting there thinking she just wants to have some friendly conversation while also waiting for someone at the library. she asked me about my background a bit and then...then came that question: 'so how does your family work religiously then, having both german and chinese sides?' there. it suddenly sunk in - she was getting at this point all along. so i quickly said that dad wasn't religious but mum and i are christians, and oh, what a coincidence! she's a christian too. and then her friend came and she had to go but she wanted my number because she was interested to hear more about my story and i couldn't exactly say no as that would seem really rude, both being christians and all...so i got sucked in and now i am scared she'll call.

after this i continued sitting and waiting, and there as an asian beat-boxing to himself while listening to his ipod behind me. it was pretty good beat-boxing, but not something you want to hear while sitting outside the library.

and then a pirate came out of the library. he was wearing a bright orange headscarf, had rugged facial hair, numerous necklaces and ripped shorts with boots, and was carrying a brightly coloured sack.

-ln

neuroscience

2009-03-10T18:40:00.003+11:00

today was my first neuroscience lecture for psychology. i think it's the first of 9 or so lectures. we were taught about the nervous system and how there's 2 major divisions: the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system. the peripheral nervous system is in turn divided into 3 parts; sensory nerves, motor nerves and autonomic nerves. as the name suggests, autonomic nerves are nerves that create non-voluntary bodily functions, like digestion. to put it simply, the lecturer (one justin harris, who seemed really quite boring and uninteresting up to this moment) said that what the autonomic nerves do can be described in the 4 F's: "feeding, fight, flight, and a fourth one that has to do with sexual activity"
hehehe.

-ln

so apparently i go to uni now

2009-02-25T22:04:00.003+11:00

please note that i dislike my uni timetable. it's something do with the subjects that i do, specifically chinese and psychology, that means i have 5 days of uni. alright, only 1 lecture on monday but still. and i was so sure all arts students get fridays off! not so.

monday was arty starty day. lame name, maybe it should be called arty farty day. the day itself was quite good though in terms of information. my mentor is lauren, a 2nd year arts (psych) student. she's very friendly and willing to answer any questions i have. everyone except the 2 guys in my group does arts (psych) too which is cool, the 2 guys just do arts. and no one took a gap year unfortunately so i feel a bit old. and then the whole walking around everywhere for many hours was tiring. stupid foot.

today o-week began. i went in to see lucy but then ended up hanging around with mik for most of the day and going around to all the stalls, signing up for clubs and getting my access card. freebies included a condom and lubricant from the SRC (interesting...), disgusting pump berry water from access and an iVegetarian t-shirt from the VegeSoc. i forget what societies i've joined...a lot anyway. but not as many as mik who literally went on a clubs/societies binge! even joined the economics society haha. there is a bit of devastation though, realising i won't be able to do soccer because the games are on a sunday. stupid work. well, no, good work, money. but still.

tomorrow will be more o-week, this time with my arty starty group. i'm going to look into playing touch footy instead now, and i want to walk around and find all my lecture rooms and tute rooms so i'm not completely lost in my first week. la la la, i'm a uni student :)

i'll leave you with some baking i've done recently - pear and chocolate cake & a bakewell tart.

2009-02-24T14:23:00.001+11:00

"wouldn't it be loverly...
to watch every audrey hepburn film ever made,
sew a cute softie toy,
discover london with the howling bells,
change the world with a photo,
spend a day with your mum,
travel all around europe,
wear some nice near clothes..."

-frankie

i won a competition

2009-01-19T15:43:00.002+11:00

i've never won a competition before. but i always enter them, well the ones i have an interest in. like the ones in the coldplay e-newsletter, or random ones on radio stations. as long as it doesn't take too much effort to enter it, something like sending my details in, or answering a simple question that you can easily find on wikipedia, is good.

the other week i was browsing the purple sneakers websites for some party-pics and there was a competition to win a double pass to the black kids concert. i know about 2 of their songs, that annoying 'i'm not going to teach your boyfriend how to dance' song is one of them, and i was like yeah what the heck, why not. this morning i was told i won. wow.

so i'm pretty stoked at having won something. it's sold out and the tickets were about $50 so it's a pretty good deal. i'm taking hannah along with me, we're doing dinner before. van she are supporting and they're supposed to be heaps good too. it's a the gaelic, the name itself suggests it's a cool venue. and that's in surry hills, so it must be cool.

---

6 ways the global credit crunch is affecting the music industry (ok there's only 3, the others weren't so great)

> P. Diddy's on the dole under ALL of his names.
> 50 Cent is now 27 Cent.
> Radiohead are now back-dating bills for customers who downloaded In Rainbows for free.

-ln

festival first night

2009-01-11T20:30:00.000+11:00

here's another thing i miss about shanghai: boonna. lattes at boonna. suz at boonna. study with kiddo at boonna. western-food-imitation at boonna.

the sydney festival is a month-long (well...from january 10 till january 31) event that runs each year in sydney, basically paying tribute to the arts by having lots of special theatre, music and art events all thoughout sydney. on saturday it was opening night, a massive free event in the CBD where they closed off lots of streets, set up heaps of stages all around and had lots of shows going on all day and night. i think there were about 25 000 people that went, and it was certainly very packed! at some points it felt like we were battling through a moshpit! we saw cat empire first at the domain, some fun dancing and drooling over the lead singer...then the plan was to go to santogold but the crowds were too big so we just headed over to sharon jones and got a vaguely good spot. sound quality was crappy though, as it always is in outdoor events, but more so as these outdoor places were not even meant for live concerts so we left sharon jones early. i did see her at falls so it's alright :) we wandered over to martin place where lots was happening too and then managed to catch a train home before the crowds. i'm planning to go to more free events, like jazz in the domain and symphony in the domain. should be good :)

i also got to take claud out on her first night on the town as an 18 year old! we hit up purple sneakers which was always fun, hadn't been there for ages and i've been craving dancing to indie music as opposed to all that hiphop/electro crap they play everywhere these days...

-ln

road trip down to tassie

2009-01-05T21:51:00.003+11:00

hello everyone and i am now back in sydney for an undefined amount of time. this is where the proper 'settling back into life' occurs.

the falls festival was awesome. and i enjoyed the trip down equally as much if not more. at 11am on boxing day, just as the yachts were sailing into the harbour and readying themselves for the for the annual sydney to hobart race, mik and han came in the purple station wagon to pick me up and begin our 900km+ road trip. destination: marion bay, falls festival!
we drove to gundagai on the first day, working out a good rotation system for the drivers. lots of photos were taken, and we did all the sightseeing there was to do in gundagai in about 5 minutes - an old railway bridge that you couldn't even walk on because it was so...old. oh and there was virgil street :D then we checked into our motel, with a creepy receptionist who we couldn't work out whether he was really angry or not angry at all. we were late, but he said it all with a smile on his face. creepy man. before the sun set we decided to check out the famous 'dog on the tuckerbox' sculpture which was highly disappointing. not only did we expect it to be 3 times the size it actually was, it really wasn't that spectacular. we did however witness a beautiful sunset over the australian outback :)

the next day started with a run around 30+ degree heat on the part of mik and han while i opted for a leisurely stroll to the gundagai oval. we then drove the remaining way to melbourne and it was so awesome (even after only 2 days of the outback) to see civilisation and 'city' again. we checked into what is probably the most awesome hostel ever - $30 a night with clean sheets and a towel, not to mention continental breakfast included and THE most beautiful bathroom ever. it was sleek, new and modern. so cool! we wandered around chapel street though most shops were already closed, then did happy hour at a deserted bar. the plan was to go party but no indie clubs seem to be open on a saturday night (whats with that?!) so we ended up playing jungle speed in our room with our roommate, loic, who is from france. next day, we met up with lucy (yay!) and made use of the big sales on chapel street and various other trendy streets around town. melbourne is such a cool and hip place, i love it. i also discovered my love for chai latte!at 9pm we boarded the spirit of tasmania for the 9 hour long (and very rocky) journey down to devonport at the north of tasmania. we had a tiny cabin with 4 bunks and at times during the night it was so rocky i thought i was going to fall off my bunk! arriving at 6am wasn't great either, but it meant i got to watch the sunrise from the boat at 5am. sunrises on the sea with nothing blocking your horizon is always amazing. we breakfasted at launceston and got some last minute supplies including gum boots and warm socks! tasmanian climate is soo strange and different it's unbelievable. even the landscape is different to the mainland, resembling new zealand more so than the rest of australia.

the festival itself was awesome of course. the first night was chilled listening to some crazy world music at the village the first night, while lying on soft carpets that had been put out across the grass. personally i liked the field stage more than the main stage; it was more intimate and you could enjoy the music more than having to worry about getting crushed by the crazy bogan mob. speaking of bogan - marion bay falls festival is totally bogan central. our neighbours were amusing bogans, always up very early and shouting 'give it a little bit of mitchell hall! EH!' but they were actually nice people. they came from a town called penguin! mik thought it was called pigeon lol the fleet foxes and lykke li were probably the highlights for me on the field stage. darren hanlon was also awesome. we met the fleet foxes who were just hanging around the side of the stage after their set and so was darren hanlon. on the main stage franz ferdinand were awesome, and of course the kooks, the cat empire and the hives were great. other highlights included the epic spooning, during which our entire group just laid on the floor in the middle of the grass and did a gigantic spoon. so warm! the nights were freezing cold, on the last night there were even snow warnings! but with the sun out it also got very hot, we went for a swim on the last morning as an attempt to get clean and the water was seriously like 5 degrees. i have never been so cold in my life - i couldn't breathe from the shock and then my body went numb. but hey it's great for the circulation!i came back with an intense sunburn on one side of my face...plus a sunglass tan. my whole nose has basically peeled off now haha. plans for the next months until uni - job! hopefully that'll be somewhat successful.

-ln

happy birthday lord

2008-12-25T15:14:00.003+11:00

it's christmas day. i woke up to the sound of waves and the smell of bbq from the neighbours. this is sydney.

the weather has cleared up for christmas! it was cold (for sydney summer), rainy and grey when i arrived. but today is such sydney weather - clear blue sky and sunny. presents and dinner was had in traditional german style last night and max unwrapped his own presents as usual. i got all this cupcake making equipment and so have spent today testing it out and baking. it feels so good to be making cupcakes again! also went to the midnight service at church last night, it was so nice to sing carols, be around friends, feel welcomed and hear good teaching :)

i haven't even been back a week and tomorrow i'm going again - falls festival over new years! mik, hannah and i are driving down to melbourne over 2 days, via gundagai. then a night in melbourne where lucy meets us and the spirit of tasmania across to tassie for the 3 day festival. i'll fly back on the 1st of jan while mik, lucy and han continue travelling.

more when i get back!
-ln

what i'm going to miss in Shanghai

2008-12-19T20:04:00.002+11:00

I am at Shanghai airport, thoroughly enjoying the free wireless internet. My flight has been delayed, first it was for 40 minutes and now it's delayed for an unknown amount of time. Lame, but yay for some extra hours and minutes in this city! While there are so many things that I hate about this place, there are also many many things that I am surprised to say I actually love about it, not just like.
Here's what I'll miss:
- bike riding through the chaos
- the fruit vendor with the bad hair who shouts really loudly
- the smell of street food
- sunsets with a blood red sun
- the multi-coloured skyline from my window
- cheap cheap place
- school
- my host mum's food
- kiddo's apartment
- haagen daz
- going to ikea for lunch, buying food instead of furniture and 1kuai ice cream
- cheap taxis
- xintiandi
- walking along my street loushanguan lu 娄山关路 at night
- church with 1000 people and the black guy on the saxophone
- friends from my class

farewell Shanghai. I wish to come back soon.

-ln

i am leaving on friday

2008-12-16T23:09:00.003+11:00

My last post was on december 5 and it seems like the world has been turned upside down and inside out since then.

The weekend starting the 5th of the december was totally awesome. Friday night saw the happening of Mus3 - aka the Spanish apartment house party. A couple of the hispanic guys moved in together and it was their house warming, plus Felicia's farewell as she's gone back to Sweden now. House parties are actually tons of fun I realised, you're with all your friends and you just lounge around casually in socks. Santiago made Sangria, which tasted awesome! We then headed to Muse, a club whose name I love love love, and they actually have good music but it is unfortunately hopelessly overcrowded all the time. It's the time where heaps of people leave - either for good or to go home over Christmas and so saturday night we went for karaoke for farewell Segolene. She unfortunately has to go back to America for surgery after breaking her arm ice skating.
And then...HONG KONG! Mik and I had the most jam-packed days. They were probably made so hectic by the fact we could never get out of bed before around midday, which led to never leaving the house before at least 2pm! Upon arrival we went to buffet dinner with dad and completely stuffed ourselves. The next day we drove up to the Peak (yuuus the car is awesome!), around where I used to live and my old school. Lunch at the Peak Cafe and then eating ice cream and being touristy and taking photos. Then, as one does when one is in HK, we did some shopping down at Causeway Bay, admired the strange Christmas decorations and then had dinner with my Aunty Pauline and my gran. My gran LOVED Mik, it was so cute. Told my mum all about Mik, all full of praise! The next day we had wonderful high tea at the Verandah restaurant in Repulse Bay. The day was perfect for driving down to the beach in an open convertible. We then headed over to Mongkok, shopped and looked, before having dinner at a toilet themed restaurant called Modern Toilet. It was hilarious - you sit on toilets (closed ones of course) and the tables are sinks with glass on top, and the food is served in mini bathtubs (or mini toilets if you have hot pot) and the drinks are in urinals. Good times!

I ended up heading back to SH a day early due to Mik's insanely early departure on wednesday morning. We even watched the beautiful sunrise over the mountains during breakfast. The days here in SH have gone really quickly. Suddenly there's only 2 days left and I'm planning my farewell dinner! Tomorrow I'm up for some last minute fake stuff shopping for presents. Chloe is also here, studying at In-Mandarin and it's kinda weird but cool to see someone from Sydney around school. Kiddo left today, we woke up at 5:30am to go to the airport and it was a tearful farewell...it's going to be weird without him, even if it is only for the next 3 days. I miss him.

happenings in the near future

2008-12-05T20:03:00.002+11:00

Suz has gone to Sydney. It didn't hit me really until today, when I took the bus to school because it was too cold to ride my bike. We drove past Suz's house and I was like 'oh! Suz lives there' and then suddenly realised...but she's not there. Not right now, not anymore. It was like oh...ok. Followed by this slightly down feeling as I realised over and over again that Suz just. isn't. around the corner. from school at least. or a bike ride away. She's a plane-ride away. Crazies.
"so many white people" - wo ai ni!

Tonight is a big party for the house-warming of the 'Spanish Apartment', as well as Felicia's farewell, someone else's farewell I think and Balam's birthday. The hispanics party so much! I'm looking forward to tomorrow - Kiddo and I are doing Free Hugs so if you're in town, come give us a hug :) Then on sunday I leave for HK to meet Mik. I'm a billion exciteds. I packed half of my bag today, bringing all the stuff over that I don't need here. And have been planning what Mik and I will do. It's gonna be AWESOME.

-ln

2008-12-05T10:26:00.002+11:00

my windows were completely frosted when i woke up this morning.
google tells me its 2 degrees now.
forcast for today: -3 to 4 degrees.
tomorrow: 0 to 7 degrees.
brrrrrrrr.

the amazing last four days that started with Thanksgiving

2008-12-01T04:19:00.006+11:00

Xintiandi by night

I celebrated my first Thanksgiving this year. It all started when Suz mentioned it ages and ages ago, and then we planned to make pumpkin pie but things didn't work out so Kiddo and I celebrated Thanksgiving. It was his first Thanksgiving too and as neither of us are american we celebrated it a little differently - at the German restaurant, Paulaner, in Xintiandi. Xintiandi is beautiful already, getting all its christmas decorations out and at night everything is lit up with fairy lights. Thanksgiving dinner was made into an 'event' - I wore a dress and Kiddo even wore a tie. Paulaner was packed full and we got a table near the live band playing which had its pro's and con's - we got to hear the awesome music and sang along to nice oldies but at times it was a bit loud. Dinner was as follows:Paulaner does some awesome hearty food and I guess that makes up for the lack of Turkey. Also, the German beer was SUCH a treat. I haven't had such great beer in months...Dinner was followed by dancing with the oldies to Elvis, wandering around starry Xintiandi looking for chocolate, sitting in a cafe not ordering until we got kicked up, until we eventually made it to Velvet Lounge and chilled out in style on couches with a cocktail.

Friday was, as far as I'm concerned, a great cultural experience. My awesome host mum, Jane, took me along to dinner at one of her friend's house. There were about 5 mothers with mostly young kids and we had amazing hot pot for dinner. Such a great chinese family atmosphere with everyone getting as much food as they wanted to, so many laughs but for me it was chinese language practise to the max. They all tried to talk to me and so I had to put in 100% concentration all night to listen and try to understand everything, and then respond as well! I was tired by the end, but then headed out to Abbey Road for Kajsa's farewell dinner. Cute little restaurant there, with a Beatles theme of course. After that Yichu and I felt like cake, so dragging Alex and Pierre-Antoine along we walked for ages until we found a bar that had cheesecake, hot chocolate, beer as well as cocktails.

Saturday was a good day of touristing done. Kiddo and I headed to cheap cheap place for lunch and then headed to People's Square with the intention of going to the Urban Planning Museum. We did eventually get there, via a 1930s underground re-creation of shanghai, crappy 'ice cream' strawberry dessert, and mongolian/tibetan jewellery sellers. The museum itself was alright, worth the 15kuai student price we paid I guess and the minature of Shanghai is pretty amazing. They had a whole floor dedicated to the 2010 Expo which is pretty crazy, considering it's not for another 500+ days as the countdown in the People's Square metro tells us. It's interesting, but not that interesting. A movie night was then planned and we got to Alex's house via fresh juice, singing and dancing at People's Square which attracted stares from Chinese passers-by, and ballroom dancing in the park at night. We watched Love Actually, until the crappy chinese dvd decided to die on us. Or was it the crappy chinese dvd player that died? Then we watched the Bucket List on Alex's computer. Sad, but kind of nice movie. Then Greg joined in for some funny conversation. I love those kinds of nights, when you just sit around on a couch with friends, and chat and chill out and eat junk food and don't feel crap about it.

Sunday...oh sunday. My piano recital. Might I suggest biggest fail ever? Totally nice of Alex and Yichu to come and watch me play, but I have never played so badly in my life. Maybe it was the atmosphere of the concert, with little children shouting and making noises during everyone's performances, everyone talking during the performance, the over-emphasis of recording every moment of the concert by video camera and photography, the fact that music wasn't really respected I guess? Maybe a combination of them all. I thought I wasn't nervous, but I couldn't concentrate. Then my legs started shaking and that's annoying as I can't stop it. But oh well, it was a start to performing again...next time will definitely be better. Always an experience to learn from. Suz's parents took my out for dinner tonight. Her friend, Simon, from Sydney is in Shanghai til tuesday and so we all went out to dinner together. Man that 1000 year old egg with the chilli...I nearly died. Then it was time to hang out and show Simon Shanghai nightlife so we called Kiddo to tag along and being super excited we headed to Whisk for the chocolate overload of a lifetime. (I feel like all I ever talk about on this blog is food....?!) 3 soft choc-chip cookies, 2 chocolate cookies, one epic massive slice of chocolate cake with layers of chocolate cream and other kinds of chocolate, and then this chocolate cake with banana which was WEIRD but we at it anyway, and then Suz's future chigga-baby partner happened to be there and ordered us this amaaaazing chocolate dessert which was in a glass and was like warm chocolate cake and then icecream on top and it was just...about a million amazings. And the couches, they were amazing. And the toilet, that was amazing. Then the weird fish. Then we danced on the road coz it had rained. And then we went home. Amazing, huh?

I realise that this post is probably boring for you readers. But I had to write down these last four days, memories I want to cherish forever.

-ln

(thank you Suz)

i miss him

2008-11-24T02:02:00.005+11:00

indescribable

2008-11-23T21:28:00.004+11:00

Who has told every lightning bolt where it should go
Or seen heavenly storehouses laden with snow
Who imagined the sun and gives source to its light
Yet conceals it to bring us the coolness of night
None can fathom

At church today there was that guy playing the saxophone again, as part of the music team. Suz told me that for some reason, he can't sing and so he used to just bring his saxophone to church and play along when everyone else sang. This annoyed some people so they recruited him into the music team. That gives me mixed emotions. How cool would it be to have someone playing along in the congregation! It's his form of expression and his way to praise God, so why not. It's exciting to think what would happen if everyone brought their instruments along. It would be such an amazing experience. On the other hand it makes me sad that people complained about him playing...I guess it could get annoying if you're standing right next to him, but the guy can't sing! If he wants to express his worship to God in this way, I think they should let him. But it's great he gets to be on the music team now. I enjoy it every time he's there, and Suz thinks it's like Christmas :D

-ln

I am at Boonna

2008-11-22T23:33:00.003+11:00

It's sad when it comes a time when people have to leave. The process started last week when Michael had his farewell and went back to Denmark. On friday Kajsa had her farewell party as she's leaving next week. We went to her house first for a house party - they have such a cool apartment with colourful lights. The kitchen/dining are and entrance are in green and the living room is pink. House parties are a lot of fun I've decided. I don't think I'd ever been to a proper one before but I just really enjoy the atmosphere, lots of people that you all like and know, crowded into a small space and couches to sit on and just chilled with good music. We then headed out to a club called MUSE (the name itself already makes me love it) and partied there for a while. That place is different to other club's I've been to so far here as it plays a variation to the usual electro/techno/trance. Ok, the DJ really can't sing or rap, but he tries hard, and sometimes the mixes are a bit dodgy but he manages to get in the Beatles, the RHCP, Eye of the Tiger...in my opinion you need something to sing along crazily to when you're dancing around crazily. The night was going swell, then lots of people came and it became too crowded, some idiot burnt my face with his cigarette and things went downhill from there...but on a different, the waiters at Muse wear these shirts that say 'Be my Muse' or some similar slogan - I want! I wonder if they sell them...

The eminent meeting with Mik in HK is fast approaching! With this comes various feelings and realisations - firstly that I'm going to see Mik in 2 weeks! That's SO exciting. Last time I saw her was in July I think. Seems like SO long ago, like a different place and time and world. So much has happened since that but when I see her it'll be just like before I think. I'm SO excited too. The second thing is that in TWO weeks I see Mik. That means I have less than a month left here! Time flies, seriously. That's always a phrase that's thrown around, like yea we don't have enough time and time flies and cherish every moment. As a child you don't really understand the full extent of that and time doesn't seem as precious. But as dad has always said, the older you get the faster time goes. What a scary thought. But all in all, I'm excited for HK. Dad is leaving the day we arrive and we have about an hour overlap where he's going to teach me how to function the car. I'm so excited about being able to drive it! That's like another step of independence, driving in a foreign country. So basically what this paragraph tried to say was that I'm really excited about HK and that I'm going to try to cherish all the moments I have left before I go back to sydney!

I got to fit in some mid-week sightseeing last week. On tuesday there was a school organised free excursion to some badminton tournament and my class went along. Unfortunately it turned out to be epically boring and after 2 hours we couldn't stand it anymore. It wasn't even the proper matches yet, it was just the qualifying rounds and the promised 'opening ceremony' didn't appear. So we decided to go to lunch at Lujiazui, which is the exact opposite of the Bund, where the Pearl Tower, Shangri-La Hotel and the Aquarium are. The day was actually perfect to go up to the Pearl Tower, clear sky (well as clear as shanghai gets) and so Monique, Felicia and I went up and did the touristy thing. We got the cheapest ticket possible which meant we could only go up to the first ball, but I figure the view is the same at whatever height you are! What was really good though was the museum that's hidden inside/underneath/SOMEWHERE in the pearl tower. I'd never heard about it before but our ticket included the museum so we went in and it turned out to be really great. It tells the history of shanghai but the entire museum is built up to look like old shanghai. So you're literally walking through the old streets, past the old shops and it was so well done and authentically done as well! Not to mention the museum was giant and seemed to be never ending. So, if you ever get to the chance go to that museum! It's really very interesting. :)

-ln

2008-11-21T18:53:00.000+11:00

I want to quote from Suz's blog:

"living in china has brought me back to primary school days where no one is in one place for long, tck's are the majority, where you don't know how long you'll be in the same city with the new friend you made last week. flying is the equivalent to taking a bus, drivers licenses are non existent, the question where are you from and how long are you here for are followed by long pauses and perhaps an 'i don't know.' you speak in mixed chinese and english and you start to take tissues and hand wipes everywhere. macdonald's, starbucks and crap american diners are comfort food. watching dvds where everyone speaks english is a joy. you become immediately close to other foreigners because you're in the same boat and experiencing life in the same way. people move on to other countries and eventually you know you will too."

I hope this will make you understand a bit more, about me and the way I think, the way I live and the way I want to live. And why I am sometimes confused.

-ln

a jam-packed weekend and other successes

2008-11-18T00:05:00.005+11:00

"Beautiful beat lift me up from distress" - Nada Surf

Last weekend was one of the busiest I've had here and resulted in no study being done and my cold taking ages to get better.

It began with the great purchase of 2 pairs of shoes for 140￥ (which according to Google is around $30!). Nini and Yichu took me to a shop at People's Square and after much wandering around, passing the Shanghai Biennale and asking strangers we found it. I got a pair of boots to replace my black ones that were soaked in the rain, and then a pair of heels, though I have been to scared to wear them out yet. Well, that's half a lie. I did wear them to Karaoke on friday night, however after having to walk around 10 mins to the metro station, taking the metro to People's Square and then walking along Nanjing Pedestrian street I couldn't handle it anymore and produced my handy flats which I had brought along just in case.

Michael, a Danish guy, had his farewell dinner on friday night at an Indian place but as I didn't know him all that well and I don't really like Indian food I decided to stay home, which was actually great! My host mum taught me how to make jiaozi which was totally fun and I made my own dinner that night :) Afterwards I saw Michael at Karaoke anyway so we got to say goodbye. Soooo Karaoke was eventful. Having 25 people turn up instead of the expected approx. 7 was interesting, especially with drunk South Americans who couldn't sing! Then I bashed Alex in the face with the microphone, causing his lip to bleed and I tried to make him feel better by suggesting the scar would make him look more ganstaaa. (I'm really sorry Kiddo!!!) There were some great songs and dancing around the room. Then everyone left to go clubbing somewhere, leaving me, Alex, Segolene and Lena. Although our time was up in the room and the karaoke machine no longer worked, the mics did and so we proceeded to do various a cappella renditions of songs we knew - heaps of fun, with harmonies and beat-boxing! Hopefully there'll be more Kala-OK-ing soon.
Shanghai Zoo was visited on Saturday. I was plesantly surprised by the whole place! I had heard horrible things about tiny cages and inhumane conditions but in fact the whole thing was rather like a giant park. Lots of green areas and lakes with bridges and trees, hard to imagine such a thing in the middle of the craziness of Shanghai. The animals were also a lot more active than in other zoos, we had fun watching black panthers sort out their marital problems, seeing Fred the ENORMOUS hippo take a swim, sun bears going about their business in amusing ways and wild boars with giant testicles eating mud. Amongst all of this however, it was horrible and saddening to see the lack of respect the Chinese have for these animals. There were people tapping on the glass and on cages all the time, clapping their hands trying to get the animal's attention, as well as feeding the animals with junk food (candy, chips, you name it). Even though everywhere there were signs not to feed the animals, everyone just ignored that. In most of the enclusures you can get close enough to the animals to be able to feed them, or at least throw food at them. The worst thing I saw, however, was at the lion enclosure where there were 3 lions sleeping and some chinese youngsters actually threw candy at them, hitting one of them on the face and they all seemed to think this was hilarious. The disrespect is just awful to see, the mentality that just because animals are in cages, we have power over them and can treat/mistreat them in any way is just terrible. Alex and I couldn't stand watching that and had to go numerous times to tell Chinese people not to feed the animals and to stop throwing things at them. That was really sad to see.My host family took me on a day trip to Xi Tang on sunday. It was an absolutely beautiful day and even the weather held, even though it was supposed to rain. Xi Tang is an old village about 1.5 hours away by bus from Shanghai. They call it a 'scenic resort' and you have to pay to get into the village, but there are still people that live there. It's everything you'd imagine when thinking about a traditional old chinese village - tiny streets, canals everywhere with beautiful bridges, tiny houses and old chinese architecture. It's small enough to be seen in one day so I really recommend everyone to go there if they get the chance! Upon arrival we saw some fishermen in traditional long, low chinese boats. They had these birds that can dive in water and catch fish. Each bird was tied to the boat by a string around its throat, which served 2 purposes; as well as keeping each bird to the boat it also meant that the bird could not swallow the fish it caught, and hence the fishermen would take out those fish from the bird's mouth. From an animal rights perspective that's horrible to do to a bird, but it's interesting that the fishermen came up with that idea. In Xi Tang itself there were lots of small museums of houses, showcasing the way people used to live in the old days as well as random stuff like a button museum! The other exciting thing was that I got to try lots of new Chinese food. I drank sugar cane juice, had strawberries on a stick covered in chinese sugar, some form of meat wrapped in a lotus leaf and traditional Xi Tang confectionary including something containing peanuts and some other sweet thing I didn't like. On the way back we took a boat trip on a traditional boat without a motor, kind of similar to the Venetian gondelas but with a roof and the driver used a long oar to move the boat from the back. Random fact: apparently Mission Impossible 3 was filmed there! Some photos of Tom Cruise were seen around. I'm really grateful to have such a nice host family who took me there, paid for everything and are keen to take me on another trip!
But to me, most exciting of all....I BOUGHT A BIKE TODAY!!! It was bought in a dodgy side-street of Shanghai (no questions asked) and I now have a silver/grey bike for 170￥, not a bad deal. Alex also got one for 100￥, an awesome dark green old mountain bike with metallic purple and blue - very cool in my opinion!

-ln

Shanghai Tennis Masters Cup

2008-11-11T23:42:00.002+11:00

Alex and I went to the Shanghai Masters Cup on monday night! We were both extremely excited and couldn't concentrate during school all day haha. We had lunch with people from school at Cheap Cheap Place, then got some rice noodles (mi fen, 米粉）take away. I had forgotten to bring the Snickers Bar Slice that Suz and I made so I rushed off home, and then my host mum made us some fruit so I only met Alex back at Boonna around 3pm. Did a bit of chinese learning before we headed to Lawson to stock up on 'dinner', aka snack food. The journey to Qi Zhong Stadium was a long one. First Line 1 all the way to the end stop XinZhuang, then change to Line 5 til the very end Minhang Development Zone. I felt like we were in the middle of no where, it was literally a 'development zone' with huge blocks of just dirt and rubble. The plan was to take a taxi from there, little did we know that there would be no taxis...at all. We walked around looking lost and lots of Chinese people stared at us (this could be due to the fact that Alex is about 2 metres tall, or that he was carrying a giant bright blue ikea bag containint our 'bed', more on that later). Finally we started noticing that a lot of the cars looked the same so perhaps they were taxis?? We waved down some random and after some discussion we established that we wanted to go see the tennis and that he would take us there. So - my first hitch-hiking experience! Half of me was scared we'd get sold into prostiution or something but luckily the guy was nice and we got there pretty quickly. In the end we paid him 20kuai, which was a pretty good deal I thought!

Having arrived we discovered we'd unfortunately missed the doubles matches. But our seats were pretty good. In between matches the stadium turns into a kind of club/lounge kind of setting with colourful lights and loud music. The stadium roof was closed which we didn't know - that's why we'd brought the 'bed'! We had 2 blankets and 2 pillows to brace ourselves in the cold but that was not needed. The first match was Federer (the defending champion!) vs Simon which was supposed to be a good match, until Federer sort of lost...which was very sad and disappointing. The match itself wasn't great, Federer returned most of Simon's shots weakly and seemed generally tired I felt compared to the firey 21 year old. The next match was Roddick vs Murray which was far more exciting. Roddick's serves are amazing to watch, I think the fastest was something around 220km! Murray beat Roddick which was good, Roddick got pissed off which was good.

Getting home was the next challenge for us - ended up getting the free shuttle bus to Shanghai Stadium. Pillow fights were had. Rapping was done. Hobo-lifestyle was tried out. The difference between huoti and jiaozi was cleared. It was a good day.

-ln

PS: Ch-internet is being gay and not uploading photos. Soon to come.

Dad has come and gone to China

2008-11-08T13:00:00.003+11:00

Blog entry written by hand @ 16:23, 5.11.08

I'm writing this while sitting at my new hangout - Boonna Cafe. I have decided that I want to become one of those people who basically do everything at and spend their days in a cafe. Mostly these people do so because they live in a really small apartment with no internet or there's too many people at their house - in my case it's because my house is far away, Boonna is close to school and...they have huge coffees with free refills? It's a cool cafe with jazz music, expats and books and magazines to read for free. They also have pretty cushions which is always a winner. I have been here since 2pm (see above for current time). I'm meeting dad at his hotel (2 bus stops from here) at 7pm and decided I wouldn't go home so here I am. I have done lots of Chinese study, read my book and had a vanilla milkshake. My head feels slightly fuzzy from all this study and I feel like I've over-used my eyes today. I actually skipped class to be here...wednesdays are the biggest bore. I nearly went mad with impatience and boredom in Listening class this morning and felt I couldn't stand anymore. Plus I figure that I'm here to learn Chinese and if I can do that better from Boonna Cafe on my own, that's what I'm going to do.

I keep getting whiffs of nice smelling food and the sight of the waiters carrying muffins makes it hard not to order something. But I must restrain, dinner with dad is going to be big.

While writing this I've realised this is the first time I've written english, with pen and paper, for quite some time! Every other time I'm scribbling down Chinese characters. Of course I type in english a lot, actually I type quite a bit in german too, but writing = Chinese. 很好！

-End-

Dad came to Shanghai for a week. He was on a tour with some friends, they started off in HK I think and made their way through china for about 3 weeks by boat (for nearly 10 days) and by bus. The tour was great apparently, though dad finds it hard to recall exactly what places he's been to haha. Monday night I went to the Ritz Carlton (this is the type of tour that includes expensive hotels) for dinner and it was amazing. Big buffet dinner, I had 5 plates, 2 of which were dessert. I felt so stuffed afterwards. I next saw him on wednesday for dinner at Xintiandi. Dad didn't want to get European food, to my dismay, saying we could get that in HK :( So we went for some nice chinese. I saw him again yesterday (friday) and we had lunch with all his friends and did some sightseeing with them. Went to some cathedral and also the Nanjing Walking Street, in the pouring rain :( Dad and I got so sick of it that we ended up pigging out a Haagen Daz. We got a walnut pie and this Japanese set thing, with green tea cake (not bad actually), red bean soup, fruit and some icecreams made to look like japanese cakes. Then we said our goodbyes and he left for HK this morning.
my dessert selection

THREE chocolate fountains at the Ritz Carlton Dinner Buffet

After getting utterly sick of getting wet feet in this constant rain I've also decided to buy myself gumboots. Picture soon to follow :) Today I'm off to the Zoo with Alex, hopefully the weather will hold. Tomorrow - SLICE finally with Suz :D and then on monday - Tennis Masters Cup!!! So excited. They haven't posted the match schedule too but with 2 singles matches on 1 day and all the top players playing I'm hoping for the best.

-ln

Shanghai Ocean Aquarium

2008-11-02T13:33:00.003+11:00

Went to the Shanghai Ocean Aquarium with Alex yesterday! It was the perfect day for the aquarium, cold and rainy outside. I must say the place exceeded my expectations - it's even better than Sydney Aquarium in some parts I think! A lot of the pools have like an open top so you could touch the fish if you wanted to (though that would mean ignoring the 'No hands in water' signs) and the place is really well decorated. It's set out by the different waterways of the world, so there's an Australia section, Polar section, deep waters section...quite cool, and the place also boasts the longest underwater glass tunnel thing at 155m long! I saw lots of amazing fish that I'd never seen before, but I think Alex and I both loved the seals most. They were in a small enclosure for 4 seals unfortunately, but everytime they swam past they would turn their heads and like stare at Alex, it was hilarious. You could really tell that they could see you and were interacting with you, unlike all the other 'dumb' fish. The aquarium gift shop was also a pretty amazing place...on the way in we got a voucher for a free pearl, which we claimed, while they tried to con us into making it into a necklace for like 500kuai. Alex bought a bean that you plant and apparently it has an imprint of whatever's printed on the bean (his says 'Lucky') and I bought this amazing 4-sided clock...its a square, and everytime you turn it it lights up and shows something different. So on one side it's the time/date/day of the week, then you turn it to the right and its the alarm, then turn again and its a timer, then turn again and it tells you the temperature. COOLEST THING EVER. Alex is so jealous that he wants to borrow it sometime haha

After the aquarium it was time to get some sustenance and we decided to do a combination of 'high class' and 'low class' feeding. First stop was Haagen Daaz for this epic ice cream fantasy:McDonalds was conveniently located next door so after indulging on ice cream we had to go get some crap food to fill us up :) Dad arrives tomorrow - should be fun! I'm hoping for lots of great dinners and such.

-ln

smells of shanghai

2008-10-30T20:43:00.003+11:00

When walking around shanghai, or even travelling around on a bus, in the metro, I seem to encounter all these different smells. Anything from the smell of faeces and vomit to delicious dinner and those street-side vendors selling roasted nuts. It can be wonderful but also quite disgusting. I tend to think it leans more to the disgusting side...but I have never experienced a city that has such contrasting scents, just floating around everywhere. Having said that, one important scent is missing - that of fresh air :)

It's been raining the last few days. Lucky you people in Sydney! However it doesn't really 'rain' in Shanghai, I've realised. It more...drizzles continuously, for days and nights. It also gets dark really early, dusk is around 4:30 when I finish school. Hate to think how it'll be dark when I get to school AND when I leave school in a few weeks times. The rain doesn't stop people from riding their bikes though. They bring out these funny ponchos that have a really long front so they go over the handle bars and often even cover the front basket - handy, but ridiculous-looking. I'm afraid I might have to invest in one myself though, when I get a new bike...Saw a woman riding with a shower cap on today! :D It was quite funny. It was even one of those tacky flowery ones and she just had it covering all her hair. Hehe.

There are more halloween celebrations to be had this weekend, as it's actual halloween tomorrow. Yichu, Nini, Michael and I went to the costume shop yesterday in the pouring rain and bought some new stuff - for me because unfortunately my wings broke beyond repair (they snapped in half). The shop wouldn't give me a refund or replace them so I decided to get a cheaper pair of wings of a different sort - white angel wings. Not really my thing and I'm still undecided as to whether I'll actually go as an angel or not, but the wings are better quality and hopefully will be lots of fun to have on. Tomorrow night is the Halloween party at a club called I Love Shanghai, lots of people going so should be fun! :) Other plans for the weekend include going to the Aquarium with Alex, hopefully getting a 2nd-hand bike with Alex and eating nice food with Alex. Then sunday - yay! Baking and eating and church with Suz! :D

-ln

Halloween! (and my host mum is back)

2008-10-28T23:08:00.004+11:00

My host mum just got back, literally 10 minutes ago! She gave me a hug and spoke to me in Mandarin and I actually vaguely understood what she said! I call that success and progress ;) So that puts an end to washing dishes, cooking dinner, grocery shopping, vacuum cleaning my room, taking out the rubbish...it makes me happy :)

EDIT: My host mum brought me presents from Canada!!! :D Totally unexpected and so so nice of her! I got a necklace with a traditional Indian sort of bird motif and a purple tank top with a fairy on it, that she said she bought from a church. So lovely of her to even think of buying me presents! I'm very touched.

Tomorrow will by my 1 month anniversary of being in China - yesterday 4 weeks ago mum and I flew off to Beijing and arrived that night. Can't believe how fast everything's gone - I haven't seen people in Sydney for a month but it feels like just yesterday that I saw them. Im also realising that after being away from a month I'm actually making friends here - not just people that you're friendly to when you're in their company, but people who will chat to you out of school context and people you do stuff with on weekends. It's a nice feeling :)
So I'm totally 'doing' halloween this year. I didn't put 'celebrating' because to me there isn't much to celebrate at Halloween - just an excuse to dress up! The partying started last weekend with annual Mural Bar Halloween Boat Cruise. It sounds a lot cooler than it actually was, but it was still very cool. I just expected more people to be there etc, and the after party back at the bar was basically just filled with people at my school! It should be noted that we're such a big group so every time we go out together we ARE the crowd. The Boat Party was cool though - arrived at the bar around 8:30 where buses took us to the dock, then partied for about 3 hours on the boat before being taken back to the bar by bus for the after party. 90% europeans of course, Chinese people don't really go to events like this...I was dressed as a kind of gothic fairy I guess?! Purple wings, dark grey dress...My wings broke though, on several occasions. Luckily I had anticipated this due to the quality of the wings (you don't get much for 65kuai!) and had brought along sticky tape. It was also a touristy thing to do, boat cruise on the Huangpu River at night...although the weather wasn't great, wet and rainy. All in all, a fun night though and made friends with some Germans! :)

Level 2 of the boat - lounge and bar

Next weekend is actual Halloween so there's a party (I'll be dressing up as the same thing) at a club called I Love Shanghai, which has just reopened at a new location. Should be fun. Then Suz and I are doing Halloween on sunday with the making of pumpkin pie and Sneakers bar slice - I'm SO excited :D

-ln

2 things - one happy, one sad

2008-10-25T14:23:00.002+11:00

Let's start with the sad one...my bike got stolen yesterday. I had it standing in the middle of a row of other bikes, locked with 2 locks, at the Hengshan Rd Metro station which is the one closest to my school. When I came back it was gone. No idea who took it or even how they took it - they must've cracked the locks or carried away, but you'd think that someone would notice if a random did either of those things...Anyway I'll be going to the police on monday with someone from school as I can't speak mandarin, they're filing a report and hopefully I'll get something back from insurance. I'll need to get a new bike, can't do without especially living further away form the city, but we'll see when that happens...

The good news is a bit of language success! For the first time a taxi driver understood me when I said my home address! It was totally awesome. We can even semi communicate now when he asks whats the next cross street and I say "Changning lu" and we have an understanding. So that's a lot of fun and makes me feel like I'm making progress over here! :)

Tomorrow night I'm going to a halloween boat party, hosted by a club called Mural Bar. They have this annual party and I figure that a boat cruise will be a touristy thing (yay lots of photos at night) as well as a fun activity. Still need some sort of costume though...

-ln

crazy times in shangers

2008-10-20T00:36:00.003+11:00

So far I've seen people carry microwaves, 10 metre long poles, wood, glass, a kitchen sink and bags of rice on the back of their bikes. Or in the case of the long wooden poles, sort of along their bike, putting people around them at risk of being stabbed.

Today was an awesome crazy day with Suz. This was the result:
A new piercing on my left ear! The day started rather innocently actually - met up with Suz around her place to have the CHEAPEST lunch I've ever had - 11￥ for both of us which works out to be around $2.30. I had wonton noodle soup and she had yummy fried noodles. Totally going to that place again - getting hungry just thinking about it! Then we walked to church and had some starbucks as we were a bit early. Church was interesting again - this time they had a chinese speaker too, whose english we couldn't really understand. Suz tells me that they normally have a chinese speaker from the government there every week just to watch what we're doing...it's so weird to think about that, who would he actually follow? God or the government's wishes? After church we somehow got on the topic of piercings and I'd seen a tattoo place down the road so we went and checked that out. Turns out they DID do piercings and Suz decided she'd get her tragus pierced and I wanted a 3rd piercing on my earlobe so we paid our kuai and went to a little room at the back. Which is when we found out they don't use a gun, but needles...ahhh panic! I guess it's safer to do it with a needle, and Suz had her nose done and said it didn't hurt so she went first. We videoed the whole process, it was hilarious. After lots of disinfectant the guy stabbed a fat pole through Suz's ear and left it in there for quite some time. There wasn't too much blood though, but Suz was a bit pale and fainty after that...My ear on the other hand was bleeding a lot! A drop of blood even fell on my chest, it was rather gross. It hurt a bit because of the whole 'needle in first then earring' but it'll be fiiiine.
Looking back, how dodgy does this sound - we got piercings done in a little tattoo parlour in Shanghai...

The adrenalin soon kicked in and Suz and I felt a great sense of accomplishment, which was to be celebrated by buying TimTams from CityShop at outrageous prices before heading to Haagen Daaz for some awesome Macadamia Nut ice cream. We even smashed some TimTams into the ice cream, it was sooo good. I think I'm beginning to really like this place :)

-ln

It would seem...

2008-10-17T02:21:00.002+11:00

...that in China, 'bike path' means 'path for anything with 2 wheels or more', or even 'path for anyone who can't be bothered to walk on the normal road or the footpath'. So far, in terms of vehicles, I have seem motorbikes, bicycles, cars, trucks, and wheelchairs on the bike paths. Yes, wheelchairs. Oh and prams. And then there's those random people who ride tricycles with a big sort of container on the back and ring bells...And then there's the people who decide they're just too cool to walk on the footpath so they'll just walk in the middle of bike path. Unbelievable!

Today a guy from my school had to leave. He's from Israel and got called by the army to go back and fight in Lebanon...I hadn't actually met him, hence not knowing his name, but I'd seen him round. That's pretty intense to have to go fight the war...And it was really sudden so he had to leave quickly. Hope he'll be ok.

Life is busy these days. Shania (my host sister) and I have worked out a meal plan for the next week and hopefully that'll all go down well. It's difficult to have to come back from school after a long day, tired, and still have to cook and then do the dishes and then do HW, and perhaps fit in some piano practise. My piano teacher is a nice girl called Penny who went to study piano (and especially chamber music) in america on a scholarship for the last 2 years. It's pretty cool and we work well together. In other news I've been making more friends at school. There's a guy called Alex who's Danish and French but lives in Switzerland and has similar problems like me when asked 'where are you from?' Then there's Miryana, a cute Mexican girl who I'm going to hang out with sometime I hope. And the highlight of today was pulling out Jorge's stitches!!! This is the Mexican guy who had a big cut on his face and had to get around 5 stitches, and he was supposed to go to the hospital yesterday to get them out but was too lazy, and he was telling me how he was trying to pull them out himself but I was like, oh goodness NO let me do it! So I brought my sharp small nail scissors and tweezers and in the afternoon break we sat in a classroom with Santiago watching in amazement/horror as I disinfected the area and my 'utensils', cut the stitches and pulled them out. It was actually quite fun and Jorge said it didn't hurt at all. Yay successful doctoring!

-ln

just me and ma host sis

2008-10-15T01:40:00.002+11:00

I FOUND A EUROPEAN SUPERMARKET THAT HAS TIM TAMS FOR OUTRAGEOUS PRICES!!!

So my host mum left for Canada today, for 2 weeks. It was really short notice, she's going to see her friend but not even her daughter nows all the details as I found out today. At first my host mum was going to leave me with just her daughter...and the fortune teller. Yes, I've been living with a fortune teller. For those of you who don't know yet, there's this random man living in the flat as well. His room is next to the bathroom that I have to share with him. He's the husband of my host mum's friend and is here for...something. Shania (my host sister) said that he's a teacher of the stock market, whatever that might mean, but he's also a fortune teller who can tell people's fortunes by looking at their faces. Also, he's into feng shui and that sort of thing and apparently the situation of my room means that I'm going to get good marks. We'll see about that. So finding out that this guy was living here was weird enough (I expected it to only be my host mum and sister) but then to have to be left alone with him for 2 weeks was a bit much. So he's moved out now for the 2 weeks as well which only has 1 down side - no one will cook. Shania and I (she's only 14) are going to work out some sort of food schedule from a combination of getting take away, eating out, her cooking what she can do (so far I think it's only curry and fried rice) and me cooking. We're going to do the dishes on alternate days as they don't have a dishwasher, and as for the cleaning, well I guess that just won't get done for 2 weeks...My classmates have been telling me I should complain to EF (my language school) as that wasn't really what I paid for - the host family is supposed to provide you with breakfast and dinner every weekday and they can't really just leave...ah well, the family is nice enough and I don't mind being here alone with Shania, it's quite nice actually and she's a sweet girl. We're going to have lunch on saturday together :) The only thing is that I don't really know what to cook for her - pasta gets boring after a while...so we'll see.

I've started my 2nd week of school! Classes have been a bit more challenging and I feel the need to do work to stay up to date. On the weekend a guy at this bike stand talked to me and I actually understood what he said!!! He asked me where I was from and I managed to say australia and he asked me what I was doing here and I sorta said learning chinese...but that is such an achievement hehe :) On monday afternoon we had a bit of an excursion to the Yu Yuan Gardens, the supposed birthplace of Shanghai. I forgot my camera so no pictures but it's like a typical chinese looking garden with all the right feng shui things - water features and koi carp, carved rocks and round doorways, bridges and cobbled stones with nice trees. Nothing too spectacular but a nice, serene and relaxing place. After that the others went on a cruise on the river but it was getting late and I still needed to go back to school to get my bike before heading home, so Rikke (Danish girl in my class) and I left early.

Biking has been great. I've found the quickest way to school - only 20 mins now! This afternoon was a bit of a biking adventure though. Having finished school at 12 a bunch of us decided to head to the fake markets at Pudong. I left my bike at the station and whilst riding home afterwards I passed Jorge, a Mexican guy from my school and so we chatted for a while. His metro stop is on the same line as the stop close to my house so we came up with the crazy idea to bike to that station together...him riding, me sitting on the back. Woah the first 10 mins were rocky! It's really hard to stay on the back, and then all the crazy Shanghai traffic! It was so insane, but oh-so-fun! Nearly crashed a couple of times which gave us some good laughs, and then when we decided to swap places (ie me riding and him on the back) that was when disaster almost struck as I couldn't keep the bike straight with him sitting behind me. Hilarious ride home, filled with trying to say NI HAO!!! to randoms and waving and singing whilst riding, then imitating motorbikes beeping at us as well as screaming 'BEEEEEEP' instead of using the bell on my bike. We eventually DID get home ;)

Went to church with Suz on sunday! Interesting experience - 2pm service with around 1000 foreigners! The music was pretty cool, the band had an awesome black guy on the saxophone but the singing goes on for like...30 mins. Non-stop. It's also a very casual atmosphere with people dribbling in all through the service. A bit charismatic but not bad overall :)

-ln

Shanghai Life

2008-10-11T15:41:00.003+11:00

I'm sitting here at my desk and suddenly there's all this loud noise outside and I realise there's firecrackers going off somewhere! Cool! :)

Life here has been alright! I've completed my first week here. Some things of note: The Chinese really litter EVERYWHERE, it's terrible. They'll be walking on the street and just throw their rubbish behind them. There are bins, but not enough. Then there's the people on the bus who just throw their rubbish out the window! I'm appalled...it's really gross. The other gross thing is the spitting. Chinese love spitting on the ground and on the street...Even the taxi driver! He'll be driving then wind down the window and just spit outside...Also clumps of spit on the pavement aren't too pleasant. Chinese men have really long fingernails. They also often have like...a 'feature nail' I guess you could call it?! That one has a particularly long fingernail and well, it's rather gross. Often its the pinky nail too :P

So there's all the gross stuff out of the way! Last night I went out with some of my friends. Pretty much everyone that goes to my school was there! We first went to Candy, a club that was overcrowded and there was a big line outside. Inside it was pretty good, had bars and seating area and pool and a breakdancing square. Free entry too which was great! The entrance was this trippy corridor with green lasers criss-crossing in front of you, very crazy and I kept thinking I had to duck but then realised that lasers don't cut... From Candy we went to M2, a club in a high-rise building! So weird to have clubs in buildings...it was on the 5th floor of a mall. Didn't really like the music there, lots of trance and electro but it was a fun night to dance.

Today I'm thinking of doing some shopping, there's some household necessities that need to be bought. Also my host mum is going to Canada next week for 2 weeks, meaning I need to cook...So I'll be going to buy some pasta and such. Also hope to be biking around, testing out a new way to school :) I also think some STUDY needs to be done! Wow been ages since I've done that...

-ln

my new living quarters

2008-10-08T00:43:00.003+11:00

Took some photos of my new room! Someone said it's quite the luxury room and I must agree, especially by chinese standards. I'm so lucky to have this family, they're very very nice and caring to me :)
Above is my large bed by the window and then you can see my desk. All this space! And there's a whole set of wardrobes that I can't even fill.

Today was my first day of proper classes. Had Oral class from 9 til 12 with a break in the middle. After that we went for lunch and it was then that I realised that 90% of the language school I'm at speaks Spanish...it's quite crazy. There's people from Spain but then all sorts of people from Latin America (Ecuador, Venezuela) and like Mexico...and so out of th 14 people that went to lunch only 3 of us couldn't speak Spanish. And so it was quite strange to be in China and no understanding the national language, but at the same time not understanding a thing that our table was talking about coz it was all in Spanish! Perhaps I'll learn spanish as well as mandarin :P

Mum leaves tomorrow - I'll be all alone in the wildness of Shanghai. I think I'm getting a bike soon though, I'm going to share it with my host mum, but I'm looking forward to be able to bike around instead of walking in this HUGE place.

-ln

some photos of my time in beijing!

2008-10-07T00:49:00.003+11:00

This epic book store in Beijing - 6 or so levels of just books and thousands and thousands of people there to buy stuff :)

Forbidden City - Strange to think how there's a MASSIVE city inside this other MASSIVE city, and that people that lived here never even know life outside the walls...

Our transport from the Forbidden City back to the hotel *hehe*

The Great Wall :) Never knew it was actually this steep...

A lake in Beijing, I forget the name, but it's in the Hutong area and it's got heaps of cute bars and was all lit up at night

shanghai - my new home

2008-10-06T21:51:00.004+11:00

To get to Shanghai you fly in over rice paddy fields. You see the sea and it's like...wait a minute, are we still in China? And then you realise you're flying over farm land and it's more 'wait a minute, are we landing in Shanghai, the financial centre of China?!' But then you land and you once again see civilisation and you're suspicions are confirmed that you are in fact in China.

They have TVs on the back of the seats in taxis...they are little touch screen things that (as far as I can descern) only show ads, and you can't turn them off. Very distracting and makes you feel dizzy if you look at them for too long.

Other remarks: Chinese people have an amazing ability to sleep. Anywhere, anytime. They get on the bus and close their eyes, and their off. They get in a taxi, close their eyes, gone. But they don't move, or slump to the side. Just sitting still with their eyes closed. My host mum did that today on the bus to school - it freaks me out! China must be power nap country #1!

I moved into my host family's place yesterday. They are very nice - originally from Taiwan. The father is always away on business and hence he isn't here, so it's just my host mum and her daughter who is 14 and speaks english rather well! There is also a friend of the mother stayin, he's doing some sort of exams and will be here for 3 months too. I live in an apartment which is part of this massive complex of apartments (apparently there's a pool and a gym somewhere), on the 9th floor. I never expected to have a room this size - I feel really grateful! I have a big bed with windows and lots of wardrobe space and a desk. I'll put up a picture as soon as I find an adaptor to charge my camera hehe. Breakfast and Dinner are provided by my family, they're really such nice people.

I had my first day at school today - no classes just orientation. Orientation went on for SO long and it was rather boring...I sat next to Diego, who's from Venezuela and me and him subsequently had a big discussion about music (he loves Pink Floyd, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones) over lunch and laughed at his Beatles-like hair cut. Alejandro is also from Venezuela. There's a guy from Mexico whose name sounds like Hero but is probably written something like Jero. He has a massive cut starting from his cheekbone, alone his earlobe and along his neck - apparently he got attacked the other night but he was drunk and can't remember! The cut is pretty impressive though, stitches and all. Makes him look like a pirate. Then there's Maud from Belgium who's very nice, she has a twin sister but they don't look alike. She also does fencing. There's Adiam who is from Sweden but originally from some small country near Ethiopia. I'm in the same class with her so hopefully we'll be good friends :) There's also Pili who's real name is actually Maria Pila or something, but she's from Spain. Then there's Michael who is also from Spain and is quite quiet. There's a woman from HK who's only staying 2 weeks, and a girl from South Korea, both of whom are very shy. Then there's Eric, who's real name is something no one can pronounce, and he's from Russia but he didn't hang around for long. There's also a guy and a girl from Mongolia! (which I think is pretty random) We're such an odd bunch of people, all coming together to learn mandarin for the most different reasons. Diego reckons it's the language of the future - but it's a pretty big call to travel all the way from Venezuela to Shanghai for that! We've all been put into different classes but hopefully I'll still see our little group of newbies around. We attempted to go to the art museum after orientation but by the time we found our way there it had closed...maybe another such excursion will arise soon.

Tomorrow will be my first proper day! Hope classes aren't too hard. I have a 1 hour commute to school which sort of sucks, means I have to get up at 7am. It's just like old school again...except I have to pick out what I have to wear every day :P I'm also meeting my piano teacher tomorrow, we'll see how that goes!

-ln

beijing-shanghai

2008-10-04T21:33:00.001+10:00

Josh – where’s the free wireless internet at Beijing Airport?!?! You have no idea how annoyed I got when I didn’t find any. Well there seemed to be some there but I couldn’t connect to it and the one provided by CMCC you had to pay for…hmpf.

So apparently the concept of indicating when crossing lanes/staying in a lane is completely non-existent. In fact I don’t know why they bother to build in indicators in Chinese cars at all, especially in the taxis as they are hardly ever used and when they are used, it’s in situations where you’d only indicate if you were doing your driving test or something. And you’d think that having at least 5 lanes to choose form on Beijing streets they’d be able to pick one and stay in it! However we spent a great deal of time in between two lanes in our taxi on the way to the airport. I think the concept of red lights might also be close to non-existent but occasionally the taxi did stop at traffic lights.

Last night mum and I visited the Hutong area – Walking around Houhai lake :) We decided to go there just before sundown to walk around a bit and then pick a restaurant to eat there. It’s SUCH a cool and funky area. Heaps of different restaurants and bars and it’s all by the lake which is so beautiful, and everything is lit up when it gets dark. And then in between there’s cute little shops and so many people about just doing their thing. Mum and I walked around and bought a coconut for some fresh coconut juice. So much to see, so much atmosphere made up by all these little things like the shop front and the rickshaws.

After dinner (not so successful – at a Portuguese place) we came back to the square we’d come in through and a massive area had been cleared, surrounded by bikes and motorbikes with hundreds of couples dancing. Yes, just dancing. Ballroom dancing. Old couples, young couples, everyone just…dancing. And it seemed to be the most natural thing to do for them. Many of the elderly men even looked bored, looking in all different directions but still never managed to get out of step or miss the beat. And hundreds of people looking on, again as if it was the most natural thing ever. And from somewhere there was music. Then all around groups of youngsters playing the Chinese version of a hackey-sack, which is like a flat round thing with feathers coming around the top. There was a guy playing the trumpet, but contrary to the usual busking way where you’d actually face the crowd when playing, he was standing by the shore of the lake and playing out across the lake. Then there was a man who had a towel soaked in water at the end of a sword and with it was drawing beautiful Chinese characters on the floor. He seemed oblivious to the crowds gathered around him, performing in his own world and drawing the characters with such concentration. It almost seemed like he was dancing, deftly moving his weight and feet so that he didn’t have to lift the wet towel from the ground, but still writing beautiful characters on the ground. On the way home we encountered a taxi driver, who after being shown the hotel name by mum informed us that his eyes were so bad he couldn’t read it. So then…why was he driving our taxi?!

Our last bit of sightseeing was Tian’anmen Square this morning. Well…the plan was to do Tian’anmen Square and see Mao’s Mausoleum (yes I wanted to see his body), but after encountering the masses in the Square and the endless line of people waiting to get into the Memorial Hall we decided it was all too much for us and we’d take a taxi somewhere else. We ended up at the Confucius Temple which was again massive (contrary to what the tiny entrance suggested) and we were nowhere near seeing the whole thing when we had to go back to the hotel, pack and head to the airport.
I am now about to head to Shanghai. Mum says it’s not as big as Beijing, which is good, as this place has been a bit daunting and giant for me. I don’t like cities where you can’t walk places and where, after 10 minutes of walking, you’re still walking past the SAME building. Shanghai is also more European so I think it’s gonna be more to my taste. Tomorrow I meet my host family...*suspense music*

-ln

everything is about SIZE and AMOUNT

2008-10-03T18:31:00.002+10:00

That is the conclusion I have come to after 2 days in Beijing. Took a tour today which meant getting up at the horrible time of 6:50am. Well, I set the alarm for 6:50, which gives me 10 minutes to recover from the shock of having to get up at that time, and then actually get out of bed by around 7am. Breakfast was marvellous; ventured into the hot food section today having French Toast and sausages, as well as toast and fruit and nuts and then was sad that I didn't have enough time/space in stomach for more. [NOTE: SIZE AND AMOUNT OF BUFFET]

The English tour was smaller as expected. There were 6 of us: 2 elderly Danish women who drank lots of beer and smoked lots, and 2 young Irish guys who were nice to have around, and Mum and I. Funnily enough both guys had spent a year in Sydney/Australia so there was plenty to talk about. The first stop was the Cloisonne Factory, a factory that makes these special bronze things, mostly vases and plates. They have a special technique where they stick bronze wire on the vase/plate/etc and then paint it and it gets fired and re-painted 5 times and then is smoothed. Next stop were the Ming tombs which were a bit of a disappointment...I think we went to the tomb of the 3rd emperor but none of the tombs (except for the 13th emperor, which was excavated by accident and most of the stuff was damaged/destroyed during the cultural revolution/stolen) have actually been opened and so all we got to see was the mound of earth which covered the tomb and then various ceremonial gateways that lead to this mound. Next stop was the Jade factory/gallery (not really interested in jade...but was cool to see how they carved it) and lunch, which wasn't all too spectacular. The gift shop, however, seemed to be never ending...how much jade do u need?! [NOTE: AMOUNT] Then the GREAT WALL [NOTE: SIZE]. My my is it huge. I climbed to the 2nd or 3rd post but it's bloody steep I tell you! And then you look out and it seems to be never ending...it just keeps snaking along the ridges of the mountains and I guess you could keep walking along and get to Mongolia or something. The Irish guys climbed all the way to the top and further, but I wasn't in the mood with the sun and the masses and masses of people...[NOTE: AMOUNT] It was so intensely crowded, with people sitting on the steps all along. The steps themselves were huge too, such an effort to get up [NOTE: SIZE]. But hey, it's pretty damn cool :)

Last night in Beijing and Mum and I are checking out the Hutong area (I believe that's the old city). Tomorrow I'll be going to my new home for 3 months - Shanghai.

-ln

walking to (or attempting to) tian'anmen square was a big mistake

2008-10-02T21:46:00.002+10:00

Waking up to a hotel buffet breakfast is a marvellous thing. Especially when the breakfast is more like what you'd expect buffet dinner to look like - complete with German and French bakery selections, Japanese food and hot Chinese food (eg 'five spicey egg' and congee). I therefore had a 3 course breakfast :D

Mum and I were ambitious. Having walked around previous cities that we travelled in together we thought we'd walk to Tian'anmen Square - why not? It's only 3 cm on the map! And so 2 hours later we're still 'somewhere close' to Tian'anmen Square...We did have 2 pit-stops: One at Parkson, this massive shopping mall that reminded me of Sogo in HK. Went to the supermarket there and my my their selection of German beer...you'd think you were in Germany! Then there was the dilemma of finding an electonic dictionary and we were directed to go to the Beijing Book Building. Little did we know this would be a 6 storey giant building selling BOOKS. and MORE BOOKS. AND LOOK THERE'S ANOTHER BOOK. It was so intense and it was FULL of people. Ah, all those hard-working Chinese people wanting to learn and broading their mind during the week long public holiday... :) I managed to find a dictionary there, but no electronic one, and bought various stationary for a very cheap price :D Then we kept walking and walking and walking...Just to let you know, we never made it to Tian'anmen Square. That has now been rescheduled for Saturday. We did however go to the Forbidden City, which is basically the size of HK (or feels like it at least) but INSIDE another city (Beijing). Waaay too much to see, waaay too many people, but waaay awesome.

Then came the troubles of finding a taxi to go back to the hotel...none was to be found. In the end, we took...well...I guess you'd call it a tricycle?! Motorcylce with midget compartment, just fitting two chinese-sized people. It was hilarious, dangerous and a lot of fun. Bargaining was then done at Silk Street, a massive indoor market with so much fake stuff it makes you go mad. Didn't find anything I liked but had a few aggressive shopkeepers shout at me for leaving and one sounded like she was about to cry...Perhaps we shall try fake-stuff shopping in Shanghai again.

Tonight mum and I are off for some pekingnese cuisine. Hopefully we'll actually get a table somewhere - the National Holiday week means everyone is in Beijing and no one has to work and there's just SO MANY PEOPLE.

Other remarks: Never have I seen such wide streets and wide buildings as in Beijing. I'm talking 10 lanes streets, all around the city. Giant buildings that would take up a whole BLOCK of george street. Or even 2 blocks. Giant hotels, giant banks. Everything is so...giant.

-ln

in Beijing

2008-10-02T10:49:00.002+10:00

First impressions:
There's a...something that covers the entire city. It could be fog, it could be pollution. Anyway it means we're in a constant haze. There are also lots of colourful lights. EVERYWHERE. All lining the highway from the airport to our hotel.

I was on the plane with Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu. I'm guessing most of you won't know who he is, but he's a blind singer from Arnhem Land who just won the Aria Award for Best World Music Album. I saw him in the Qantas Lounge already, which was pretty cool, and then again at the baggage claim in Beijing. Wonder what he's doing in Beijing? Doesn't seem like the type of place someone like him would go.

Mum and I are in the InterContinental Hotel. I'm about to go down and check out the gym and then I'm looking forward to the complimentary buffet breakfast :) Also, the beds are really comfy.

-ln

Paris je t'aime

2008-08-09T18:23:00.003+10:00

Sorry for the lack of updating! The reasons are that I rarely get time on the computer.

Ive been in paris for 11 days now and I'm loving it so much. It really is a very cool city and staying here for an extended time has meant that I can take time in doing all the touristy things and also get to know the city quite well. Proud to say that me and the Metro are tight now, I can even get to some places without looking at the Metro plan! So in that sense I feel quite parisian :) I've pretty much done all the things you could want to do here in Paris - tourist-wise. On the day I arrived Mik took me on a picnic with Pak and Steve (two English guys we'd met on our travels) in front of the Eiffel Tower at night and it was just such a beautiful way to start my stay there, at such an iconic place of the city but not doing the touristy thing of climbing up it and paying lots of money and taking photos. We just relaxed on the grass, had fun and ate baguette :) The next day I tagged along with Pak and Steve to see the Lourve. That was such a stressful event. Crowds everywhere, not that usual hushed quietness you have in museums where everyone's admiring the works of art. Then to get to the Mona Lisa was just scary, like being in a mosh pit with everyone trying to push forward. You can't appreciate any of the major artworks properly, which is a bit sad :( I've also noticed the new trend where tourists don't just take pictures of stuff in museums, but they film it all...on video. Totally don't get that! Why would you film all the artworks? Sure, if you think you're gonna watch it all multiple times again. But it seems that the main activity in the museum then turns into the filming of the artworks, not actually looking at them. So many tourists only ever seem to see the works through their cameras...

I then spent some quiet days at home because Mik and Lucy had to work. Visited Lucy at her cafe which is cool, she's made me some really yummy sandwiches and a nice salad :) Just wandering around Paris, armed with a map of course, by myself is also fun. I've also discovered the joy of Velib! Velib is like this system of bikes that you can rent and they have stations every 300m in Paris for you to pick up bikes and drop them back off. Most people here have like a yearly pass but you can also rent the bikes for 1 euro a day, which I've been doing. It's a great way to get around because you combine exercise with seeing beautiful things and it's just SO much fun to velib around :)

I've visited the Notre Dame but I'm yet to climb up to the top of it, the line is just too long. I've decided not to climb up to the top of the Eiffel Tower, it costs 11 euros and just isn't worth it...I've also been to the Sacre Coeur which was an aweful trek up the hill. There's only one hill in Paris and they just have to build a famous church on it now don't they! And I found a cool CD store and got a Muse single that I'd never seen :D

On the first sunday of every month most of the museums in Paris are free so Mik and I decided to go to the Musee de L'Orangerie which is in the Tuileries (these gardens near the lourve) and houses quite famous works such as Monet's Waterlillies. It's quite a small museum which I liked so you could take your time and still see everything. Mik then took me to the Asia-town in Paris in Belleville and we had cool asian food at this little Vietnamese/chinese restaurant.

Mik and I hung out for the next couple of days as Lucy had work and Mik didn't. We went to Pere Lachaise, this cemetery where lots of famous people are buried included Moliere, James Morrison and Oscar Wilde. It's a huge old cemetery and it was fun to find our way all around it and get lost quite a number of times. A lot of the graves are quite creepy, there's lots of family graves that are like mini chapels/shrines and some of them are broken so you can see in, but Mik and I couldn't figure out where the actual GRAVES of the family members were because inside the shrine is just like a little alter...and NO DEAD BODIES! :O

More sightseeing was done when we went to the Conciergerie (where they imprisoned Marie Antoinette, amongst other prisoners) and Saint Chappelle, which I think is my favourite church now. Utterly beautiful stained glass windows like I've never seen before. A whole day was spent out at Versailles, where Mik works, and I visited the palace and wandered the gardens for hours, discovering many beautiful hidden groves and almost getting lost in what seemed like a huge labyrinth (you walk along these paths lined with really tall hedges and you can never see what's ahead of you or around the corner!)

Lucy left for slovakia on thursday night and didn't have to work during the day so I spent that day with her. In my opinion it was a very 'French' day hehe. We got up early to go to these markets, velibed there (there was a REALY scary 4 laned round about we had to go through) and went and got the best croissants in Paris for breakfast. We sat at a cafe and drank tea. Then we tried to find the place with the best madeleines in Paris, unfortunately it was closed for summer. We velibed to the street with all the brand name shops! We investigated Hermes and Longchamp and Laduree (mmmm macaroons). We also had ice chocolates from Godiva! The next day I went to the Musee D'Orsay - a beautiful museum but soooo confusing. The most confusing museum I've ever been to I think. Then Tom and I went to see the Moulin Rouge and got crepes and did shopping.

Ah Paris life. I really like it. Doing whatever I want to do and enjoying it all :) Hope all is well downunder too

xLN

mobile blogging

2008-07-25T01:48:00.000+10:00

hello everyone! This is my first attempt at mobile blogging- writing a blog post from my mobile phone! I thought i couldn't reach the net over my phone but turns out i can, and this is probably really expensive because its not included on my cap but oh well, its fun :) so i'm not sure how to press enter so you'll have to deal without paragraph.. I'm now on sylt with the family, joined them here yesterday. All last week i was travelling with mik, lucy and hannah. Met them in berlin on monday and we stayed there together for 2 days before mik n lucy had to im back to paris. Han and i then had a nice time hanging out, and were surprisingly productive with our sightseeing! Went to various museums, say the opera porgy and bess and even finally had a döner! Then i went to bielefeld and hannah went to hannover and we met us again to im to hamburg. Unfortunately the weather in hamburg was pretty crap, it rained all day so we didn't do much except visit the famous cafe paris, which has been visited by famous people such as ernest hemmingway! But it was fun just to chill out, cool and chat lots. Then han left of for paris and now i'm on sylt dad bought of a bike today which was very nice of him and we've been biking around. Its gone, makes of feel fit. anyway thats it froo of! - ln

begin of travels

2008-07-14T18:13:00.002+10:00

Today my travels start! I'm off to Berlin to meet up Hannah, Mik and Lucy! It's all very very exciting. The itinerary vaguely looks like this - Berlin, Bielefeld and Hannover, Hamburg, then I go to Sylt to visit the family while Han heads to Paris. And as soon as Han leaves Paris I go there for 2 weeks, then a week of driving through France. It's all VERY exciting.

In the meanwhile Bec has visited me for 2 nights in Hamburg. We had nice times, eating nice food and drinking chocolate and seeing stuff around Hamburg although the weather was dodgy. She's in Itzehoe now with Leena :)

And to finish off, some German humour!

-ln

HURRICANE '08 (and other stories)

2008-07-03T04:18:00.000+10:00

[long overdue - started writing and then got distracted so this post is written about a week in the past]

This last week has probably been the most eventful and exciting for a long time. On monday Blaise annouced he was arriving, and did so on the same day. He was very punctual, at my door at 4:30pm and I excitedly pounced on him. I missed him so much and he looked well. We sort of sat in awe in my kitchen for a while looking at each other...'wow...we're seeing each other again...in hamburg...in germany...' Who would've thought that was where we'd see each other next?! We then drove off in his cute, old BMW to find him a hostel. We found one near the Landungsbruecken which is a great location in the city and checked him in. Fancy hostel with flat screen TVs and coloured lights. Then off to the Reeperbahn to see some typical german culture (of course that's what you go to the redlight district for) and laughed at german soccer fans celebrating the football win over Austria. We also had some beer in a tiny bar, but apart from that not much was happening as it was a monday night. On tuesday and wednesday we followed the routine of Blaise meeting up with me for lunch and having Japanese for lunch both days, and then meeting up after work to go shopping in the city/bum around the city or go canoeing. We also took a hot air balloon ride in this big balloon that goes 150m above Hamburg to see some great views :)

Wednesday night was the exciting part where Mik and Lucy arrived in Hamburg! We went to pick them up at the airport, a great surprise for them because they didn't know Blaise was coming. After coming back to my house we decided to hit the Reeperbahn once more and were a lot more successful. Germans start partying on Wednesday and go til sunday. The original plan was not to come home too late because I had work the next day but that all changed when we found the Thomas Read Irish pub...Beers all round, with the cute English guy playing live music, and suddenly a random Aussie called Dave started talking to us, as did two other english men who were kind of strange, but nonetheless friendly. Chatted to Dave for ages, turns out he was going to Hurricane too! So much excitement about that. Then it was time to move on with Dave in tow, to a pub on Grosse Freiheit, one of the big party streets off the Reeperbahn. The bar keeper thought we'd ordered cocktails when we didn't, so he gave them to us for free anyway. There was a band playing there who weren't bad, and random women dancing by themselves shamelessly. Then we decided we needed to go dancing...walked into a few clubs that were pretty empty, but then found some club that looked dodgy from the outside (it advertised free love or something) but then was really quite full inside and had a good dance floor. The bar was right next to the dancefloor and they poured alcohol along it and set it on fire which looked awesome. Danced for a short while to some fun songs, then it was really time to go. Bid farewell to Dave, thought we'd see him at Hurricane (which we DID! from a distance, he was holding hands with some girl and we didn't wanna disturb...) and wished him well.

Thursday was a RUSHED day. Blaise came in the morning to say goodbye and have breakfast, he then drove the 3 of us to the city where I went to work, Mik and Lucy wandered around the city and Blaise drove to Denmark. Leena then arrived around 12:30 which was really stressful because I had to get to Altona Train Station with Mik and Lucy, and back, in my lunch break as well as have some lunch but it was so cool to see leena there, with her massive backpack with all our camping gear and her gum boots and akubra hat! I then had to go back to work and they went back to my apartment to drop stuff off and then to go shopping for food. Then after work we bought some more essential things and quickly packed and then headed off to the train station by bus with all our stuff. We had SO much stuff. A 6-person tent, a BBQ, sleeping bags and mats for all, clothes, food, shoes, a chair...oh and the pavilion...OH the pavilion. You only understand why a pavilion costs 10 euros when you try to set it up. We thought we'd managed it, and then it collapsed on our tent during the night and we had to start again in the morning, and then it almost blew away. Anyway...

All our stuff

I think the train ride to Scheessel (where Hurricane was) was the funniest experience of the last 6 months. I think we laughed for 50 mins straight, so much that we were all crying and our stomach muscles were dying. All that because we were constantly eating lollies and mik just HAD to pull out the eggplant in the middle of the packed train and it was like..oh my goodness...why do we have an eggplant...And everything just got funnier and funnier as we realised how much unnecessary stuff we'd packed (like the eggplant) and how we lacked such necessary things like a pot to cook stuff in, coal for the BBQ, gas for the stove....And all of it was so bloody funny. The people around us thought we were absolutely nuts.

The big stadium-thing with one of the stages in the background (3 stages in total)

Arrived in Scheessel! The 1km walk to the camping site was so NOT 1km. It really felt like 5, especially with all our stuff. Amazed to see how many people had arrived early too (the festival only started on friday night) and how full the camp site already was! Managed to find a spot, unfortunately not on grass. It seemed the campsite is really a field full of hay, and for the hurricane festival they cut off all the hay, leavin about 20 cm of it sticking out of the ground. It was odd. We set up our tent (not very well) and the pavilion, well, I've already told you about the pavilion...Then it got dark, we went into our tent, and ate student feed. Next morning I got a lovely call from Tom, my dad's best friend's son who was also on Hurricane, asking where we were camping and wanting to meet up, which unfortunately didn't work. Then it was off to see the bands! We started off with The Beautiful Girls in the Coca-Cola Soundwave Tent - we thought we had to see them since they're Australian. Other bands we saw:

* Deichkind! love the crazy costumes and German dance music :D

* The Pigeon Detectives

* The Enemy

* The Wombats

* The Subways

* Madsen

* A bit of Kaiser Chiefs

* Bit of Billy Talent

* Foo Fighters

* Maximo Park (I sat on someone's shoulders, how typical festival behaviour is that!)

* The Kooks!

* Tiny bit of Sigur Ros

* Radiohead!

It was such an awesome weekend...most of the bands were seen on saturday which was also a very hot day and I nearly collapsed from exhaustion/dehydration (the water stations were so badly organised!) but totally worth it. The whole weekend you're packed in with 70 000 people and everyone's here for the same thing, it's such a great community feeling (ok some people just sit in the comfy chairs under their pavilions and drink beer...but still!). Everyone is happy 24/7, even at 5am in the morning and you just talk to everyone and everyone talks back, met lots of randoms and nice people. Would definitely do that again...The only little bit of unfortune that happened was the rain on sunday. Thank goodness it DID rain, everything was SO dusty and dirty but our tent wasn't set up properly and hence got wet and our sleeping bags/mats got wet too. So we packed up our tent because there was no way we could've slept in it for another night, and only then did we realise that the last train to Hamburg left at the ridiculously early time of 11pm - and Radiohead only started playing at 10. Now that might not sound that bad...but it was about a 1km walk from the Radiohead stage to our tent, and then about 1,5 to 2kms from the campsite until the train station. And doing that with ALL our stuff (tent, sleeping bags, grill, sleeping mat, etc) takes quite a while and is rather stressful. So we had to leave Radiohead at 10:15 unfortunately :( I was so sad about it...I could've cried. But it had to be, we had no way to stay the night so we ran as fast as we could back and grabbed our stuff and then walked as fast to the train station as we could. It's probably the most painful thing I've done in a while. I stuffed my foot while in the Wombats mosh and so every step hurt and then carrying heavy bag and having to walk as fast as possible...Then finally getting to the train station and the next stressful thing was getting a ticket (coz we only had a ticket for monday) and the queue was SO long and the machine was dodgy so we didn't end up getting a ticket but thankfully no one came and checked. We even sat in 1st class because there was no room left in the other carriages - yay free ride in 1st class!

Radiohead (can't you see Thom york in the middle?!!)

But those 15 minutes of Radiohead were amazing...They started with Planet Telex and then played There There and while we ran to our campsite they played 15 step. Oddly enough there weren't that many people at Radiohead, there were heaps at the Kooks who played pretty much at the same time but when Lucy and I arrived just before Radiohead started we could still get into the front mosh pit and had heaps of space. Thom York is amazing...and they had this great light show. Wish I could've stayed longer.

To remember the weekend Mik, Luce and I got t-shirts. I got a Yippie Yippie Yeah T-shirt from Deichkind and got a Radiohead shirt, Lucy and Mik got matching Wombats T-shirts but in different colours and Lucy got a Radiohead one too while Mik got a cool Kaiser Chiefs T-shirt :D

my shoes after Hurricane

Monday was a day spent washing clothes, cleaning up and resting...unfortunately Mik and Luce had to go back to Paris that night. But never fear! I'll see them again soon.

It's exciting that theres only 1 week and a few days left at the opera before the travelling starts. The plan is to go to Berlin to meet Hannah, Mik and Lucy and then various other German cities, a few days in Sylt with the family and then Paris and France. Can't wait!!!

-ln

Ellen and Simon go to Itzehoe

2008-06-02T07:22:00.003+10:00

So Leena (girl who was an exchange student at my school for a year) was going to come and visit me in Hamburg on saturday! She was going to arrive around 4 in the arvo, but then rang to say that there's the annual wine festival happening in her city and we should come because there'll be 25 000 people coming! Simon and me: ok sure! But...come...where?! Itzehoe. WHERE?! Here:
It's around an hour by train north-west of Hamburg...but seriously?! Itzehoe?! Who goes there?! Simon and I actually spent quite a while laughing about this while sitting on the train going there being like....dude...we're goin to itzehoe! Leena picked us up with her sister and dad and then we wandered into town central around 9:30pm. Already lotsa drunk oldies dancing around to country music hehe. We walked around the entire festival, met lots of Leena's friends and saw some bands and ate pizza. Then the crowds all got a bit much and we went to a cool bar called Eck Point and had cocktails. There was an annoying waitress who kept coming to our table and asking if we were ready with our orders - I swear she came about 5 times even after we said we'd give her a wave when we were ready! And we kept chatting for ages and ages so our ordering took long, not to mention the loooong cocktail list. Ended up getting a Zombie - very very strong alcohol type thing made to get your drunk...couldn't finish it by myself. Leena's friend Benni came along too after a while and then we ordered some tapas too. Unfortunately (perhaps fortunately?) the wine festival was over by the time we got out of the bar (it finished at 11:30pm) and so we just hung out with some of Leena's sister's friends and went to a bar, laughed at drunk people and went home when it got cold. Leena's family were heaps nice, she has a dog who looks like a mini version of Max and we had a really nice breakfast :) They have an awesome house with fields and across the road is a river thing with fields and cows and we walked barefoot in the grass :) And such was our excursion to Itzehoe!

-ln

How time flies...and...who knew I'd be so busy?

2008-05-28T03:46:00.003+10:00

I didn't think I'd actually have a 'life' here in Hamburg y'know. I was thinking it was going to be Bielefeld all over - not that that's a bad thing, it was the simple life! Sorry I haven't blogged so long - it got to the point where I was so busy and had so many things happening that when I did get time to be online I couldn't be bothered to write about it because I was too tired.

A few weekends ago (come to think of it I think it was only 2 weekends ago) I met up with Mik and Luce in Amsterdam. It was a long weekend for me, I had monday off but they had the thursday and friday before off, so they went off to Brussels on the thursday and friday and we met up around midnight on friday night! I had a complicated train ride there, changing trains at Osnabrueck and realising I'm arriving at the wrong train station to Mik and Luce, but luckily there was a nice and interesting guy called Stefan who sat next to me the entire time and shared his sunflower seeds from Kazakhstan with me and introduced me to Dutch folk music. That guy has probably the weirdest background I've heard of - he was born in Holland but he now works in Hamburg but still goes to Holland most weekends, but he also has a flat in Poland in which his girlfriend lives...and his dad's Spanish and mum's Hungarian. Hence he speaks like 5 languagues. So he helped me to change trains at a different station so I'd get to Amsterdam Centraal :) I was SO excited to see them again, and I got messages from Mik with instructions like 'Go outside' and 'Stand still' and I suddenly got attacked by two people running at me and sandwiching me in a MASSIVE hug. Totally awesome to be with them again, didn't realise how much I missed them. It was like old times, except we were all grown up and in Amsterdam ;)

On saturday we rented bikes (I had an awesome hippie one which was bright yellow and lime green and had big flowers on it) and rode all around the city, passing wonderful canals and going to a busy market for fresh food and then a picnic in Vondel Park. The weather was awesome as well, the type of temperature where it wasn't too hot but hot enough to wear tank tops and shorts and bask in the sun. We pulled an epic all nighter saturday night/sunday morning which meant that we couldn't really do much on sunday. However we did manage to visit the Rijks museum and look at wonderful art, before falling asleep in Vondel Park once more. We then parted ways sunday afternoon and luckily I had monday off to recover from the big weekend.

The following weekend was a nice visit from Simon from Bielefeld and we did fun activities such as cooking together (the amazing guy knows how to make pancakes without a recipe!) and canoeing on the Alster. We also hit the Reeperbahn on saturday night and partied till late. The awesome thing is about the Reeperbahn and it's adjacent streets is that all the clubs and bars are right next to each other. So you just leave your stuff in the 'garderobe' (cloak room) of one of them for the price of one euro, and then just club/bar hop along the street if you get sick of one place and a lot of them have free entry. We dropped by a bar where there were some REALLY drunk english guys dancing around and singing REALLY loudly, it was quite amusing to watch :)

For the past week Jen has been stayin with me, but she left for Hannover and Berlin today and will be back on Sunday. Am actually feeling a tad lonely for the first time since leaving Sydney, probably because I got used to having someone around in the apartment and now it's all quiet. But she'll be back. Last weekend Tom, Amanda and Mona came to visit for the day on saturday which was totally nice and fun. Went canoeing with them, Amanda getting totally overexcited about the ducks and punk-ducks and diving ducks and all sorts of things like gaggles of geese ;) Then on sunday Patrick (colleague from Bielefeld) dropped in and it was cool to just hang out and walk through Hamburg like we did in Bielefeld. His aunt lives here so he said he'd come up more often.

Work-wise, I'm still at the opera of course but am now with the Chorus. That involves going to various rehearsals of theirs and just listening/watching. That's kind of fun because all the chorus people are nice to me, but some of the rehearsals on stage have been a bit boring because I just sit in the audience and the director talks a lot and I can't understand what he's saying so I don't know what's happening...But last rehearsal I went to yesterday they were learning a new piece for a concert and I got to sing along! so that was fun :) I've also been going to the opera a fair bit thanks to some free tickets my supervisor person got me! Friday night was La Traviata, managed to sit in the front row which is TOTALLY cool, never been so absorbed in opera before. Then saturday night was The Abduction from the Seralio which wasn't that great, then last night was Elixir of Love which was very amusing and thursday I'm going to Madame Butterfly. It's cool to see the operas that I've seen in rehearsals on stage, I sorta go 'oh, I know them and them on stage! And now this is going to happen!' It's quite fun.

In other news I've become quite good friends with a Chinese guy from the chorus, Yue. He catches my bus and we chat quite often and I told him I'm goin to China to learn mandarin in September! So he said that his wife is trying to learn German at the moment and would like to have a speaking practise partner, and asked if I wanted to do that and she can pre-teach me some Mandarin! We had our first session today, she's totally sweet and we got along awesomely - sat in a cafe for almost 3 hours! But man...mandarin is SO hard. SO SO HARD. I can see myself getting frustrated quickly :P Hopefully it'll get better though. We're going to meet up every week! And another bonus - they have a piano/keyboard thing at home and said I could play on it next time!!! Yay! An end to piano-withdrawal symptoms!!!

-ln

My grandma talks about the war and I can be found at the opera

2008-05-08T03:48:00.002+10:00

My gran was walking out of the theatre after a performance when the bombs started falling. This was Berlin, around 1944 probably. The sirens just started going, and then bombs started falling. It was completely dark - verdunkelung, no lights allowed to be on after dark so the bombers can't see the cities. It would've been impossible to walk home, buildings were burning all around already. People screaming. I asked if there were dead bodies lying around the streets. "Of course." was the answer. The only place to go was a keller, room built underneath houses to withstand the bombs if the house above it was hit. And all the kellers were full, the iron doors closed already before the bombs fell. Then a random girl took her by the hand and said that her mother knew she was coming home, and was holding the door open for her. And they ran and ran, for about an hour she said, and everywhere people were screaming and throwing things out of windows and everywhere, things were burning. Think about walking down a street and on either side bombs are falling and buildings are burning and all you can hear is screaming. "You can't imagine it" she said, over and over again. I guess I can't. And then they got to the keller and there were two dogs in there with all the people, and 2 soldiers. And from all the bombing above the dogs started to get vicious, running around and biting themselves and each other, and I'm guessing other people too. The soldiers shot the dogs, it had to be done.

So I just finished my 3rd day at the opera house in Hamburg :) I'm in the costume department and in the workshop where they work with paint and print graphics onto cloth and stuff. There's only one lady that works there, so she's glad to have someone to help. On my first day I had to remodel this fat suit (suit you put on to make you look fatter...) by pinning lots of cloth onto it, and my fingers hurt from holding the pins and when they poked me...Then yesterday and today I painted over this silk material which has stitchings in the wrong colour and needs to look like another bit of cloth. It's tiresome work, and I have 6 metres of cloth to do! Work times aren't too bad, 9am til 4pm, but it means I have to wake up fairly early. But tomorrow will be fun and different! I'm goin to watch and maybe help out with the costumes and make up at the first tech rehearsal with costumes of Macbeth the opera. No orchestra yet, they'll be singing with a piano, but it's going to be a looong day. Thank goodness I don't have to be there till 12, but then they said the rehearsal can go till 11pm! Which will be almost 12 hours there...But hopefully I can leave early or something, it depends on how smoothly the rehearsal runs I think. If it's all stopping and starting then it'll get boring and they said I could leave and come watch another rehearsal next week with the orchestra. But it's all rather exciting! And then friday I'll go back to painting - it's really like being back in art class in school and mixing colours is fun too.

This weekend - AMSTERDAM! I'm SO excited to see Mik and Luce again. I have a 5 and a half hour train trip ahead, arriving at 11pm on friday night. I'll spend the weekend there and get back sunday night. And yay - monday is a public holiday! I've found germany really has lots of public holidays...not that I can complain, now that public holidays actually mean something since I'm working full time. Apart from that I'm really really enjoying Hamburg and living by myself. Sure, it's a bit hard to get the motivation to actually change out of my pyjamas on weekends and actually cook proper meals and do the washing and clean the dishes etc, but I'm not lonely or anything and I like having time to myself. Have got some awesome weekends planned for the next month anyway, so lots to look forward to!!!

-ln

Hamburg is cool because...

2008-05-04T01:07:00.001+10:00

Hamburg

2008-05-03T01:07:00.003+10:00

So I'm walking through the streets of Hamburg...Mercedes, BMW, Porsche, BMW, Mercedes - oh look, a (F)Mini! - Mercedes, BMW, BMW, Porsche - WHAT A TOYOTA?!? The Germans really do love their German-made cars.

I'm totally loving it here in Hamburg. I feel so COMFORTABLE. It's such an odd feeling to try to describe. I walk around smiling, everywhere, because I feel so good here. Perhaps I feel at home? And living by myself is definitely new and exciting. I was alone for 2 days now and it's hard to get the motivation to get up everyday and actually change out of my pjs and have breakfast before midday. But today Jen arrived at midday to keep my company :) She's fun and we talk a lot and she brought Tim Tams! YAY!!! And maybe we'll get to hang out a bit tomorrow if she's not busy, before she jets off to Bulgaria. But then she'll be back. Not sure how long for though. But I don't mind living on my own actually. I like doing the dishes, and being able to plan everything by myself. I also have a bike here now - old rusty thing that's slightly too big for me so I went out practising riding on it today. Getting on and off is the tricky bit because my legs don't touch the ground hehe...

-ln

i'm sitting on a pavement in hamburg...

2008-04-30T04:56:00.002+10:00

yes, in my desperate search for internet I was pointed in the direction of 2 'Fon-Spots'...having no idea what they were I decided to set out in search of them after dinner. the first one didn't exist but here I am at the second one...The fon-spot involves me sitting on the pavement and getting internet from SOMEWHERE. It's rather odd, and I'm all alone and getting weird looks from passers-by...I feel geeky and technological too, like I have the net wherever I go now! hehe. oh what fun! :D

-ln

the time's almost up

2008-04-28T05:23:00.003+10:00

My time in Bielefeld is nearly up! It's actually a bit sad. This weekend has been spent mostly partying...I can't remember doing anything else. I even started on wednesday already :O On friday night Simon took me to his friend's b'day party outside Bielefeld, he'd rented this room, and that was fun to meet some of Simon's friends. I had my first proper beer! All of it! Ok, they have all these mixed beer drinks, like beer mixed with banana juice or in my case, beer mixed with lemonade. They're totally the new alco-pops. And I even had 2 I think, that's how into beer I'm getting. After the party Simon and I headed to Pasha to meet up with Franzi. There an odd coincidence happened...Simon and I walked into the cocktail bar and there at the bar was this guy, who I see basically every day catching the train back from work. It's already weird when you keep seeing the same people on the train or the bus every day - it's like you know them but you really don't. And I always feel that one should talk to such people in a "Hey, we've been seeing each other every day for a month now, maybe we should say hi!" kind of way. And then when you see them in another context it's like...hey I know you...so this guy and I exchanged smiles, but that was it. I was just weird that he was there, and I knew him, but I really didn't...

Last night was a night in Bielefeld called Night of the Museums (Nacht der Museen). It's an event where lots of museums and churches in the old part of the city are open and have shows and concerts - heaps of people around and all the buildings and parks where lit up in pretty colours. Before that I had a farewell dinner with my family, and then I had an hour to do something before going to Cafe Europa for more partying. I wandered around the city and took some photos then went to a church and listened to a concert. It was pretty cool - they had this saxophone group playing some jazz, then they had the organ and 2 french horns/trumpets and then this a capella choir, except they weren't a capella but they acted like one, with like dancing and hand gestures. And they did this coooool version of My Favourite Things, it made my spine tingle :) And churches have such cool acoustics. And then off to Cafe Europa! Interestingly I discovered that cafe europa has existed since the 1930s! How cool is that :)

Lotsa packing has been done - luggage gets picked up tomorrow. Then I go to work to say bye and give them cake and thank you cards, then I have to try to meet up with Patrick, Franzi and Simon during the day SOMEHOW. Hopefully it'll all work out.

-ln

New World, Movie, Cafe Europa

2008-04-25T01:50:00.002+10:00

Totally tired after a long night out last night! Met up with Simon for a cocktail at New World, then headed over to Movie where some of his friends where, and where I had my first beer in Germany (I didn't finish it tho...gross). Movie was like an alternative club I guess you could call it. When we walked in they started playing Muscle Museum by Muse! That was totally awesome, but you can't dance to that song at all...there was a bit of heavy metal played too that you can't dance to either, but then it got better - Franz Ferdinand and 'Let's Dance to Joy Division' by the Wombats!!! But according to Simon's friend the music doesn't get much better so we decided to head to Cafe Europa. I was in Cafe Europa once before when I was with the photographer from the Westfalen-Blatt goin around for 1Live Night but it was cool to be there to party. It was SO packed - totally unexpected for a wednesday night, but apparently their Wednesday Nights are a big hit. I've never been in such a packed dance floor, it was like trying to dance in a mosh pit with people trying to get past you in all different directions all the time. Their smoke machines were also intense, I couldn't see in front of me at all at times! They also have a cool upstairs balcony bit which was more chilled out. I only got home at 3:30am...so not much sleep there, and there were moments today at work where I thought I'd fall asleep at the computer. I might have a nap now :)

-ln

less than one week left!

2008-04-24T04:11:00.002+10:00

The other day my boss, Herr Nolte, told me that I was a great help to the department. I was so touched, I think I went really red. I never thought I was sort of...helping. If anything I thought I was a burden, with all my questions and inexperience with the computer program and generally not knowing the type of standards they have, and just needing help. Especially with Herr Nolte, everything I make I show to him afterwards and he edits it a bit and then prints it out for me, but it's all quite time consuming and taking away from his work time, which I guess is quite valuable since they only have 3 people in their department...Patrick also told me that Herr Nolte is really happy to have me there to help out. Apparently all the other work experience kids just sit there and don't say anything and don't do anything or ask questions, and I'm pretty much the first person who asks for stuff to do and takes an initiative. All of that made my heart warm and made me feel special - it's so unexpected. :)

With these last days come lots of planning - when to see Franzi next, when to invite my host family for a farewell dinner, when to bake cakes and cupcakes to bring to my co-workers and when to buy flowers for my family. I've pre-written all my thank-you cards so I don't get anything wrong hehe. For some reason the fact that it's the last week has put me in a really good mood. Probably because I know I'm goin to treasure every moment now - I might never come to Bielefeld ever again!

-ln

I like you, the hair has nothing to do with it, he said.

2008-04-21T06:00:00.003+10:00

I got published in the paper 2 days in a row!!! On the first pic I made the header that says 'Tag der Logistik' and then I made the cut out ad and the header that says '100 Jahre Fleurop'. Especially proud of the 2 headers because it's the first time something of mine got published exactly how I'd designed it. Before they'd come out slightly tweaked and made better, but this time they're unchanged - must mean they're not bad, eh?

9 days left in Bielefeld - it's a bit scary. But also good. I've made another friend, his name is Simon and we met on the dancefloor when I was clubbing with Franzi on friday. Nice guy, we're meetin up on wednesday after his last exam.

-ln

An artist

2008-04-19T05:19:00.003+10:00

This evening a painter told me that he was really touched when I smiled at him at his art exhibition. He said "I thought it was great when we met and you had a smile, other people just stare and aren't friendly." Then someone else said I had an open, friendly face. That made me feel warm and fuzzy inside, and I broke out in an excited sweat and felt my face go red.

Over 300 posts - wow!

2008-04-17T02:48:00.002+10:00

Last night I went to see 'Butterfly and Diving Bell' or whatever it's called in English with Patrick. I didn't realise that it was originally in French! But of course it was dubbed in German and done pretty well. There was a fiasco finding the cinema...Originally Patrick said it was this tiny cinema that we'd walked past on one of our afternoon city wanderings, so we started heading through the old part of the city until I suddenly had this revelation and said "I KNOW WHERE WE HAVE TO GO!" So off we went and Patrick had no idea where we were (I know Bielefeld better than him lol) but then we found the cinema, but turns out it's not the right one! So we asked the people in the fitness studio next door if they knew the cinema and they were kind enough to look it up for us on the net and ring up someone else to ask, so we were pointed in the general direction. Then we got to the main bus stop in the middle of the city and had no idea which bus to catch, so Patrick asked in a shop and we were again pointed in the general direction and told there were taxis there too. We decided to take a taxi and even the taxi driver had never heard of the street...We were dropped in the general area of the cinema, 'Ravensburger Park', and it was supposed to be on Victoria street so we walk and find Victoria street and then find the cinema and then we walk around the building and everything is shut and we have no idea why...then a girl comes out and tells us we're at the wrong place once more and the cinema is now INSIDE the Ravensburger Park...so off we head back to the Park and eventually find the cinema. Luckily we'd left an hour to get to this cinema...It's probably the smallest cinema i've been to! Only like 7 people per row and about 10 rows. And quite full too, which was unexpected for a Tuesday night.

The movie was good, rather beautiful as Han said it'd be. The ending was abrupt, I didn't expect it so soon, but I guess the cinematography was really interesting, seeing things from so many different angles.

Another thing to report is that I now have a standard group of people I have lunch with! Gone are the days of lunching by myself, even though they were that bad. It all started when Patrick came along to the canteen for lunch, his first time ever even though he's been working there nearly 2 months! So I had lunch with him the first day, and then the second time he came along we sat with some other people form our building whom I knew as well but not well enough to just randomly go and sit with. And that's the group that we now lunch with every day! There's Wiebke who is super nice and smily, and has cool jeans and a cool belt, and spent a year in Sydney a while back. Then theres Frau M.z.B. (Meier zu Bexte is just such a long last name!) who always says HELLO! in a really cheery manner and makes strawberry jam out of 2kgs of strawberries she kept in the freezer from last year. Wiebke and Frau M.z.B. work in the Advertising department which is on the same level as the Atelier where I am, so I see them quite often. Then there's Herr Lindner, who works on the ground floor of our building and I'm still not quite sure what he does even though I asked him today. He's the guy who gave me my frog-prince toy thing that grows in a jar, and he's always heaps funny and ironic. And then there's another man who I think works in our building too but I forget his name, but he's always rather funny and likes to laugh a lot. And then there's this other man who's started coming along in the last few days but I know neither his name nor where he works. And so we have a full table! Lunch conversations are always very amusing and it's good to get a nice laugh out once in a while. It's interesting to think about all the good things have happened just because I asked patrick to coffee that one afternoon - I now have lunch people and a friend to hang out with on weekends and to drive me around to see stuff :D

-ln

My big weekend

2008-04-15T05:13:00.000+10:00

It all started on friday night. 1Live, a big radio station in Germany, hosts a big party each year in a different german city. This year it was in Bielefeld, and included lots of special DJs in clubs, concerts, bands playing, and 1Live broadcasting from the different venues all over town. Having been in the city editor's office for the last two days, I overheard that one of the photographers, Herr Hannemann, would be taking photos all throughout the night, and so I asked if I could tag along. They organised a press ID card thing for me so I got to go along!Awesome night, I met Herr Hannemann at 6pm in the city and we went straight to the concert Mando Diao was playing at (I'd never heard of them before...has anyone heard of them? They're from Sweden). It was a bit annoying because the organisers told us Mando Diao would start at 7pm sharp because it's gonna be broadcast on radio, but then there was some warm-up act called something like 'The Death of Tom Jones' and they weren't great, and Mando Diao only came on at 8:15! So that stuffed up our timing a bit and we had to cancel a few of the other photo appointments we had...And the photographers are only allowed to take photos in the first 3 songs of the set, that's when they're allowed in the front part, in front of the mosh pit where the security people stand. Mando Diao themselves weren't too bad, they sang in English without any accent that I could hear and they have some catchy songs...and it was awesome to be in a concert atmosphere! The concert took place in this old hall where they used to store trains, like a lokomotive storages place and then it stopped being used (probably because the train station moved) and it became a concert hall. It's not very big, maybe like the Hordern without the seating, but they have an upstairs bit and bars all around which is cool! Also meant lots of drunk germans dancing around hehe. I got to stand on the side with lots of other photographers and we got let out a special side exit. Here are Mando Diao in action:

After Mando Diao, Herr Hannemann and I hurried back to the office as the photos of Mando Diao were supposed to be in the next day's paper, and the cut off time is around 10pm for new articles/photos/changing the layout of the paper so that there's time for the paper to be printed! Lots of stress in the office, somehow the photos didn't fit, and Herr Hannemann made lots of portrait photos of the band when they needed a horizontal one and so I just sat there quietly while people stressed :) Next stop: Wir sind Helden!!!

The Helden recently published a book which is a cumulation of the 7 years they've been a band, various diary entries, memories about touring, recording and writing songs etc, and they read bits of their book and all of this was broadcast on radio too. It was partly an interview too and they played a few songs throughout! Herr Hannemann took aaages to find a carpark, everything was completely full and we ended up parking illegally, but then we got to the theatre and it had started a while ago so we crept in and he took some photos and I listend and watched when they played 'Denkmal' and left just as they started playing 'Die Konkurrenz'. Was cool to finally see them live though, and they were heaps funny in their interview - very candid and down-to-earth type of people.

Next stop was to get some party-pics. I told Herr Hannemann there was a party at Cafe Europa which he didn't know was happening, so we decided to go there after going to another venue, but unfortunately at the other place there were only some random drunk people left dancing around so there wasn't much to photograph. Cafe Europa had just opened and people were starting to come in, not heaps going on yet, but after a while people discovered Herr Hannemann was taking photos so they all started lining up hehe. And this morning back at work, Benni who is in the same department, was like...'Ellen, were you at Cafe Europa on friday?!' Turns out he was partying there and saw me just leaving and wasn't sure it was me. After Cafe Europa it was time for midnight Maccas...and then my bus came and I went home! It was just so cool to be VIP and get in everywhere for free and skip the lines while people look jealously at you for having a special pass hehe. Come to think of it, I should've gone home, changed, and then hit the town again and gotten everywhere for free!

Then saturday was just a day of relaxing at home and not going out at all...Sunday my host parents went to this Farmer's market nearby (there's a farm right next door; the farmer committed suicide a while ago so they've turned it into like...a christmas tree planting place), so I tagged along and got a typical german sausage (Bratwurst) and had a waffle there. Then got home and Patrick came at about 6pm and off we went to Duisburg! The drive was about an hour an a half north-west, past Duesseldorf and Essen and Dortmund if you know where or what they are. Visited Patrick's house too as that was on the way - I met his parents which was nice and he has a nice flat above it - they have a bright red front door which is awesome. In Duisburg, we went to the Landschaftspark. To save me explaining what that is, wikipedia will tell you here.

It's unlike anything I've ever seen or been to before...walking around everywhere, crawling into dark corners and climbing up many many stairs, it actually reminded me of Ostia - old and abandoned and completely unrestricted access! And then when it got dark everything got lit up, it was so cool. Patrick and I decided to get some pizza at 9:30pm and drove around for ages (Duisburg has no night life at all!) until we found a place that wasn't seedy but was also open at that time. Broccoli and Ham pizza was then had back in the Landschaftspark, looking at the old rusty factory and its bright lights. We wandered around in complete darkness for a while after that, luckily he'd brought a torch as there was one long passage way that was not lit up at all, utterly dark and really quity scary - almost expected to find a dead body lying around somewhere hehe. Then we started the long drive home. Listened to Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington sing the whole time and it made me sleepy, and I got home just after midnight. It was such a cool night, wish I could go to Duisburg more often, but it'll probably never happen again so I'm glad I did go :) Here the most beautiful photo of the night, just at sunset:Well, back to work today. I actually only have 2 weeks left here! It's so short! I need to start planning my trip home and everything...Can't believe it's gone so quick.

-ln

PS: A side note: there was SO many emos in Bielefeld! I've seen some of the most epic emo fringes while waiting at the bus stop in the city. One guy had the longest fringe, it came up to his chin and covered the entire half of his face so that he couldnt see out of one eye...and on the train today this guy had a complete fringe that basically covered ALL of the top of his face. I could only see his nose and his mouth, both eyes covered by the wall of hair. How can people live like that without tripping over every 2 seconds? How could he see?! Oh, it amuses me :)

Something different

2008-04-12T00:48:00.002+10:00

The last 2 day have been quite different and in a way exciting. Instead of going to the main site where the Westfalen-Blatt is, I went to the city where they've set up a new city-editor's office. I still can't get the right english word for the place, it's called a Redaktion, so you can look it up yourself...but it's basically where the reporters have their offices and write their articles and where a producer/publisher puts together the pages of a newspaper. On my first day there the boss, who is this super cute guy, geeky looking with glasses and dark hair, sat me down and gave me today's paper of the Westfalen-Blatt and of the competing newspaper, Neue Westfaelische (NW) and told me to tell him what was cool and what wasn't...I had no idea what to say! What did he even mean? As in what are the differences in the layout, design, articles, writing style, graphics?! What was I supposed to say? So that little interview ended up quite embarrassing, but for the rest of the day I followed this reporter lady around who wasn't very nice, and we went to two small press conferences both to do with music, one was this group of people who'd written a musical and were promoting this concert, and then the other was some German rockstar who reminded me of Austin Powers who had lotsa photos of himself in an art exhibition. And then we went back to the office and I sort of had nothing to do so I watched the photographer edit these photos for a while. Then yesterday I got to go around wiht the photographer who is actually a reporter except he seems to make more photos than write articles, Herr Hannemann, and he was really nice. We went to this bigger press conference at a cafe with this chef, he's supposed to be the most famous chef in Germany and has this amazing moustache lol he said he spends 3-4 for minutes a day on that, has to blow dry it upwards and then put in gel and hair spray lol But he was funny and then we drove somewhere a bit outside of Bielefeld and took photos of this display of Arminia (thats the soccer team of Bielefeld) and then we went back to the office and edited more photos...but Herr Hannemann was nice, he's quite young too and we talked about lots.

but TONIGHT is the big exciting night. There's a MASSIVE party happening all around town, bit event hosted by 1Live which is a big radio station in germany, and they're reporting from all over Bielefeld and there's big parties and bands playing and concerts and all that kinda thing, they were setting up all this afternoon already when Patrick and I wandered around the city for ages. And I get to go there with Herr Hannemann and have a special press VIP backstage pass type of thing and we're going around to all the different parties and taking photos, it's gonna be hectic and awesome! Will take my own camera too and hopefully gets some great photos :)

ciao!
LN

My green frog prince

2008-04-09T02:44:00.005+10:00

I was given a frog in a jar by Herr Lindner, who works on the first floor. It was a fake frog of course, in some whacky toy in which you're supposed to pour water on the frog and it'll dissolve into a prince, and then the prince GROWS. Here's a photo of him on my desk.

And over the weekend he GREW heaps...he's like as tall as the jar now. Julia, the office diagonally opposite us, also has a prince, in a purple jacket. His name is Lilbert and mine is called Gruenbert. Lila = purple, Gruen = green. My prince grew bigger than Julia's though. And Herr Lindner tried to take them out of the jars today, but couldn't open them...Julia said that my scarf matched Herr Lindner's shirt today, so I was like "Do you wanna try it on?" to Herr Lindner, and he's like "no, do you want to try on my shirt?" hehe he's a funny one.

Here are some of the graphics I've been making.

I think I like the "100 Jahre Fleurop" one most...and they ended up having to change the top one to putting the food into the centre and deleting the bull, and adding some dancers on the side.

And just for kicks, my cool new bedspread :D

Off to some different work tomorrow! Will write all about it afterwards.

-ln

THE coolest zoo EVER

2008-04-07T04:45:00.002+10:00

Went to the Zoo with Patrick today!!! Well it's not really a zoo, they call it an animal park, and I think the difference is that in a zoo you have more exotic animals like tigers and stuff, whereas in an animal park you have animals that sorta occur in the wild near you...ok that sounds boring but it was TOTALLY COOL. For one thing - YOU CAN TOUCH MOST OF THE ANIMALS. Like the wild horses and buffalo-type things. AND you can feed them too, well if you've bought the animal feed...the animals are not scared of people at ALL, it's so cool to be able to touch them! We went to the wild horses first, they're heaps cute and fluffy and one had a coughing fit while we were there, I got a bit worried. Then the big brown bears were amazing. Unlike animals in zoos that usually just sit around and sleep and don't move, the bears were fully active, moving around their enclosure (one was really into scratching himself, a lot) and they have a little stream running through their enclosure which the other one was playing at. Then there were these ox/buffalo type things with massive horns and a really long fringe that we got to pat as well, it had such a big wet nose. This lady fed him something and got sooo much slobber on her hands haha Patrick gave her a tissue. And then there were these super-cute little animals called Marderhunde which sort of looked like little dogs crossed with foxes and racoons - it was so cute and curious, came right up close to the cage, less than a metre away from us and was staring interestedly at the camera. And of course there were lots of birds, owls and swans, that type thing. And there were these cool lynx cats in action too - one was eating some kind of bird and the other started climbing around, very fun to watch. And they also had these wild cats, which just looked like normal cats but I assume they were feral and it said they lived in the forests...And then there was this goat thing that was kicking the cage door, obviously really didn't wanna be in there...Lots of reindeer type animals, wolves too (although they were just asleep), and WILD BOARS!!!! They were so cute, just snuffling around in the mud, and then there were baby wild boars that followed their mummy everywhere, they were so little and cute!!! And one kept getting left behind so it had to hurry to catch up hehe...Then we saw silver foxes which were cool too, smaller than normal foxes and they have like a black-silver colour. One started yelping at the other one, was cool to actually see animals make noises. And then at the end we saw donkeys, which were cute and fat, and we got to pat those too. And all of this for free! don't have to pay anything to get into the zoo! How cool is THAT.

When we got back to the car Patrick realised he'd left his lights on so the battery was flat, very annoying. So we proceeded to walk home, took us about 20 mins. Then we ate my cupcakes (vanilla with strawberry swirled in) and drank green tea while I showed him photos of my life in Sydney. Then Grandma came to take me and Christoph (host bro) to dinner, very nice of her, I had these awesome German asparagus with ham and potatoes, they're the white kind of asparagus that you can rarely get in Australia, and they're just coming into season. yum yum. And so that was my exciting sunday :D Can't ever just how cool the zoo was....Hopefully I'll go again :D

-ln

THE most awesome day at work

2008-04-03T05:23:00.004+11:00

Today was probably THE most awesome day at work (so far that is...). It started off with me coming in and the head of my department, Herr Nolte, showing me that one of the logos (we call then vignettes) that I made is on the front page of today's paper!!! Ok, it wasn't really THE front page, it was the front page of the 2nd section of the paper...still cool though!

Usually when I get to work, around 10, everyone else is having their mid-morning break and sitting around reading the paper, so for the first half an hour or so I do the same and just bum around. However today Herr Nolte gave me an ad to do straight away, and I made 3 different drafts which took me quite some time and then Herr Nolte was quite pleased with that too, then I had my lunch break and after that I got another job to do, and to finalise the ad that I was doing, but then Julia came in from the Advertising department and said she needed my help making these little folder things for visitors so I was pulled away from my ad-making, and while putting together these folders I talked to Lessie who's really nice, also doing work experience but for a whole year and might even get a job here afterwards. And then I went back to my ad-making, but although I normally clock-off at 4, I got so into making this ad that I stayed until 4:45, which is when everyone else leaves work. Patrick and I went for coffee again, but this time to a cool Tapas-Bar in this Theatre. Talked about family and Lost and visiting Australia. He's also coming to the Zoo with me on the weekend :) It's cool to have a friend. And work was good because for the first time I didn't feel like a newbie, I felt like I was really working, doing work I knew how to do, not scared to ask questions, and confident in what I was making, and it seems that Herr Nolte thinks I'm not too bad at making these things, giving me all these new things to do. And there was no time for me to sit around and be like hmm...this is boring. Yay, looking forward to tomorro :D

-ln

back to normality

2008-04-02T04:13:00.002+11:00

So back to relative normality here in Bielefeld. I'm still in the studio, making various graphic things on the computer. I've been given this activity to do whereby I design this logo for a ficticious company, and then from then on make business cards and letter paper and ads for the company. It's rather cool and fun, but gets a bit boring...So I spent about an hour or so sitting next to Patrick and watching what he does, it was actually really interesting and he explained lots to me.

Been feeling a bit sick, got a sore throat and the occasional runny nose/cough, but hopefully that'll get better. Been overdosing on hot water in an attempt to not cough every 2 seconds.

My host family is so uber-technological I don't know how to cope. We just got a new projector. We also got a new ipod playing machine/speaker thing...its this massive box, about 1 metre by 1 metre...and all it does is play an ipod. Ok it has radio and CD playing too...but still. its MASSIVE. And then we got a new vacuum cleaner, though there was nothing wrong with the old one. and we have surround sound, as in speakers around the room so when a car crashes in the movie, it actually sounds like it crashed next to you....it's all rather intense. I'll take pictures of the gadgets and show you one time :)

Oh and just a shout-out: happy 1 year and 7 months to me and steve :D

-ln

To Duesseldorf, Hamburg and back

2008-03-31T06:30:00.003+11:00

So just a quick update because I have to go to bed coz I have work again tomorrow! The last week has been fun - spent Wednesday in Duesseldorf where the family shopped and I was too poor to, but we had Spanish food for lunch. And then from Thursday til today we went to Hamburg, with me living in my awesome apartment and the family in a hotel but we had meals together and did some shopping together too. Photos will come soon, plus photos of what I bought. The trip made me realise how much I really do like Hamburg and the atmosphere there - if it wasn't for the rain I could move there I swear. And it was nice to be in a bigger city again after the small Bielefeld. Hung out with my gran a bit too, but unfortunately she's almost 90 and weak and got sick while I was there :( Hope she'll be better soon. So for now it's just back to work! I'm also getting really excited about Hurricane - I've done more research about what to bring and stuff and it's gonna be SO FUN. Can't wait. More updating later!

-ln

work and snow

2008-03-26T04:31:00.005+11:00

I got snowed on again...not happy. I walked out of the train station and it was pelting down snow, little round balls, almost like hail, and let me tell you it's not nice getting hit in the face by snow! But no one had an umbrella and I'd feel like a tool carrying around an umbrella when it's snowing...somehow snow doesn't qualify having umbrella-protection. It doesn't really get you wet anyway. It just sort of...sits on you. I guess it does get you a bit wet. But anyway. here are some snow pictures:

My street this morning

Fields near my house, completely covered in snow

So back to work, the head of the Atelier was back today so had a nice long chat to him about lots of things and he explained the whole printing process to me again, then we worked through on of the tennis ads that I made and then he gave me the task of making this vignette, which is like a logo, so I did that (it was a soccer ball with a chef's hat on...hard to explain) and then we worked through that as well. Then I made some business cards for steve...Got offered cake too! Love working there, you can eat and drink right next to the computers and use your mobile whenever you want! Not sure where I'll work next week, probably not in the Atelier again, but maybe, I'm not quite sure. But firstly, off to Duesseldorf tomorrow and then Hamburg!!!

-ln

Easter

2008-03-24T07:41:00.003+11:00

It's the easter weekend! And apparently Germans give out presents during easter...whoever thought up that?! I got a dvd of Japanese/animation versions of fairytales, one of those asian key ring things that you hang on your phone, a block of chocolate and a small basket full of easter eggs. Oh and some more easter eggs. They're all sitting next to me, I have no idea how I'm going to eat them all, considering I'm not THAT big a chocolate fan...maybe I'll take them to work and give them to randoms on the street...

I've been reaping the benefits of living with a family who have over 1000 dvds. I watched 3 movies yesterday - Shrek 3, funny german movie called Erkan and Stefan, and the first Beverly Hills Cop movie. Today I watched two movies, well sort of, one was the new Muse dvd and then I watched Secretary - which totally wasn't what I expected...I mean from the front and back covers from the dvd you think it's about like some seductive secretary - WRONG! You'll have to see it for yourself...

So Easter Sunday today was nice - the grandma came over for lunch and then my host parents and I went for a walk through the forest, so cool. It's been really cold though, snowed all last night and was minus degrees this morning. And even though it was sunny today not all the snow melted away. Mayb it'll snow tonight again...I'm really excited about going to Duesseldorf on Wed! Hope to do some nice shopping, but not TOO much. I ended up getting the dress by the way, and some other random things including lots of socks, on a random shopping tour. Anyway, hope you all had a nice easter :D

-ln

Snow!

2008-03-22T02:19:00.003+11:00

I has a friend!!!

2008-03-21T06:40:00.004+11:00

Today I got up the courage to ask one of my co-workers to coffee after work. It didn't end up being as bad as I thought, the asking bit, because I had all these worries, like that he would take it the wrong way, or say no, or think it was weird because there was some secret code that people didn't hang out with each other out of work...but luckily he wasn't doing anything in the afternoon and he said yes. His name is Patrick and he's 24, and he's a bit geeky...glasses, pale and does graphic design. And very quiet, but very nice too. He was nice to me at work, always asking me if I was alright with what I was doing, telling me that I could always ask him if I needed help. So we ended up goin to the Bernstein cafe on my suggestion, it's this awesome cafe that is practically open all day and until 3am. It's on top of this 5 storey building and gives you cool views over Bielefeld, and it has an awesome atmosphere with cool lights, always filled with people and good music. It's really a cool place to hang out, it has an awesome cocktail list too which I can't wait to try, and most importantly it doesn't close in the afternoon or that kinda thing, you can always get something decent to eat! So we went there for coffee, though we both agreed that we didn't like drinking coffee and hence had tea. And tea drinking last 2 hours! Who does that?! But it was good to talk to him, nice guy and all, and we have a few things in common (we're both only children!) and he's been to the Hurricane Festival which I'll go to in June and told me it's gonna be awesome :D. So I've succeeded in making a friend :D

Also I've learnt not to judge people who didn't do their HSC or Abi as they call it in Germany. There's actually a large percent of people who don't do their Abi and do an apprenticeship (sp?) instead, which they can do in all sorts of things, like Patrick did his in graphic design and so he's been working for a while now. And Benni, the other guy who I work with, didn't do his Abi either! And he's got a pretty good job now, so...why did I bother doing my hsc?! haha

My family likes new age dance music. (that's my host family btw, but too annoying to saying host dad, host mum etc so I'm just gonna say mum, dad etc) I have come to this conclusion after having pretty much constant dance, trance, new age type music in the background at home. It's kinda cool, bit different to the usual 'parents don't like modern music' thing. And having dancey music pumping in the background somehow lifts the mood and gets things goin!

So Happy Easter y'all! Hope you all have a nice long weekend. Don't really know what I'm doing, just chilling friday and saturday I think, and then the grandma is coming on Sunday and we're eating easter eggs. Might do some shopping on Sat if the shops are open...can I get your opinion on this dress? I do quite like it and don't think I'll find the same kind of thing in Sydney, or at least I don't shop that much in Syd...but mayb I should wait till after shopping in Duesseldorf and Hamburg?! Anyway here is a photo.

Anyway, the back is kind of odd because there's a massive hole but that's kind of cool too....aaaanyway HAPPY EASTER once again :D

-ln

snow and ears

2008-03-20T02:34:00.002+11:00

it's snowing outside right now. It looks beautiful, everything is spotted white and the snowflakes are quite big. Half an hour ago it was sunny, my my is the weather strange. It snowed during the day for about 2 minutes too, Patrick who sits sort of opposite me, was looking out the window and I swear 5 minutes before that it was sunny and blue sky, but there they were, big fat snowflakes plummeting down from the sky. I just got home from work so I'm lucky that I'm not any later because I would've been caught out in the snow like yesterday...it was snowing heaps heavily yesterday on the bus ride how and then all the way in my 10 minute walk home, big fat snowflakes everywhere. Luckily I had an umbrella but I still got quite wet. Seems winter is only just arriving now...I wonder how long it'll snow for this time? The snow melts pretty quickly though, and if it doesn't, you know that it must be about 1 degree outside, nothing more.

Went to the jewellers yesterday after work and got 2nd piercings into my ears. Again, it was less bad than I expected. But the lady's daughter came and held my hand which was nice, and it happened so quickly. They're not even though, but I don't think it matters much with 2nd holes, my ears themselves aren't even anyway.

Ah, it's snowing more heavily now. I feel really small and insignificant when I stare out of my window at the snow...And the cool thing about snow is that it's not heavy like rain, doesn't fall down in a straight line, but it kind of swirls and falls in all different directions. I find that very cool :) It looks a bit like fluff, like in North and South in the cotton mills :)

Easter this weekend, not sure what I'll be doing, probably not going to church though. The grandma is coming over and wants to hunt for easter eggs lol so that should be fun. And next week is rather fun filled - Duesseldorf on Wednesday and then Hamburg from Thursday til Sunday :D Can't wait. I should write a list of things I want to buy...and hopefully take lots of photos.

-ln

The COLD, it BURNS

2008-03-18T03:25:00.006+11:00

It's freezing cold today and I fully didn't put on enough clothes coz it was sunny, even though the thermometer did tell me it was only 4 degrees, I was all like...it'll warm up! :D But no, it's freezing cold, and while walking home from the bus stop there was a moment where it started to half snow and half rain and I was in it and I got wet and so now I'm sitting here stuffing myself with chocolate until a better offer arrives. A better offer being dinner or the washing or something...

work again today! my second week. But i'm in a slightly different department, it's really just across the hall, but it's the Atelier or studio, where they sit on Mac computers all day designing stuff. I got introduced to a program called FreeHand, similar to photoshop but you can do a lot more, and in the intro booklet there were all these activities to do to help you learn how to use the program so I just did those all day. Lunch was awkward though...I walked into lunch with this girl who had also worked in the Atelier, but the week before, and she knows everyone already, so she went to sit down on a table with her friends and I followed her, but the table was too full so she moved to a different table and I was there with a big group of randoms...and normally that'd be ok, coz' we'd chat and I'd get to know new people, but I didn't realise that they would ignore me and pretend like I didn't exist or something for the ENTIRE time...not a single person (and there was about 6 people) looked at me, said hi to me or talked to me at all. Very strange, and maybe a bit rude? I mean when someone's new there, you assume they're shy and not very forward so you should make an effort right? But then again, I've realised that German people are rude in general (or at least less friendly that people in Sydney)...last time I tried to talk to a random girl she looked so disinterested and answered my questions with like 1 word. Hmmm so that's a bit hard. I'm also scared to talk to other people now in case they give me the cold shoulder straight away again. Hopefully it'll be better, and if not, it's not too bad eating lunch by myself anyway.

So last weekend was quite fun! Massive dinner party at my house on friday, had to help a lot and was again dead tired by the end...4 course meal for 11 people is a lot! And saturday night my host parents took me to this art show opening of this artist they know, something something Geyer, this man, and it was cool to hang out with artsy people and look at modern art (he paints modern stuff, sort of like pop art but with a lot of animal motifs) and eat cool canapes - my favourite was where they served soup in a beer keg and had a sausage sticking out of the keg lol interesting presentation...I bought a tiny paintin, or rather a print of a painting, and it's dark with purples and blues and has 2 owls on it. I rather like it :) And sunday was totally cool, hanging out with Franzi all day! She took me to her church, interesting to see what church is like here - very formal compared to St Matthias, all the guys were in suits, and also mostly older people. They had a choir which was totally professional though, even though it was only made up of people from the congregation. They were perfectly in tune, sang everything a capella and at least 3 part harmony, and did all their cut offs perfectly! Impressed I was! Then went to Franzi's and met her awesome funny and crazy family, had a late breakfast which was awesome too. She has two dogs, and seeing them really made me miss Max...but she lives in a cool orange house and has an awesome round bed and a cool couch. I wish I had cool furniture! Anyway, and then we went to see Die Welle which is a new German movie based on this true event, but it's based on a book that was written about this event, but setting it in Germany in today's world...very intense movie, scary, horrifying, but very very well made. Hope it comes out in sydney too!

-ln

1 week done

2008-03-16T01:41:00.000+11:00

well i've finished my first week of work quite successfully! Well, what do I do you might ask...I do various things from folding letters to putting things in envelopes, to putting data into computers and designing ads! i catch the bus and train into work, takes me about half an hour and it all goes very smoothly coz all the buses arrive on time! (hmm...sydney buses...) But there's some pretty creepy people on the train sometimes...

On another note...do flowers grow out of the ground in sydney?! like pretty flowers, not silly dandilions or whatever they're called...I always thought flowers grow out of bushes? Please someone enlighten me, because in Germany they grow out of the ground...like pretty purple and white and yellow ones and they just come out of the ground. Looks a little odd.

News from working life:
- I stacked it pretty badly on my 2nd day...I still have an ugly purple bruise on my knee. Benni and I (he's the guy that sits next to me at work) were going around store rooms getting stuff and it was raining outside, and just after the door of one of the rooms the ground sloped down and there was even a mat for you to stand on after walking in, but of course silly me doesn't stand on the mat and goes sliding down the slope screaming and lands on my knees...Benni's like "shh, can't you keep it down??'
- Patrick, who works in the studio next to where I work, brought cake into work! Everyone was so surprised he could bake...he brought Fanta cake (totally yum) and chocolate cake, and brought the left-overs again the next day! I'm goin to work in the studio next week too...hopefully more cake for me :D
-Thursday afternoon Benni and Julia (the two people in my room) got a bit excited after finding a soccer-ball-shaped stressball and started pegging it at each other...poor me who sits in between then, always nearly getting hit!!!

On wednesday I think it was my host mum gave a Japanese cooking course! Photos are on facebook :) It was awesome, but lotsa hard work and I was dead tired by the time we got home at 10:30pm...I also spent an hour the night before folding these origami chopstick holders - fun, but again, tiring...

And tomorrow - off to hang out with Franzi, my only friend in Bielefeld!

-ln

First Day at Work!!!

2008-03-11T04:35:00.004+11:00

Hello kids! It was my first day at work today :) I only have to start at 10 which is rather comfortable. Frau Busse took me to work and made me this cute little lunch wrapped in a tea-towel - it was a sandwich (we call it a Broetchen) and some apple and oreos. I then met Herr Busse in his office (cool office) and he took me down to Print and Picture which is the marketing/advertising company within the Westfalen-Blatt. I have a desk there in a room with 2 other people - Benni who is 23 and very funny, and Julia who is in her late 20s. They're both very nice and fun to work with :) They have a big meeting tomorrow which Julia was preparing for so she couldn't show me how things worked yet, so Benni just gave me odd jobs to do, which included folding letters into envelopes and printing letters and putting more stuff in envelopes and then putting data into computers. The most interesting thing was probably picking out these presents that subscribers to the newspaper get when they renew their subscription...they get awesome presents like watches and coffee machines. And there's this website that has all the various things you can pick out as gifts and I sat there printing off pages of prospective presents, including electrice ice crushers and mini massage machines. I had lunch with Benni and some other young people that work in various other departments...and then quarter to 5 I finished and Herr Busse and I went back home. Can't really complain about the working hours, and 1 hour lunch break is nice.

Tomorrow I get a tour of the entire place which includes various buildings. It'll be good to see everything and take it all in. I'm going to take the bus and tram/train to work from now on too, so just figuring out how to do all of that in a city i don't know!

-ln

PS: If people are wondering why I call then Frau and Herr Busse, it's coz in Germany things are quite formal and you rarely call anyone by their first names. German also has two ways of saying 'you' when addressing a person - there's a formal way 'Sie' which you use for adults and stuff, and then Du which would be for friends, and until the adult says 'let's say 'du' to each other'. Rather complicated...

More Bielefeld

2008-03-10T02:47:00.005+11:00

So I've arrived in Bielefeld to start my first work experience at the regional newspaper Westfalen-Blatt. I'm living with a wonderful family - the wife is Japanese and the husband is German (he is the head of the Westfalen-Blatt) and they have 2 children, a girl who is 20 and studying in Salzburg and isn't here at the moment and a 15 year old boy. I have a quaint little room, photos can be seen in the previous post, and i'm quite enjoying myself here. There's good food and I'm left to do my own things and divide my own time. Mum and I arrived yesterday and were invited to stay for lunch and then driven around to see Bielefeld a bit. We visited the husband (Herr Busse)'s mother, who is an old friend of my gran. She lives in this amazing big barn-house-looking thing with beautiful manicured gardens. Then we toodles over to the Japanese Garden which was created by the German-Japanese Association that Frau Busse is vice-president of. Then we went to a small castle type thing that had views of the city. And then we took mum back to the train station and she left me for Hamburg.

Today I decided to go for a walk around the neighbourhood to check things out. I walked along the main street armed with my camera, here are some photos:

There are forests all around my area, all bare now of course

There's lotsa buds on the bushes everywhere - spring is coming :)

hehe. hehehehe.

It was nice to walk around, it's Easter soon isn't it, and all these people had Easter-bushes out the front of their house...It's where you put easter eggs on a bush or tree, like hang them off, like you would a christmas tree hehe. So Frau wasn't all that wrong about making us decorate a bush for easter in German class! There was also the smell of fire-places and burning wood, which is somewhat comforting and brings to mind an image of warmth. I met our next door neighbour while walking out of our street (it's a very short street) and I introduced myself to him and he's a nice elderly man (told me he's turning 74) and we chatted for a while which was rather cool. I saw his wife doin some gardening on my way back and said hello to her too. I also smiled at randoms while walking which is quite cool too I think, I'm in a completely new place and I want to get to know as many new and interesting people as usual! And we're a fairly small community/suburb here I think, and I'm the new girl from Australia so I don't want to seem rude.

So, I start work at the advertising company that works with the Westfalen-Blatt, called Print and Picture. At the moment just worried about what I'll wear...I also have no idea what I'll be doin there!!!

-ln

Bielefeld

2008-03-09T22:40:00.005+11:00

My Room :D

Hamburg Times

2008-03-07T03:39:00.002+11:00

THERE'S SOMEONE PLAYING PIANO NEXT DOOR TO ME AND IT'S REALLY DISTRACTING...I'm seriously having piano playing withdrawal symptoms. I haven't played in about 3 weeks...and the guy next door is playing Bach!!! sweet, sweet Bach...and on the ground level of our apartment there's another pianist...they're haunting me!

In other news I've noticed all taxis in Hamburg are Mercedes Benz cars....not bad eh? There's also a jewellery store called Christ. That's pretty random I feel.

Went shopping with mum today, the coolest thing I bought was probably a red trenchcoat :D Not to be worn for some months unfortunately...even though it was a better temperature today, although it rained. I still want it to snow though!

-ln

In Hamburg, via Frankfurt

2008-03-03T22:36:00.005+11:00

Hello dear blog readers, sorry I haven't updated in a few days...weeks or something, I forget. so i've made a small list of stuff I'd like to write about, otherwise we'd be here all day.

So i'm in Hamburg now after a nice stay with some family friends for a night in Frankfurt. We haven't seen them in a few years, and their son Benjamin was like my childhood best friend and we were in the same class in HK until they left for Germany. Cool to see old friends again, but a bit strange because we knew each other so well when we were young, and then we both grew up and changed, so I know him, but i don't really know HIM. Very odd...

And just as we thought spring was coming in Germany...it's 3 degrees in Hamburg. THREE. That's like, almost zero! Y'know how cold that is!!! There was a massive storm before we got to Frankfurt, with 100km winds or something, which probably brought on this cold weather...It even snowed in the southern parts of Germany and is supposed to snow here early next week. That's a yay from me - haven't seen snow in WAY too long and I have these cool snow boots with warm stuff that I can wear :D So I hope it does snow. Mum thinks it's insanely cold, I don't mind it that much. I mean, it really is quite cold, it really hits you when you go out. It's like a sharp, icy cold and my cheeks and nose get really cold coz they're the only parts that are not covered hehe

So here in Hamburg we've got an apartment on the top floor of a small 3 storey block. It's in an old german style, very pretty, that's the apartment block not my flat. Although that is pretty too. It's actually the coolest 1 bedroom flat I could imagine and would love to have it for myself one day...hint hint dad. It has a nice kitchen and a nice big bedroom with a balcony that looks out onto the street, then in the hall the floor is cool chessboard black and white, then there's a bathroom and another small toilet with the laundry, then two adjoining living rooms, one of which is a semi-study with a desk and a smaller balcony looking out to the other side of the house. The other interesting feature is that we have way too many TVs for a 1 bedroom apartment and there are stuffed animals...over the front door is the HUGE head of a wildboar with its mouth open (dad thought it'd be funny to put a pipe into the boar's mouth...) and we have a jaguar in the living room, as like a rug but the head is stuffed and it's growling evilly. Here are some pics of the front of the house.

hmm what else interesting has been happening...well seems the german climate gives me rather odd dreams! After being married to Harry and being very confused, I dreamt that it was the end of the world and everything had turned into desert and there were giant insects invading us so we all had to ride on our camels to hide in a church and wait for steve to save us....riiiiiight...

And another cool thing that happened, when I checked the mail today, there just happened to be the 'Gemeindebrief' (which is like...a monthly newsletter i guess) of the local church! It's thie booklet and they talk about their topic they'll be discussing at church, about the programs for they offer for all different age groups and it looks really good! I might toodle along to the St Nikolai church in my area sometime then :)

-ln

Roma

2008-03-01T04:04:00.002+11:00

Hello World! This is me in Rome :)

it's been totally cool so far, the city is great with too many old building for me to marvel at and walking everywhere with mum really has its benefits (not only fitness level wise). We've been here two days or 3 days now, i forget, but we've done SO much it's incredible, seeing museums and all the big important sights, having high tea at the Spanish Steps, buying a Benneton (sp??) top for €12! it's not really sale time here anymore but there are still some odd sales that you can find.

ok, italian men are hot...it's something i promised myself I wouldn't admit when I got here! Because I'm not really a fan of the dark skin, curly dark hair (see Steve for explanation) but then I get here and the first morning at breakfast...HOT ITALIAN WAITER!!! (sorry steve) anyway...apart from Italian men there's also a surprising amount of French people around. Is it french holidays or something?! Every second person is french if they're not italian. There's also a lot of Italian tourists around, from other parts of Italy I assume. There's also many school trips around...instead of there being huge groups of japanese tourists its now huge groups of italian school children. Oddly enough, i've also noticed that in each group there's at least one who has a broken arm or leg in a cast...wonder if that says something about something?! other than italian kids i've also noticed a lot of priests wandering around in priestly attire. ok not like robes and stuff but that lil collar thing with the white tag thing in the middle that they wear. pilgrims? just tourists? not sure...

Finally had pizza today! I know, you must be wondering how I managed to be in Italy for 3 days without having pizza...but I'm very particular with my pizza and it had to be this awesome potato pizza that they only have in Rome :) And finally I found it...but the whole experience was slightly dampened by the fact that the guy didnt heat up the pizza enough and so it was sort of cold pizza in cold weather which ain't too great...but still, yay for potato pizza! If any of you plan on opening an italian restaurant (chu?? you've got the chinese already, italian is naturally the next step....) please please please put potato pizza on the menu!!

staying along the food line...those of you who were on the Latin trip back in the day with me will be dismayed to find out that the availability of nutella crepes has diminished significantly :( i had to go to 5 different gelato places before one had crepes! and remember how there were crepes everywhere near the trevi fountain...well, such is no more :( but the place near piazza navona is still there, which is where I got my crepes today.

Mum and I went on our first tour today...meaning we paid money to sit in a coach and have someone tell us about Rome hehe. Apart from that we've just been walking around on our lonesome and me describing to mum what I remember of Roman monuments and history. We did a tour called Christian Rome which was a half day tour to 2 important churches/basilicas, one which has the relics of some wood which is supposed to be that of Jesus' manger/cradle (that was St Mary Major church) and the other church (St Johns) which was the first church ever built in like the 4th century AD by Constantine, but it's been rebuilt like 4 times over the years. We also went to the Domitilla Catacombs on the Old Appian Way, which were like Christian cemetries underground but the Domitally one has thousands of graves and a basilica which makes it the biggest. On the tour there were only 4 of us English speaking people, Mum and I and this other mother/daughter couple from Texas in the US. They were such texans...being like "how long y'all here for?" and "so y'all likin' it here?" hehe but they were very nice, the mother was elderly and her daughter didn't say much...but having only four of us made it very intimate and we got to hear a lot about the history of the churches and stuff, and then in the catacombs we had this cute german tour guide called Michael who was studying archaeology and I assume does the tours as a part time job thing but he was really nice and explained stuff in a nice manner...

anyway my time is almost up at this net cafe because i'm really stingy so ciao for now!

-ln

at the airport

2008-02-27T02:15:00.002+11:00

yay for free wireless internet provided by Cathay Pacific! Actually there are many providers of free internet around here...slow, but free internet, so I can't complain. Waiting for the flight to start boarding in like half an hour.

A random note I'd forgotten to talk about was how my uncle uses chopsticks with his left hand (odd enough) but then when I thought he was left handed he tells me he's not...but he uses scissors with his left hand TOO. how odd and amusing. we had lunch with him and my gran today, and I went up and saw his office afterwards, he's a managing director of some company that deals with finance...all of that kinda stuff is beyond me anyway!

anyway one cool thing, and this is for you Nan if you're reading! amongst all the huge neon signs on top of high rise buildings in the city of HK, yknow those that advertise Kodak and Manulife and all that sort of thing, there's a big one that has a cross and says in chinese 'Jesus is Lord'. Pretty cool eh, Nan? ;)

-ln

last day in HK

2008-02-26T19:46:00.004+11:00

It's my last day in Hong Kong - I'm getting on a Cathay Pacific flight just after midnight tonight off to Roma! Woohoo, am really looking forward to the pizza, the Nutella crepes and old ruins (yay for ancient history!)

But since it's my last day in the Kong I'll post some excerpts from the amusingly written HK Magazine that I promised a few posts ago. Not sure how much you'll understand, it might be like asian-people-type-in-jokes but we'll give it a go. Firstly it's just been Chinese New Year and we're in the year of the Rat now so they wrote up some predictions on various facets of life:

"Health: My advice is: Don't eat any animal that appears in the zodiac, particularly flu-carrying chickens, pricey pork, mad ox, endangered snakes, tiger penis (for obvious reasons) and anything that claims to be a dragon. Also avoid mercury-tainted fish and pesticide-laced vegetables. In fact, subsit on tinned pulses until 2398, when, according to my almanac, the human race will no longer have need for food."

"Fast Facts: Holiday Hell

Another Lunar New Year holiday has come and gone. How did we waste last week's long weekend?

- Trawling internet forums for scandalous celebrity photos

- Filling lai see packets with poop

- Prostituting self to pay for demanding girlfriend's Valentine bouquet

- Poking bruises in supermarket's organic fruit

- Round after round of Minesweeper"

There was also an article about pet massages in HK...apparently they're quite popular. A pet masseuse (sp?) was interviewed, here's what she has to say about the massaging process: "The whole procedure lasts about 15 minutes (so short?! poor dogs...). We apply different types of essential oils, according to the dogs' needs. Mostle we use two types - lavender for relaxation and tea tree for treating skin diseases. The massage sequence itself is pretty similar to that of a person's. The only difference is we start at the sides of the nose, and also rub the ears and tail." Odd...very odd...

I went back to my old school yesterday! German Swiss International School (GSIS) where I was at from Kindy (they have 2 years kindy) til year 4 or something. Only 5 people left in their year...3 of which were from my old class. Moritz came and picked me up in a cool dark red BMW (his mum's...) and off we went to sit in Chemistry and German class! In neither class did they learn anything, it was all just bitching about their abi exams that they just did (sort of like HSC) and then chit chatting to the teacher. I'm pretty amazed they can swear in class and the teacher does too, like not really bad swearing and some swear words are less offensive and aggressive in german. But still...They have cool chem labs tho. They had double German but Moritz and I got bored so we drove up to the Peak and paid heaps of money for like 2 minutes of parking to walk around and find cigarettes...Then we went back for their lunch break. I was so bored in German that I had made a little paper crane and left it on the table, and when Koni saw me at lunch he was like TEACH ME! So we sat there making paper cranes (harder for him with his big hands) together, all rather amusing. Mich just told me that they spent all of today at school making paper cranes and other origami things....lol! oh what a great influence I have been!

After school Mum, my aunty and I went for AWESOME high tea at the Mandarin Hotel, Landmark. (seriously, who calls a suburb Landmark??!) It was sooooo good...Hong Kongers get really creative with their high tea...here are some photos!

It was all so totally yummy!!! and very nicely presented :D

Anyway, see y'all in Italy!

-ln

hong kong experiences

2008-02-24T22:24:00.003+11:00

welcome to my 281st post! (sorry that just came out randomly...)

there's some things that you only really see in HK...

- in the movies (I went to see Jumper with my friend Mich today), after the ad that says "please turn off your mobiles" there's an ad that says "please keep quiet during the movie"...seriously, do people need to be reminded of that?! but it's totally true, because Hong Kongers don't know how to keep quiet...rustling their chip packets shamelessly, not switching their mobiles off, and, in my worst experience, actually picking up their phone and having a full on conversation in the middle of a movie! not in a hushed voice! with laughing and all! lol

- Asian rockers/boy-band-types playing Avril Lavigne in a shopping mall...for public entertainment I guess? Not just that, singing avril and 'Knockin' on heaven's door' with an asian accent! They were such funny try-hards too, all with punky hair and sunnies on...here's a picture:

that was all rather amusing...

-i saw the MOST blinged up camera ever...seriously it had like all different coloured (but predominantly pink) crystals stuck all over it, seriously in every single bit of camera that wasnt like a button or the lens...
- there are shop windows on levels of buildings that are above ground, like level 2 and 3 and 4 still have shop windows that you can look at from the street and there's one advertising a store named the 'sexual wellbeing store'...good disguise for a porn store maybe?!

I also went to church today! I went to the Methodist International Church HK and it was rather cool to see a different style church...quite a few europeans were there too. I think the methodist church is fairly evangelical, but the teaching was less in depth. The pastor had a lot of anecdotes and funny stories but not much sort of...bible analysis i guess you could call it. They had a choir which was cool, just very casual and it was inspiring to see just a group of random people, europeans, chinese, philipino getting up there and singing praises to God and looking so happy while doing it! They also asked if there were any visitors or newcomers and mum and I got up and said we're from Sydney and got handed this cool 'welcome pack' hehe with a free pen! So yeah, quite a welcoming church but a bit different to Sydney in that people don't socialise that much, it's sort of go to church, talk to God, go home sort of thing...I mean they do know each other but most people lead fairly rushed lives and like to get on with things and go home...but anyway, it was quite a coincidence we found this church, mum and i wanted to go to A church this sunday and just decided to leave and rock up at any church at any time, even if we were late, and coincidentally (or rather, God had it planned?) we arrived at 11:10 and the service started at 11:15! odd time for a service to start anyway.

-ln

night out at Lang Kwai Fong

2008-02-23T17:54:00.005+11:00

Lang Kwai Fong is a road in Central, Hong Kong basically filled with thousands of bars, pubs and clubs. The general area around it is also filled with bars and clubs, which are usually so full of people that they spill out onto the street! It's also the place where you actually see lots of europeans...where do they all hide by day?!

I met up with some of my old school friends for a night of partying. There's only 5 of them left in the class now - Andrea ('Frey'), Michelle, Julia, Annabelle and Konrad ('Koni'). Julia and Koni are 'new', as in they came to GSIS after I left. They'd just finished they're abi (leaving school certificate thing) exams and so it was a good time to party...but Mich was sick and Julia didn't show. But to make up for that another old friend Moritz came along, he's been at boarding school for the past few years in Switzerland. So Frey, Moritz, Koni, Annabelle and I went to this Russian bar called Balalaika. A whole bottle of Absolut Vodka was ordered for the table, plus some Red Bull and orange juice to lighten things up :) They had these maaasive shot glasses so drinking a shot was really something.

By the time we finished at Balalaika we pretty much all couldn't walk in a straight line...we waited til some of Moritz's friends came and then moved on, doing a bit of bar hopping which included a gay bar called Volume...Koni was sooo uncomfortable there, couldn't handle having so many gay men around! Poor chap, so I gave him a hug and he's like "that's perfect, makes me look less gay". Some random gay guys introduced themselves to us, there was a guy called Peter and a guy called Victor...but we left pretty quickly. Then proceeded to the Africa Bar but for some reason we decided to leave again and went to this club that no one had ever been to. At this point i discovered that Koni had done ballroom dancing for many years in Germany! Me: "OMG DISCO-FOX!!!!!" It was pretty exciting...and although he's 6"4 and I'm 5"1 things sort of worked out and the disco-fox was attempted while other were off going to the bathroom (which, coincidentally, was done alot...we went to the bathroom a LOT). Then things got boring and it was back to the Africa Bar, where Latino music was playing. Koni and I got down and did some cha cha cha-ing, it went pretty smoothly once I got the steps right, we even incorporated some twirls!

By 2am it was time for me to go home, so I shared a cab with Koni...got home to find mum with food poisoning though :( bad timing...I wasn't in the best shape either. so today is just a day of chilling. Pretty awesome to meet up with old friends and Koni and I got along and talked lots, nice guy. Moritz and I are planning to visit school on monday, so that'll be heaps of fun :D

-ln

hong kong=shopping+food

2008-02-22T13:35:00.008+11:00

It's my 3rd or 4th day here, I forget. All I've pretty much done is shop and eat...sounds mundane and yes, it gets a bit boring but it's really time consuming. How mum and I manage to leave the house at 11am and only arrive back at 10pm is really quite amazing. And mum's been fretting and panicking about buying me a goose feather down jacket and we cant find the right shape and size and colour coz everything's sold out! It's been epically cold in HK in the last weeks and so everything is gone and most shops have started selling spring stock and so a jacket is no where to be found. Mum lost sleep over this issue....:P I did manage to get some awesome warm snow-type boots though.

Anyway last night's dinner is worth posting about! Mum, my aunty and uncle and cousin Joanne and I went to Teppanyaki dinner last night - SO AWESOME. For those who don't know, teppanyaki is a japanese style of cooking where they cook all the food on a big hot plate in front of you. I took some photos to illustrate :)

there's the hot plate and everyone gets their own smaller plate and collection of sauces

the abalone (SO GOOD), firstly sitting on the hot plate (I think it was still alive...) and then all cut up in the final product, ready to eat

COOLEST MEAL TO WATCH BEING COOKED!!! They had those two silver dish things made of aluminium foil and they put japanese sake wine in it and let it boil for a while, and then they put these clams inside and set the whole thing on fire! It looked awesome...but i'm not a big fan of clams and the taste wasn't great.

they also make this really awesome thinly sliced beef that they roll up with some veggies inside and the fried rice is pretty cool :)

I ate waaaay too much last night...but I also went to the gym yesterday morning so I guess it all evens out and hopefully i'll put on weight. Mum and I also had some really REALLY cheap (it ended up being like $20 for both of us) noodles for lunch, this HUGE bowl that we couldn't finish and some other dishes.

Tonight i'll be meeting up with some old school friends and hopefully partying it up in LKF (Lang Kwar Fong)! More pictures will probably be on facebook.

-ln

hong kong times

2008-02-21T01:01:00.003+11:00

not much time left online coz I need to go to bed. Getting the net is more difficult than previously thought...in past years I've managed to scab wireless off adjacent apartments but this year people seem to have updated their security and locked their wireless thingos. So i have to go down to the lobby of the hotel that is part of the complex I live in called Parkview, which is a pain coz it's like...a 5 minute walk and 2 lifts and up a flight of stairs. but just a quick update:

-i've visited innumberable mountaineering shops today in search of a jacket and boots/shoes suitable for the winter climate in europe! the search has proved unsuccessful as yet, even though it ended at 10pm tonight :(
-cutest ikea-type shop here! it's called Muji and has everything you could possibly ever want at cheap prices. i bought a pair of house shoes that i'm very excited about wearing :)
-for those of you who have heard of the brand Agnes B, well they have an Agnes B cafe here...it serves french food, and very good french food at that. I had the best duck leg confit i have ever had...it was so good I nearly cried. tears were welled up in my eyes. mum's salmon was nice too.
-i am now an adult Hong Konger as I have updated my HK ID card. it took hours, why do there have to be soooo many people at the immigration office?! mum and i got so bored waiting for number 628 to appear on the board that we went down and had some starbucks, where I picked up a free magazine called Hong Kong Magazine which is totally awesome, will post some exerpts another time. It made me laugh!
-best shopping bargain as yet: black knee high flat boots for under $20!!!

-ln

last day!

2008-02-18T12:11:00.002+11:00

last day in sydney! well if you wanna be technical my last day is tomoro, but i'm only in sydney for a few hours before i fly off at 11am!

this week has been hectic...everyone wants to see me and although, yes, i feel special, i do enjoy a bit of alone time at home doing nothing. but it's nice to see everyone, tiring but nice. Had breakfast with Vez today, really nice to see her again before I left and bumped into some other Kambala girls (that's what happens when you hang around Rose Bay!). Now finally I'm sitting down and organising my life.

So this is my last post from sydney! and the start of my travel blog....

-ln

another fun day boating on chu's boat

2008-02-15T20:12:00.003+11:00

these days have been REALLY intense. I guess that just comes with leaving the country for a long period of time - everyone wants a piece of you before you go! I've been meeting people for breakfast, lunch and dinner practically, and although it's tiring and everything it's actually very fun to hang out with everyone.

Valentine's was also rather nice and fun. I think steve's mentality about it being just another day and a bit of a waste of money has sunk into my brain because I was really happy not getting anything special, but just spending the day together and having fun like we always do. He ended up giving me chocolates, nice ferrero rochers, presented in a cute manner lol - i went to his house and he put the box of chocolates on the floor and opened the door and left, so when i walked in there was this box sitting in front of me. We went into the city and bought each other little going away (even though he isn't the one leaving)/valentine's presents. He got a small silver cross on a black necklace, and I got a ring from the antique shop (well really I got 2 rings, but it was 2 for the price of one type thing). Then went to my house, had dinner, watched Lost (great episode) and that was valentines day for another year done!

Today was another day of boating on the harbour! It was a boys day out, but I came along as the token female who'd bring the food and see they didn't get into fist fights...It was a lot of fun, mooring for lunch and then driving around the harbour with giant waves, Gareth getting completely wet...and steve driving the boat and having no idea what he's doing haha and good work to Chu for docking at my jetty! The boys then went off and continued their day while I met up with my old youth group leader, Hayley aka Nan. Twas so awesome talking to her, sharing things - I'll really miss you nan!!!

3 days to go...and still so much packing :(

-ln

switch

2008-02-12T22:23:00.000+11:00

went to my first switch tonight! It was actually the 2nd switch, the first proper one because last week was just a dinner but I was up at Avoca and couldn't go. I was a bit nervous at first, sort of felt like I was going to youth group for the first time again and meeting new people, except I already knew most of the people there...it ended up being a really great night. they started off by having wii tennis, singstar and this awesome dancing game up and running in the rooms which were SO much fun. watching the people doing the dancing game was heaps funny, and then versing Selo in SingStar and beating him....woot! I was a hopeful while he was still wannabe hehe. didn't get to play Wii unfortunately but maybe another time...

i'm in an awesome group which is really nice. wasn't sure if they were gonna put steve and i together because they usually separate couples but we're together which actually turned out to be good. the bible study was awesome, i felt like i was really wrestling with the bible and there's SO much interesting stuff to talk about in Genesis! and we only did just over 1 chapter! it was excellent, like discussion almost each word, asking questions, challenging the Bible...and then praying to God and thanking him for being such an awesome God! It's sad that I'll be leaving and not be able to join in that group....but they'll still be there when i come back!

-ln

morning, evening, whatever

2008-02-09T21:06:00.000+11:00

it's been a tough several days. and last night was intense.

the idea originally was to go to purple sneakers. we met at hannah's house as per usual, and actually got out of the house in time to catch a bus! congrats to all of us. there was a shopping trolley on the way down the hill that i got into and harry steered me down the hill, twas quite the fun thing with speed bumps and 360s on the way down. and then we get to purple sneakers...the line is HUGE. like 50m at least. going around the corner...lines that go around the corner are always intense. we stood in it for like half an hour, until some lady told us they'd reached their maximum capacity and we'd have to wait an hour or more to get in...later on, at the end of the night, we met some guys who were in the line just behind us and they said they waited around 2 hours to get in. So, in a way i'm glad i didn't do that.

so hannah's sister laura was hanging out with her boyfriend jason and another friend at the shangri-la hotel bar, so we just went there as jason said he'd take care of us...he bought us these amazingly good (and expensive) cocktails, he's very generous. the view was amazing from the bar, so beautiful over the harbour and bridge and opera house...but it was a bit awkward as we were so underdressed, everyone else being in suits and nice dresses. We walked to the Lowenbrau after wards and discovered the UberBar, the upstairs bit of the bar. Awesome place! Cool music, except the DJ says really odd, inappropriate and random things in the middle of songs lol. We danced a lot there...and Harry sculled 0.5L of beer. Stupid 0.5L kegs that they get - and harry had 3.

At around 2am we decided it was time to try purple sneakers again, so everyone cabbed back there with the slight mishap Harry had beer kegs and security guards...Hannah and Georgie arrived first at Sneakers so they went in without us, but then the security guards wouldn't let us in coz Anapatt and Harry were too drunk...which was quite annoying. We ended up walking up the road in the cold and rain to the pub and playing the pokies (how classy are we).

The night ended at maccas for some much needed food and resusitation...all up arriving at Georgie's at 4am. Thanks george for letting me sleep over, and her mum made me nice breakfast. Her dog sami is also awesome, him and his poor cast!

-ln

a day on the harbour in chu's boat

2008-02-01T13:11:00.000+11:00

yesterday was probably one of the nicest days of the holidays. even though it started with a bit of a fiasco...

steve and phil arrived too early at my house. there was this complicated plan where hannah had to be in bondi junction by 5, which was a bit impossible so we planned to drop her off at double bay wharf. she was supposed to park her car near the wharf somewhere so it'd be easy. so off she was finding a parking spot, which was really really difficult and so my car met hers driving around double bay. we drove around for AGES trying to look for a park, and then we lost her car, and then steve and phil saw Lote Tuqiri walking into a baby shop in double bay so they had to hop out of the car and go find him....so i drove around finding han, picked her up and then we went to pick up steve and phil, who were highly unsuccessful in meeting lote...phil had refused to go into the shop because it was a baby shop and steve described his encounter as 'clearly seeing the side of lote's face' as he pretended to buy a rubber duck in the shop...anyway so finally everyone was in the car. then we went to bellevue hill for some shopping, with steve and phil wearing ridiculous visors they found in the car...han and i made sure we walked 5 metres ahead at all times in order not to be seen with those losers lol

so finally got on our way to chu's house. got there in record time. chu's dad is so nice and funny, gave us this lecture on safety on the boat with dramatic sounds and hand gestures hehe. we drove out on to the harbour with chu doing donuts at high speeds, then went by my house and waved at mum, and then went to darling harbour. steve had his shot at looking uber-rich by standing out on the front deck looking around as if he owned the place...cruised around a bit more and dropped han off at double bay and went back to chu's area. went for a swim there, had fun times following the hot and cold currents lol then just chilling and listening to music...steve also decided to steal my hat, thinks it looks really good on him 'new style'. it's pretty good i think, i'd go out with a guy in that hat.

the boat is pretty awesome. you can sleep like 4 people there, with odd beds tucked away in odd places. we have to do that again sometime and have proper food and stuff, that'd be nice, and it was really nice of chu to let us come over and stuff. it was his little brother ashley's birthday, he turned 5, he's so cute...

it's amazing how exhausting boat trips can be! just being out in the wind and sun...was a good day for it though, not too much sun etc :)

-ln

Zoo with the Driscolls

2008-01-30T20:08:00.000+11:00

Tagged along with steve's family to Taronga Zoo today. I've been wanting to go there for AGES with steve and we finally did which was heaps fun. His grandma, dad, uncle and cousin also came along so I got to meet them all, which was rather nice. I love ferries, taking the ferry there was awesome. At the zoo it was quite hot...there's shade but everything is still so HOT. no wonder all the animals didn't actually move...here are some photos anyway:

Steve and I on the ferry

Steve + Giraffe, family resemblance?

THE PIGMY HIPPO!!!! the cutest fat animal ever. It was soooo cute to just watch it in the water, wandering around, doing its thing.

The highlight was probably the elephants...there was a huge mud puddle next to the fence we were standing at. The elephant decided to turn its back on us and proceed to spraying itself with mud...unfortunately the mud went over its back into the audience, aka me. I got sprayed with mud! Got it on my arm and top and nose...steve thought it was hilarious, laughing his head off. I think he secretly even pushed me forwards when the elephant began spraying, because although he was standing right next to me he didn't get any mud...hmmm..

-ln

it's a beautiful day

2008-01-27T14:49:00.000+11:00

this is my 3rd (or 4th, if you count the day i got my wisdoms out) day of confinement. of course this is voluntary confinement, i just can't face the world in an inflated face. added to that i now have green-ish bruises on either side. very attractive. i don't get how the bruises completely skipped the bluey-purple stage and just went green and yellow :S

it's such a lovely day. i can't help thinking that i should be out on the water or something. kayaking with harry! that was fun. or on chuy's boat. hopefully all of that will be happening this week sometime. steve's family from tasmania are coming over and i think i'm going to meet them. we're all going to luna park on friday, i've never been before. luckily steve doesn't like rides either so maybe we'll just hang out and eat fairy floss.

with the help of han i've compiled a list of great films that i'm going to be watching to fill my days. i watched american beauty yesterday, parts of which i'd seen on the plane. it was good i guess, but i think i have to be american to understand it fully...but i did learn that there is beauty in many, many things in this world and one needs to step back and just look for it, coz it's right there for you to see. then i watched fight club today. wow! i am in awe. it's quite the good movie. some of the violence was a bit cringe-worthy but that's ok, the ending was all worth it. yay for the pixies and 'where is my mind?'! and a great psychological movie kind of thing, that's the sort of stuff i'm interested in. i recommend it to anyone.

-ln

welcome to my 270th post

2008-01-26T21:05:00.000+11:00

i can't believe how much i actually wrote in the past...man, was i dedicated!

happy australia day for those who celebrate. I don't. Do other countries make that big a deal out of 'their' days? There was all this commotion on the harbour with that firetruck-boat spraying water everywhere and a warship parked outside my house and a cruise ship as well...and then all those noisy planes flying everywhere and lots of random snippets of music coming from people's boats. I think there's fireworks tonight, I am yet to see.

My 3rd day without wisdom today. It's healing pretty nicely, but looking into my mouth and seeing the stitches still freaks me out a bit. it's not bleeding though. I still can't close my mouth properly, hence being unable to chew and so it was another day of eating mush...yum. congee and I are best friends. My face was less swollen than yesterday...steve was nice yesterday and came over even though i looked ugly. i think it really means something when a guy doesn't mind looking at you when you haven't brushed your teeth in 2 days and have a fat face. we watched the tennis and he ate lots of our food hehe poor federer lost...but oh well, he'll get over it i'm sure. and as steve and i agreed, novak is hot so it's ok!

i can't wait to deflate my face so i can go out and see the world again. having spent 2 days indoors really isn't nice, i can feel myself becoming addicted to any form of communication to the outside world, ie the internet, my phone....even TV falsely deceives me into thinking i'm somehow connected with people outside my house.

chuy gets back tomorrow which he isn't too excited about but which i am a bit, because it means we'll go boating sometime. unless the weather's crap, which it is supposed to be for the next week or something...

-ln

a new start

2008-01-12T12:18:00.000+11:00

well well, here I am writing my blog again. I think I should start it up again with me going on my Gap Year soon and then you guys can see what I'm doing etc. I'm leaving on Feb 19 so after that, you'll hopefully be getting regular updates of what I'm doing :)

-ln

decisions

2007-10-02T22:06:00.000+10:00

i've decided that i'm going to temporarily shut down this blog. basically because it hasn't been used for ages and ages and i do very rarely get the time to update. stuff builds up and then the more i think about updating the more things i have to say, which will in turn take more time and etc etc and so, i will not update anymore until post-post-hsc. i'm thinking when i get to germany next year i'll update for all you people at home, but apart from that i don't think i'll write much more here. maybe after the muse concert, the killers concert and elton john because i'm sure they'll be memorable. but just for now, no more updates. sorry! but i just wanted to tell you this so that there wont be this lil voice in the back of my head saying 'update! u havent done so in ages! update!'.

xLN

99 cupcakes...

2007-08-29T21:34:00.000+10:00

...alright, the title was a vain attempt to imitate the song '99 red balloons' or whatever it's called. in reality, i have a book called 500 cupcakes, kindly given to me (amongst other things) by my friends for my birthday. it's hot pink, but that's the least of my worries. i'm planning on making cupcakes (again) this weekend. this time i dont just want to do my usual choc-chip or marble cake or vanilla or whatever, even though i know people like them, but i want to try something from my cupcakes book. as usual i can't choose, theres just so many i'd like to make. here are some options:

- gingerbread cupcakes (these involve a bit more effort)
- raspberry and coconut cupcakes (these take effort too)
- classic chocolate buttercream cupcakes
- apple sauce and cinnamon cupcakes (again, effort. maybe a bit less)
- banana cupcakes
- lavender and honey cupcakes (lotsa effort)

comments?

-ln

PS: i hate macs some more. i just realised that as well as losing my composition on my nerdstick i actually lost my entire composition portfolio. hmm. and a few essays, but who cares about english. *laments about her portfolio*

i hate macs.

2007-08-15T18:35:00.000+10:00

today i lost my usb and hence, my composition. i blame it all on macs.

first of all, i had music last period yesterday and accidentally left my usb sticking in the keyboard, because on macs, oddly enough, you have a usb port on the keyboard. so it's the music centre, where no one ever steals stuff or anything, so it's ok to leave the usb there overnight. OR IS IT?!?! so i go to music again period 2 today and IT'S GONE. so i fully start to freak out, asking everyone in the music centre if they've seen it until it sinks in that is it gone. with all my essays (but thats ok, its just english) and...my finished composition. but it's not all that bad because the last thing i did yesterday before forgetting my usb was print out my composition. so it's all there, just in paper...which meant that i had to start putting it into sibelius (the music notation program) all over again. which takes AGES btw. imagine your 4 Unit english major work, printed out, and u had to re-type it. you wouldn't be happy. and it's so tedious because it's not just notes, its articulation, tempo markings, dynamics etc for 5 different parts. so there i was working away, when suddenly something happened to do with loud sounds and the computer froze. i hadn't saved too long ago so i thought i'd be fine to just force-quit and re-start the computer. which i did, and then yay for all, sibelius recovered what i had been working on. and so i saved like every 5 seconds. but then when i went back a few hours later, to re-open what i had saved, IT WASNT THERE. all the changes i'd made after force quitting were GONE. and i'd just notated the most difficult to notate bit because every part was different. i got SO angry, you wouldn't believe. i thought i was going to explode. and it's ALL the STUPID MAC'S fault. WHY DID IT SAVE?! WHY DIDN'T IT SAVE IN THE RIGHT SPOT?!??! PC's would NEVER do such a thing. gah. so here i am, at home, re-typing my composition. and i'm still annoyed.

-ln

there's something to be said

2007-07-29T19:47:00.000+10:00

there's something to be said about fur coats and other things that involve real animal fur. sure, it's bad to kill an animal for its fur - i'm totally on the anti-fur thing on that. but then come to think of it, fur can be quite nice and useful. my dad obviously isn't about animal rights, considering our ownership of stuffed animals and my grandma has several fur coats. at home on the couch we have this blanket thing that has fur on one side. i was having my power nap there and pulled that over me, and man was it warm. seriously, there's something to say about the warmth of fur. it heated up 10x quicker than my doona ever would. its MADE for warmth. and then there's my gloves with rabbit fur on the inside. no, i didn't buy them and come to think of it i haven't bought anything for myself that has fur on it. the gloves were given to me, and they're hearty warm i tell ye! and i'm sure a fur coat could be equally as nice. but if you think about it, its sort of like leather. people are going to kill the cow to eat it anyway, so you might as well use the leather and not waste it. people eat rabbits too. but people don't eat polar bears. or baby seals...

-ln

and in the meantime...

2007-07-27T17:48:00.000+10:00

a short summary on my life:
* i've been meaning to post, really, i have, trust me. but i have limited time on a computer with the internet (my laptop has no net) and hence that little time is spent talking to people and reading emails, perhaps even replying to them.
* i've turned 18! so i'm an adult, and my first drink was the saturday after my birthday and it was an orange champagne at the opera house during the interval of a concert i went to :)
* trials start next week and i have 6 exams in 5 days :( the only upside is that i only have maths after that, giving me a week's worth of holidays where i'm going to noosa for 2 days :)

see u all after the ordeal.

-ln

SPQR

2007-07-13T12:59:00.000+10:00

a most amusing night was had last night. originally it was hannah, luce, mik and i going to dinner with tom, but then he brought his girlfriend amanda so i thought it'd be amusing to bring steve and then steve wanted to bring danny so it ended up being a dinner for 7 as lucy didn't come. steve and danny came to my house first and we drove over to surry hills in my car. parking was shocking as expected but there was an awkward moment when i pulled over in an attempt to park and this car pulled up next to me and i didn't recognise it was tom, all i saw was amanda staring back at me and i've never seen her before! so i made this really shocked face and drove away. i didn't realise it was tom until the car started following me and parked next to me...

it was also rather embarrassing when we walked waaay past the restaurant lol but anyway. here are some funny moments of the night.
danny went to the bathroom which was next to the kitchen and we heard this loud crash of pots and pans. then danny comes back, looks around and goes, 'yep, got him'. we laughed for ages.

someone said something to which steve replied "yes but i have glasses". it was a totally unrelated comment and there was silence for about 2 seconds at the table before everyone just cracked up laughing.

a spilling of water prompted steve to start screaming....for no reason really! everyone hence started laughing and mik and han were reminiscing how quiet he was when they first met him...

we went to mik's house after to play this awesome french game called jungle speed. its too complicated to explain it on here, but as danny said its a combination of snap and uno. basically you need to grab this totem which sits in the middle of the table and well, sometimes things get violent...han was sitting next to steve and she grabbed the totem and just WHACKED him in the head with it. it was the funniest thing ever and ever was laughing for ages until they realised steve had this cut on his had and it was swelling up....hehe

when we were saying goodbyes outside mik's house this woman walked past and danny goes up to her and goes in for a hug and says 'yea was nice to meet you' until he suddenly realised she wasn't part of our group. it was sooo funny, he was like 'oh..um...right...she's not with us is she....' ah =)

edit: with the help of mik i have more amusing moments:
- danny's 3D loser sign, prompted after steve talked about calculus in 8D
- "what's the time?" "8." Steve: "P.M.!"

that day was so much fun. went shopping with mum before and bought a cute purple dress from review at myer. (han: go review!) and also got a hair straightener and some underwear. always yay for underwear! i have a theory that a day can go from bad to good by just wearing comfortable underwear! thoughts anyone?

-ln

kat & pete's wedding

2007-07-07T20:58:00.000+10:00

my lips keep being dry, not matter how much pawpaw i put on. it's rather annoying.

trecked out to seaforth with nikk today for pete and kat's wedding. it was a most beautiful affair. we got there quite early so we went for coffee and all these st matthias people were having coffee there too! caitlin came along and joined us too, drinking most of nikk's skim mocca. the church was very nicely decorated and quite full already so we went and sat upstairs and ended up getting a pretty good view anyway. it was cute to see pete and the boys standing around on stage in their suits. mike was the best man, he looked slightly awkward but nice and there were 3 groomsmen. the bridesmaids had beautiful dresses and amy looked really nice. kat walked down the aisle to the luckiest by ben folds!!! that was very exciting. and she was crying, it was so sweet. it was a really nice service, really showing what true love and devotion looks like. mr heath, the principle at st andrews, gave the address and the musos did amazing grace which was just beautiful. was cool to see rachel and jo from study camp there, doing their thing =) we hung around a little afterwards for morning tea but i guess it was a bit awkward as we weren't exactly invited but we came to support them. weddings do make you wanna get married dont they...and they had beautiful flowers.

so lots has happened and i don't really have the energy to write about much. there was study camp where i got sick afterwards, i'm still kind of sick i guess. steve came over last night to watch notting hill, its such a great movie. perfect mix of funny and romantic...we had thai.

-ln

much has happened

2007-06-21T13:55:00.000+10:00

[post to come]

[remind me if i forget]

we were robbed

2007-06-17T14:55:00.000+10:00

soccer got cancelled yesterday due to the weather. it was completely and utterly unfair, considering hockey went on. and so i am utterly devastated and sad and have spent the weekend being emo and not going out. so we're 'joint winners'. but still, we should've fought for the title. we would've won with our team spirit and crappy goal shooting. we were robber, i tell you. completely robbed.

-ln