Here I come Zinabun!

Wazuuuuuuuuuup?? Wow, don’t know were that came from. Its me, your loyal US, fluey, really hot (as in temperature), kinda tired correspondent. Now before you say, “tired…didn’t you go to bed early last night?” I will answer you with a yes, I did, I went to BED at 9 but didn’t fall asleep till 4!! It was horrible, I lay in bed hot and annoyed trying every trick in the book, but nothing worked, running out of saliva to swallow at around midnight I lay there looking at the ceiling thinking longingly of my zinabun waiting for me for breakfast watching the minutes tick by.

Finally morning arrived, and feeling incredibly lousy I slowly made my way downstairs for breakfast…agghhh, first good thing of the day, enjoying the quite (everyone had gone to bed at 5am) I ate my steaming cinnamon covered spiral of doughy bread sipping my fresh OJ and chewing on dried fruit (honey dates are so good fyi) whilst watching Jurassic park three.

After breakfast it was back up to the room to finish my readings from the book then take the ones I had printed yesterday to cha to highlight over a hot tea. I chose honey green milk tea with pearls after spending the first 10 minutes lying inside waiting for them to finish opening up. The tea was really soothing and came with the cutest spoon I’ve ever seen (look bellow). Spending an hour or so reading (and finding out we had to turn out clocks back an hour) I made my way through the uni centre for some yoghurt, warm taster bread and a squiz in the chemist to see if they had flu medicine.

Walking over the bridge to find the bookstore closed, I headed to Albertson’s for some cardboard and an energy drink (cardboard was on sale, only 50cents, Bargain!). Oh yeah I forgot to mention, Albertson’s has this cool system were you can check out your own items, scan them and everything its so fun!

Back in the dorm I had a light lunch, as I felt a little queasy and buckled down to my art assignment, after 3 hours of cutting, arranging, gluing and sticking my masterpiece was complete! Just in time to head to 1084 to help my International house group start cooking the feast. The theme was French cuisine; so on the menu was four types of quiche (Lorraine, broccoli and ham, spinach and goats cheese and zucchini and tuna) then for dessert, Crepes (with your choice of topping). I made the quiche Lorraine and some crepes (I was so proud they came out round).

Heading back with Sam I grabbed some Jelly said hi to the new girl and headed to my room, now it’s of to bed for another early night.

Fingers crossed I feel better tomorrow : )



My hygiene masterpiece : )

gooooo ravenclaw!

Well it finally happened, not enough sleep has definately caught up with me and that scratchy throat I had this morning has spiralled into swallen glands and a head ache : (

So its a short day as I spent the last part of it sleeping, I began by visiting the markets, everyone one was out despite the chilly morning air as I went about collecting bits of food for the week. Grabbing another Cinabun, I sampled the ladies spelt bread, lamenting about the fact I was only staying for a quarter "people always fall in love with North Cal"!

I also grabbed some fresh OJ and a punet of dates, then saying hi to my friends at Cha, made myself comfortable in my favourite corner to do some readinga whilst enjoying a orange cooler with pearls and sour mango, then later a wonton soup. Giving up after 50 pages or so I moved on to Fed Ex to grab the rest of my readings (there was a mix up so they had to do them when I got there...more reading ~sigh~).

After stoping by golden spoon for a large serving of yoghurt I made sure to drop my borrowed book back at Alakazam, then grabbing warm turkish bread and some other groceries from Traders (as well as a nice environmentally friendly traders bag) I headed to Albertsons to buy some things for my Art sculpture - the theme is hygiene (and its an expensive one too)

The rest of the walk was a struggle as I had over estimated how much I could carry, but arrived home none the less, I even passed a game of quidditch along the way (no joke, they had the rungs up an everything)

"Ok guys remember, we're smarter than everyone else...hands in.....goooooOOOOOO RAVENCLAW!"

Back in the dorm I sampled all my groceries (can't help myself) then went upstairs to study. As the afternoon wore on, my thoughts of heading to the gym evaporated, the essay I was working on taking away my last bit of strength and finally, unable to swallow, I hit the sack (not before I nice catch up with the fam).

waking up again at 7 I headed downstairs for some hot water and honey, then watching a little bit of men and black I said goodbye to the guys heading out for dinner and came back to the room, looks like its an early bed

fingers crossed I feel better in the morning

over and out.

My new traders Bag!

I'm flying...no wait, I'm falling!

Hello my fellow weekenders! Its Friday (well was, I’m writing this in hindsight so my grammar and tense may be slightly askew…bare with me)

The day started at 7am, my throat throbbing as my lack of sleep begins to take hold (I can hear my parents voices in my head…go to bed early moron...ok they wouldn’t be that harsh, but its serves the purpose for my point) because yes I am a moron, my lack of sleep comes down to stupidity, spending waaay to long surfing the net, listening to music and scribbling away into all hours of the night, and early morning. In my defence my drawing has gotten a little better, but as I said my voice now suffers.

First on my list was go to the gym, get in an early work out to wake me up and set me up for a day in doors. I even met Afro hair lady, who cheered me up as I watched her hair dance around to the music as she strode heavily on the treadmill, fuel was a bowl of special K and an icey pole, to which I defended was really just an insanely cold glass of juice. Then after a shower and hair blow-dry (I’m getting better) I collected everything I would need for the day (and a world war if one came about) and struggling to get through the door with my back pack got on the bus to drop of the video camera before 10.

Killing time before my discussion class at 11, I relaxed in Cyber A Café, looking at lecture notes on the web and sending out invitations on face book for the live nude people performance that night (theme: candy). Discussion class began with a test, one I don’t think I did to well in, even though I had thoroughly read the 60 PAGE reading the week before, Yes Danyah it’s totally my fault that I can’t remember a particular picture in amongst all the pages that describes a particular special effect, ~sigh~ life is unfair.

After watching a clip from Harold and Maude (really strange movie with a 14 year old and 60 year old lover…creepy) we were excused and I left for lunch at the French bakery (chicken eggplant sandwich, mmmm) although as it was insanely busy they did my order wrong and put tomato all the way through it, but I told them I was more than happy to wait for another one (I wasn’t in a hurry) and after enjoyed the fruits of my patience ☺

They were tasting pesto pasta at traders today which went nicely with the yoghurt I had just had at Golden spoon, stocking up on dried mango and chatting with one of the ladies there that’s always interested to see how I’m going (for same reason a persons day becomes a lot more interesting when they’re Australian I guess) I said goodbye and proceeded to waste time at Alakazam, showing the guys my drawings and discussing the best graphics in print as well as the series Flight (they have copper in that one Anthony!)

Cha was next up for a strawberry cooler with pearls (so tasty) they put that jam stuff in it again, then sipping it slowly and soaking the sun that was now filtering through the clouds I waited at Starbucks for my conversation partner to arrive, feeling stupid as I had to keep telling people I was saving the chair for someone (they kept giving me greasies as they peered over at me waiting for my “so called” friend to arrive). Browsing the crowd for about 10 minutes I noticed a girl that had been sitting by the entrance for a while, occasionally looking up from her book, gathering my confidence I made the plunge and asked if she was waiting for someone. “Yes…Lesley” aha, that’s me!

We spent the next 40 minutes talking, Nai is from Thailand, she likes animals, lives with her sister here in a host family house in Newport, and is studying English! We ended by way of questionnaire for her speaking class (“if you could speak to an animal which one would it be? – I said monkey, to see what they thought of the relation between us and Dolphin to ask them the secret to having so much fun) then I spent the next hour or so drawing and sleeping at the EAP office (they have comfy couches).

Dinner was chicken salad as I ate, walked and talked to Mike on the phone hassling me to get to the studio early. Things went ok on the shoot, I got all my footage down, although I may have to re-shoot as there seemed to be a bad flare in the top corner of the screen which will be difficult to key out later, then disregarding the fact that Mike didn’t seem to care I helped him through his shoot by acting heaps of scenes (involving falling over 10 times and throwing myself from a metre in the air onto a mattress about 15 times, something we probably should have only done 3 times… “uumm Mike, I don’t think I can fall over any more, I may not get up the next time”)

When closing up the studio, Mike accidentally set of the alarm, a moment when for the first time he looked vulnerable (good to know his human) telling us to run for it we dashed of and separated, letting the police sought it out later. Meeting a nice guy by the studio theatre he offered to escort me to were live nude people were showing that night and getting my accent wrong (“so which one of your parents are from England?”) I spent the next few minutes teaching him how to tell the difference, then promising him I’d come see him in Life of Iris.

The show was great, even if I did spend 1 and a half hours in the cold waiting to get in, (I was a little early) although no one from the dorm showed up I hung out with everyone from drama, then after helping clean the studio from all the candy that had been pegged at us through the performance I walked home and proceeded straight to bed.

(P.S. I found out that Karen’s mum was an animator, she worked on Scooby Doo and Strawberry shortcake!)

Are you sure I'm not a flower?

Today seemed to loom before me as I prepared for Drama, the prospect of two exams, two presentations, a poem reading and a meeting with me teacher deemed a feat all to large to accomplish in one day, however spurred on by breakfast in my new bowl (thanks again Reiko) I briskly walked through the chilly Thursday morning towards the barn and my awaiting quiz.

The quiz wasn’t as hard as I expected, considering we were warned due to the skipping of last weeks. Only 8 questions later and a slightly sore head I turned in my exam with my fingers crossed and turned my mind to other things.

Next was the poem reading, something I dreaded as I was unsure how to approach the character (I thought it was a flower, but I was told later its and actual person…with petals (whatever)). On my first attempt I only remembered the first two lines, nervousness expanding the lump in my throat and causing my voice to come out shaky and unrecognisable as my own.

However once we had relaxed and had time to visualise the piece I was determined to try again, this time I made it all the way through, even if my performance was a little weird, like most I put on that slightly fake accent you fall into when reading poetry…or Shakespeare, then trying my best to stop it came out half English half Australian, a new accent of englasian…maybe I’ll start a trend.

After Drama I stayed back with Luke and Karen to record them doing some actions for posing and animation references, then ran back to the dorm for lunch and the rest of my things. Saying goodbye and good luck to Sanda as I raced out the door, I swallowed down my chicken and lettuce sandwich (yes, my homos has finally gone off) and caught the bus straight to yoghurt land, trying their brand new flavours, traditional coffee and one that tasted like Bavarian cake. Deciding on strawberry and vanilla I ignored my brain freeze whilst eating it and saying hi to Megan (the girl that let me sleep on her couch the first week) I continued into uni for my meeting with Mara, squeezing in some video study were I could.

The meeting went well, Mara gave me a few tips on how to get started in figure drawing as well as setting myself I few goals and giving me the name of a good book that will guide me through the quarter.

My presentation of Sarah Sze went without a hitch in art, to which I spent the rest of the class relaxing and conspicuously drawing classmates as they struggled to stay awake through presentation upon presentation! Finishing my drama journal in the few moments before video, I gave up cramming for the test and took my place with everyone else to begin.

Luckily it was a multiple choice/ true or false exam, however some of the sentences really didn’t make sense, and of course having to check over it three times I was the last to hand it in amidst many sniggers. We moved on to our midterm presentations, showing everyone the video I had roughly cut together the night before, as well as my various sketched and flash tests…no one was really supportive, but shrugging it of, I was saved my Ulysis who made out like I was the only one who had actually done what he’d asked for the grade (fingers crossed).

Straight after video, Mike helped me fix my external hard drive (I think we’ve finally got it working) feeling like an idiot as I peered over him munching on my fruit and nut snack and trying to be helpful when I could…mostly that involved working the mouse for him.

Hitching up my bag as I said thanks and goodbye I picked up my new costume (I had to exchange the Bow Peep one) and headed straight to the gym to let of some steam, mike really gets under my skin sometimes.

Dinner later was chicken and split pea soup, with jelly and a strawberry iceypole for dessert, discussing plans to go to Santa Barbara with Anna and Elodie next weekend. Then it was back to the room for some last minute homework and an early…or earlier bed, I have another exam tomorrow

Until then
xo

Children beware your in for a scare!

Hello victims, I will tell you a tale, a tale sooo gruesome, so horrid, it will give you nightmares for weeks, turn the lights of and grab some popcorn as its time for

THE SECOND WORST DAY EVER!

Mua ha mua ha muahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

It started on a cold morning, the wind squeezing through the gap in the window pane, ooohhhhhhhh, actually more like OOOHHHHHHH yeah, it howled as it licked over my face calling me to get up, get dressed and do some work. Breakfast was flakes of human skin, with small pellets of toad poo and dried tongues (otherwise known as special k, sultanas and strawberries). My noggin prepared and ready I creeped into my room dreading the mountain of work awaiting me, a mountain so large it threatened my very existence!

But I knew I had a job to do, and it all started with a list. For the next few hours the list stared at me, mocking me with its presence, tainting me with its length as the minutes ticked by, tick tock tick tock…at least that’s what it would have sounded like it I had an analogue clock…first up was writing my blog, searching my brain frantically for the events of last night, slightly drained but determined to push on I went through my poem again, screaming its passages to me as I frantically tried to follow along all to aware that I must memorise it before tomorrow

My life’s, my life’s, my life’s blossom ?? aggghhh the words, they’re too lame they fight to get out of my head, but I manage to keep them, strapping scotch tape around my head to stop them dribbling out my ears, then Hamlet…oh the pain, thou shant even describe the horrid turmoil of thy having to learn Hamlet!!

But I must move on, becoming weaker now, the remnants of breakfast being churned away as I attempt to keep going. Another flower on flash, and I cry as the shape tweens contort into tweens that don’t remotely resemble petals, tired and hungry I crawl downstairs through the dark passage way and into the kitchen braving the freezer as it holds fast to my chicken, blowing its icy wind all over me. I slammed the door shut and before anyone could find me breathed down my sandwich so fast it didn’t even taste like the things I found in the garbage!

Back to the room, its entity sucking the energy I had just acquired and still the minutes tick away, on hour to go, but I still have to start and finish the entire presentation we were assigned yesterday, 30 minutes to go, but I haven’t found all my information, 15 minutes to go, its only a draft, 5 minutes to go…aggghhhh, 1 minute to go….FINISHED! Punching my fist in the air gleefully I grab my computer and hard drive which of course doesn’t work (children, heres a lesson, don’t order anything of the net…especially if it costs $100…end of lesson) and running out the door through the zombies ambling towards uni and managing to flag down a bus going my way.

I tasted yoghurt egg nog today, discovering there are times when one can be too experamentative, I needed fuel my strawberry and coconut yoghurt wasn’t enough so I bargained at Cha for an orange crush with tapioca and sour mango pieces, promising them I would later rid them of their bee problem tomorrow, After the movie came out! Putting a deposit down for a little bow peep costume, a clever disguise for my later mission, I continued through the mist to Visual media, were the most terrible creature faced me…BOREDOM…it almost had me, but I made it through, and waited in secret for Mike at the art school, interrogating the guy at the front desk about my test tomorrow…he knew nothing...so he said…

Running late I was almost defeated by Mike as he abused me on my choice of hard drive, the fact that I wouldn’t be studying that afternoon and any other insecurity he saw surrounding me…I felt the lump in my throat increase with every step, but just when I thought he had me SUPER JESSIE to the rescue, whisking me away he accompanied me to the bus stop were I continued on with my costume, camera and computer alone.

Once back at the haunted house, skipping carefully through the pumpkins snapping at my toes, I raced upstairs to get dressed for trick or treating…well as previously planned by the person that wanted to ruin my day they had already left, and my costume was too small. However Vamos’s never say die, especially when vamos means go (and toll collector but that doesn’t fit in my story) so putting something together and taping up the broken staff…dodgy piece of...I banded together with Sanda and together we hiked across ghost campus to the vampire village, a place spoke of to have thousands of free lollies.

It was dark, and the wind continued to howl, suddenly we were attacked by a bunch of…fuk mi and look it was fuk u, breathing a sigh of relief we had found the other bounty hunters, safe at last we hiked on collecting our spoils like 4 year olds blushing embarrassingly as our TA’s said thank you rather like they were saying sorry to the people we stopped by (“they’re from the international village, this is their first Halloween, you don’t mind do you?”).

Giving up at last we headed back for a bountiful party, brought to us by our leaders Meredith and Madelyn (not Madeline…make that mistake and get your head chopped of…I’ve seen it happen). Then it was back to face more study for my quize and midterm tomorrow (not to mention two presentations and my poem reading)

Wish me luck my faithful readers
And a very Happy Halloween to you all

Good night
Don’t let the monsters that live under your bed bite!

Knott's SSCCCCAAAARRRRRYYYY farm muahahahha!!

Sorry about the delay folks, arriving home at 2 this morning pretty much all I could think about was hitting the sack, but here it is the tale of Knott’s SCARY farm, oooooohhhhh.

It started like any other morning, getting up early for drama and heading to the barn with trepidation as the prospect of a test loomed over me. Lucky for me its still on Thursday, (instead we were handed poems to perform for Thursday – see bellow) so getting through a quick warm up we jumped straight into our first exercise, the question game. Basically you are paired with someone and must ask each other questions, until one of you can’t think of any and its back to the end of the line. Having fun discovering the best questionnaires of the group, we moved on to high status low status, were the objective was to raise your self up whilst bringing your partner down (and visa versa). I thought the first was much easier, although it surprised me how difficult asking questions was (I know many of you are raising your eyebrows) it was the urge of wanting to answer the questions that was difficult to suppress ☺

Gathering on the floor to discuss our trial and error, we proceeded to extend the game in a more skit like capacity, Kelsey and Ya’Ell were up first. It was funny to watch as Ya’Ell upon being ordered to shine Kelsey’s shoes ran out of the classroom and literally brought in Kelsey’s shoes to spit and polish. Next up was Clayton and I, however midway through our Cop and robber routine (I was the interrogating cop, with a manly Australian accent – have no idea were it came from, and he was the guy who’d stolen gum) it turned into a full blown skit, going on until I finally locked home away, unable to believe his bribes of boats, diamonds and women!

Classes were broken up by the gym and lunch then it was back into campus for yoghurt (an extra large serving to get me through the day) and Art. Art was all right, presenting our instructional pieces, making everyone laugh as I described the look on Sanda’s face as she sat watching me rip of photos, throw them in the air, then pick them up again. After being set presentation assignments for Thursday (agghh, I’m gonna be flat out on Wednesday…I hope I get time to trick-or-treat) I moved on to video grabbing some water along the way as the last trails of fire smoke still linger in the air drying out my mouth.

Video began straight way in the studio working on Hanan’s set so filming could take place (we had to make a bed on a table and light it so that keying was possible – taking out the green and making it look like it was flying) leaving in the beginning to get some Knott’s Scary farm tickets for mike, and some snacks of course, I arrived back to see the bed up and took my place within the crew, moving lights, straightening sets and fanning the bed to make it seem like the wind was moving the sheets.

The entire process took 2 hours, to which we quickly swapped to Mike, getting Bret up on the table (I pretended to be his make up artists and personal assistant as I waited for further instructions) however as the clock struck 10 to 6 I apologised for not being able to stay back and ran to the dorm to get ready to meet the gang at 6:45.

Dinner was rushed as I hurried to be on time, then having to wait for Andy, our convoy finally left just past 7. 7 in Andy’s car and 5 in Eugene’s, welcoming two girls from next door to take up the remaining tickets (people kept cancelling on me at the last minute…at one stage I was out $100…Thanks again Sam!!)

Knott’s was fantastic, keeping everyone together we headed first to Silver bullet, an insane roller coaster which left your feet dangling in the air as you went over and through a total of 7 loops, spirals, and dips, screaming like the girls the whole way. A little wobbly we then headed straight for one of the scary mazes, “The doll factory” Laughing at Anna and Elodie as they ran screaming through almost the entire thing. Not wasting time I lead everyone to another ride (Ghost rider) unfortunately the line took an hour, the only highlight being when Andy started playing clapping games with the girls behind us and there was a bit of beef between a large girl and guy waiting to the side. The ride however was absolutely INSANE, at one stage I felt like my head was going to unscrew itself, Dad you would have Loved it!! The dips were enormous the speed was monumental and the rocking of the cart as it teetered of edged was incredible. Swearing ourselves hoarse we arrived back with a jolt, and picking our mouths and various other appendages of the floor headed to our next maze.

Arriving to discover it was almost midnight we instead ran to the Xcelerator but finding it closed scared ourselves in Killer Clown Kolledge instead. Then leaving Elodie and Anna to calm down and tour the gift store we went to the grudge maze – sooo scary, in the first room we saw the girl creeping down the stairs making that eerie clicking sound (if you have not seen the grudge I suggest you do). Leading everyone out (I don’t know how I ended up having to go through first) to see that everything was winding to a close we decided to gather everyone up and head home.

Worried the entire time why Sanda hadn’t called (she was going to meet us there) I fell asleep in the car, tired and full after stacks of lollies and scares. Then coming back to discover Sanda was not in the room (almost 2) I searched frantically, then unable to keep my eyes open crashed on the bed (don’t worry she’s here now).

Well until tonight

(ps after all that filming in video, Scott (whos only job it was to press record) didn’t do it properly – 2 and a half hours of filming for nothing!...Poor Hanan)

The poem I have to perform:

My life’s blossom might have bloomed on all sides
Save for a bitter wind, which stunted my petals
On one side of me, which you in the village could see
From the dust I raise a voice of protest
My flowering side you never saw!
Ye living ones, Ye are fools indeed
Who do not know the way of th wind
And other unseen forces
That govern the processes of life.

Now do the firehydrant!

Hello hello hello, welcome back, I trust your day was good and your weather fine. Enough of the pleasantries, now back to me. This morning was tough, groaning croakily as I woke at 7 I lay in bed for another hour, relieved I didn’t have to meet Jan till 9. Breakfast was strawberry special K, with sultaneas and various other dried fruits laying around in my pantry, pouring hot water over it I watched closely as the flakes popped and melted then tucked into it while bits still remained crunchy.

Getting dressed in jeans for the first time since being here, I struggled downstairs with my equipment and waiting patiently for Jan to show…and waited, finally at 5 past nine I jumped the stirs two at a time to get to his room, worried he’d left without me, after a few authoritative raps on the door, Jessie opened complete with bed head, peering at me as though he’d never seen me before.

“Is jan still here?” I asked worried, looking over casually Jessie prodded the bed…to my relief he’d slept in, and after 2 minutes he was dressed and ready to take me into uni. Helping me carry the stuff in he quickly proceeded to his discussion class as I made my way slowly through uni wondering how to make the most of my time before visual at 3. Bored I decided to stop by the counsellors office for a chat, and after filling in a few forms I was promised a meeting at 11, so while waiting I toured the stalls of the graduate fair (150) loading myself up with a few more freebies and tons of information about animation courses offered to graduates…too bad Calarts wasn’t there ☹

At 5 to 11 I made me way back to the office to meet with the counsellor, its was really great to have a chat, I think the best thing about counsellors is (from someone who tends to talk a lot) you know that their paid to listen so you don’t feel bad about boring them to death ☺, saying goodbye I felt my tummy start to rumble and kicking myself for not bringing any money I headed back to the dorm for a home made sandwich.

After lunch it was back into uni for yoghurt (they have strawberry again YEAH!) and photocopying my storyboard assignment. Then watching the time I spent the next few hours in the EAP office drawing and chatting with the workers (there’s this one girl that’s really sweet, and I keep forgetting her name cos its sooo long and unusual, I keep praying for people to walk in so she can introduce herself). Grabbing sustenance from Zot and go I did exactly that.

Handing in my assignment was great, feeling its weight lift of me as I handed it to Dahnah, the lecture was also a little shorter, and as she again basically regurgitated the reading (all 60 pages of it) I whipped out my notebook and continued to draw.

Later on I headed to the gym to do some classes, first up was step…I was so hot I literally had beads of sweat running into my eyes, so I kept tripping on the step, then it was abs and thighs, listening to the instructor rally on the red socks and her dream car. She even congratulated the boys for showing up (all two of them) “must be intimidating with all these pretty girls” of course as she’s spoke we literally had all our bums facing them and were flexing them appropriately, meanwhile I’m trying my best not to fart…what don’t tell me it doesn’t happen to you!

Red and tired, I ate diner back at the dorm with Anna, Nami and kyce. Then made plans with everyone to meet at 10 downstairs to discuss plans for nots berry farm, or SCARY farm I should say!

That’s all for now
Until tomorrow

Ps. I can’t believe Ben was kicked out of idol!

my latest drawing