it's weird that oz is on the other side of the pacific ocean.huntington is a sweet beach, nice and swimmable... but it doesn't feel like home. not like bondi.i dunno if this is aussie home sickness. but i'm still stuck in some down under ways.por ejemplo, i keep clicking the lightswitch down to turn it on, when it north america, switches flip up for power.i'm still frantically turning my head back and forth when crossing the street. and i'm really confused about tipping again. i usually just end up leaving a heap of shrapnel for the sorry server. this is a weird stopover. my cousin and i were planning to kick it together, but my aunts have ambushed that cuz apparently i'm a bad influence. my cousin is 20. she doesn't need a 65 year old woman holding her hand to cross the street. she needs her 21 year old cousin to hold her hair while she's puking from over-drinking.my family is lame. my mom is the only cool one, i maintain. since she knows i'm now stuck with just her, she's compensating by taking me out for cocktails. it's pretty cool. and weird too i guess. but i'll take it.oh yeah, i didn't have a problem adjusting to the time in hawaii. probably because i took sleeping pills. but last night, i couldnt sleep till 5 or 6am. got up around 130ish.i dont wanna have to rely on meds but. i kinda just wanna get back home so i can get hardwired properly again.i'm so confused right now actually. my mom was asking all these questions over dinner:do you have any career prospects?how do you feel about leaving australia?would you be alright if i sold the house? where would you live?what are you going to do after school?etc etcjesus.. i'm shitting myself trying to figure out any one of these answers.but i do have goals:-get a decent job, and commit to it-keep my living space tidy enough-work on my book-maintain relationships with friends, and keep in touch with aussie mates-take school seriously and focus on studies/don't procrastinate too muchetc etcit's a start. i'm not sure if i had any new year's resolutions, but these are things i resolve to do for the new semester. after everything, i just need to get back on track.
my body has adjusted to the hawaiian sched already. with the help of some sleeping pills.but my mindset is still australian.for example, when i turned the corner to go down the escalator, i was met with the up escalator. here, you catch escalators on the right side.i went to get lunch, and had my money ready. and when the price rung up, i didn't have enough so i had to remove an item. i forgot tax still needs to be added here. fuck i'm really gonna miss that part about oz.some kid ran into me today and apologized. i said 'yoraright' (you're alright) instead of saying 'thats cool'the crossing the street thing hasnt hit me yet. mostly because all the streets here are one way. so it's pretty clear which way traffic is moving. if one can't tell, they deserved to be hit. survival of the fittest, eh.oh, but some things i am loving here:-more bang for your buck when it comes to meals. everything included, no charge extra for any condiments you want, keeps you satisfied for hours-cable. it's nice having more than 5 channels to decide where to go to for trash entertainment-non ambiguous sexual orientation. i know who i can hit on now!-low waisters, where bottoms lie just at the asscrack. leaves little to the imagination, which is good, cuz i imagine too much already.-cheap drinks (in pints!!!). schooners are inadequate.and heaps more, i reckon.although, twill be a sad day when i stop reckoning heaps, but rather, think a lot.
so i've settled a little bit, got decent sleep and had a nice dip in the water today. so now i'm ready to reflect upon my time down under and the good moments i had..
thanks to all my mates i met in sydney for being there for some of my special moments:
- moving to my loft in unilodge after my stint in a bachelor pad in korea, which didn't contain a proper shower (ie it was a hose). my loft was massive with a bed and a couch that was very useful for passing out on, a proper shower, and a kitchenette
- first day out with the yanks. shit, 4 shots of baileys plus a few glasses of goon, plus sharing a pitcher of booze, and then having some rando mixed drink, and then some more beer = blacking out, and only remembering that after a really turny cab ride followed by a really bumpy elevator (or 'lift') ride, i puked 2 feet outside the lift. twice. sorry ryan and anj. thanks for making sure i didnt lose my keys. my dinner on the other hand...
- starting my alco promo jobs. yay for unpoverty and being paid to check out syd clubs and encourage people to drink up. i took my job very seriously and am well informed about cuervo, fosters products and vodka o
-o-week, during which i had my o face on the whole time ;) ....meeting asa and heaps of other attractive foreigners, whislt getting served free booze for being a foreigner was just about the specialest welcome to australia ever. i won a free schnapps for chugging ('skulling') the fastest (yah i represented canadia. holla!).
- beer pong @ unilodge. check out http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=2014749573. nuff said
- meeting ben and his randwick/band mates, and finally having a group of aussies to chill with. shit, that was the reason i came to australia after all, and not ireland. first time i felt like i found a home away from home. which can explain why i camped out there for like a week. i'm sure jordy loved that
- mayors welcome - more free booze and food! followed by jd and coke at ben's. i dont know how it happened, but one minute i'm on ben's lap. next moment he stands up and i end up breaking jordy's fan. oops. i am a classy drunk.
- easter break. having the sweetest and easiest paying job ever, and it was fun too! and then coming home to unilodge and celebrating with other fam-less peeps by making a national favourite - poutine
- blue mountains with asa, a mini road trip well needed. asa is a fun driver. nikki is a fun navigator. together, seeing kangaroos and the 3 sisters was a perfect getaway for the shit april brought.
- making my doco with my school mates. seeing keya get tangled in cords and trying not to drop the camera. my productions are fun.
- pretty much all of may with lynn: from the first day i almost lost my voice within the first 3 hours from laughing so hard. going to gold coast and chilling with some aussies and kiwis and enduring a painful yet entertaining booze cruise. celebrating lynn's return after she went to melbs for the weekend by dancing around my flat in our swimmies and drinking champers. losing my wallet on the bus on lynn's birthday and getting it back just in time to take a disco nap then get sooooo drunk that i dont even remember how delicious the pancakes were at pancakes on the rocks. boy was it fun taking her to the airport the next day...not!
- having my mommy visit me and bring me a sick new camera after i busted my in goldie. my momma is lovely
- my aussie 21st bday. moving out of the city and into bondi beach. seeing priscilla with ma, then drinking with my mates and meeting annika who proved to be a vital person in my last months.
- my canadian 21st bday (jun 18 in oz), drinking at club oberon and declaring to ben that i never get sick by just drinking beer. and then maybe a dozen beers and a few hours later, i spewed. i made it to the sink this time! an improvement over my mate's bed, the streetcar, and outside the elevator. it was lovely hearing everyone say 'gross, sp' and 'way to go san pedro' because it was a rule in our game to only be referred to by surname
-seeing the gallant at the world bar right after being fired from mymusic label internship. out of pity and possibly cuz i was cute, they each bought me a drink :) and i chilled with the drummer and lead all night
- swedish midsummer... swedes holding hands and singing songs around a pole. brings new meaning to poledancing. swedes are hot. ;)
- canada day - going to vc bar in n syd with patrick and then ending up in the cross with 5 new aussie mates... typical stupid nikki.
- having my austrian flatmates move in. this meant burning maybe 5ish post-dinner joints a night. i miss them
- seeing a streetlight song with cat at mtv lair. free tickets to free booze and a sick band was fantastic. not to mention running into erika, whom i havent seen since high school. how random is that?!
- having annika introduce me to 2 of the hottest twins i have ever met. unfair that there could be that much hotness in one person, let alone 2. fuckers.
- going to melbourne and catching the film fest, which inspired me to write a book
- seeing jordy and ben play before i left, and seeing the weird contortions a musician's face makes...similar to those made at the height of passion. it was very hot. and good on them for winning the contest. only keya could have accompanied me in taking the piss out of every other band before them, and with cattiness in wit
those are only a few, if you can believe it. thanks to everyone who shared these memories with me. although i blacked out a few, the times i remember were awesome.
i'm so glad i could do this, and am inviting anybody to come visit me in toronto once you save enough money. i got a decent sized townhouse all to myself, perfect for housing visitors. and of course, personalized tours of the city by someone who knows it really well - me. duh.
this isn't peace out, this is smell ya later.
sending love from the otherside of the world,
xx
nikk
so my last post was cut a little short. i was using free internet at syd airport and i thought they were calling for our flight to be boarded, so i jetted.alas, our flight was actually delayed for a coupla hours due to maintenance reasons so i just dicked around in the lounge, changing seats every so often.so now i'm in hawaii and tired as fuck. i probably look and smell really funky but i could also give two shits about iti'm just waiting to check into my hosteli reckon im gonna book a snorkelling tour for either tomoz or monday. i wonder how long my aussie speak will last...anyway, the flight was really smooth, the landing was amazing.i didn't get charged a billion bucks for carrying my whole life with me. and there was this cute boy within my sights. granted he was very babyfaced, and i would almost consider him jailbait had i not seen him order a beer at the airport.. i was too pussyfooted and unhygenic to make a move though...but yeah, hawaii is amazing. so beautiful, it's a pity nobody could come over with me. there is heaps of stuff to do, but since i'm considering this as a rest stop, i'm not too picky about what i get done. this isn't the last of my time here after all..i've been meaning to do a list highlights. in fact, i already had one done, but facebook decided to fuck up and erase it before i got a chance to post it. so we'll have to wait till i have gotten more than 2 hours of sleep and then maybe i can reflect better.till thenaloha
yes friends, these are the dying moments of my time down under.
today's been weird, seeing annika off to the airport shuttle, saying goodbye to asa and cat.
slowly and surely i'm saying goodbye to my aussie mates.and every single minute of it is sucking balls. last saturday before i headed off to melbs, annika and i were reminiscing about our crazy times and she started crying. i was too much in a drunken happy state, but i have to say it felt really good that she shed a tear for me. i like knowing that i've made a difference :)last night ben picked me up from the airport and i crashed at his place. and this morning he and jordy dropped me off before their band practice. it was a little surreal. i might see them again tomoz when they play the uts battle of the bands competition. but when i got home, thinking about it being an actual goodbye made me a little sick to my stomach.literally, i had this pain. and i cried for a little bit. like two minutes before i got my act together.and tonight i'm seeing cat, and that's just... i dunno, i reckon it'll be a sobfest. i'm not one for crying at goodbyes, but this is something... grrr. and i have to use my flatmate's computer to whinge, which is gonna gut me at night when i can't sleep. :(i need to get ready to see cat.boo.
it's fucking cold over here. when i left sydney, it was 6am, and nice and mild.i forgot melbs was a little south. among forgetting to bring a toothbrush and toothpaste and deodorant... i didn't bring any winter wear. no pants. no jacket. no scarf or hat.i am officially a retard.which is why i deserve to have wasted this day due to having a headache, and not even cuz i was hungover. i did wander around, checked out federation square. shoulda checked the moving images thingie, but i was scared or something so i went to the art gallery instead. i felt like doing something cultural, but not having to pay for it. so i just stayed in the gallery gift shop reading up on pop art and fashion and guerrilla art.and then when i got home i fell massively under the weather. i was gonna catch up with swedish andreas tonight for a few drinks, but i was chilled to the bone and didnt feel up for making the trek.i'm slowly and surely learning the consquences of my actions.but it's looking like my last few days in syd are gonna be chock full of last checkups and goodbyes/see ya laters. i'm getting saddened a little bit, but i am excited too. i recently (like last night) decided to commemorate my exchange by writing a fictional novel type thing inspired by my experiences. i'm stoked on it, cuz if there's one thing i can do, it's write.this blog is just a part of it too. and i thank alicia for encouraging me to do it :)see yas soon
so i'm in melbs right now in the internet cafe they got in the hostel. pretty sweet. but once again i'm reminded of why i didn't go packpacking with lynn and joanna across europe.i suck at hostels. i know i'm gonna have a rough sleep this night, which is why i'm prepared to purchase more credit.i also don't really like other travellers. at least the pommies.their accents are not the prettiest to listen to, esp when they're drunk, which they often are.oh yeah, i'm also a very irresponsible traveller. i forgot my toothpaste and toothbrush and deodorant. the first 2 i decided to purchase bargain versions of. the deodorant, well...i'm gonna be a little fresh for the next coupla.anyway, so i partied all night last night. my flight left at 615 in the morning.soo...that meant i was a little intoxicated when i made my way to the airport, which can explain the forgotten articles.and my friggen hostel didn't let me check in till 2pm.so i was wandering around in my party clothes and remnants of makeup... my breath was acrid. when i eventually picked up the mouth stuff, i then became the random girl who walked around the city with toothpaste and a toothbrush in hand, cuz of course, this budget place didn't provide plastic bags. amazing.i had a beautiful lunch in little italy though, mmm i love pasta. and when i finally checked in, i slept for a couple, then was awoken by my roommates who were switching rooms, thank god. so now im sharing a dorm with only 1 other person. this oldish lady who kinda sketches me out. but she's sleeping now, so i could give a shit.anyway, i hit the melbourne international film festival and checked out a short called run. and 2 features - eagle vs shark, and teeth.the e vs s was very napoleon dynamitesque. like so much. i laughed heaps for pretty much all of the beginning, and kinda wished i had someone to watch it with me so we could be imbeciles together.teeth was a little disappointing. it was about a teenager who was a vagina dentata. yep. her vagina bit off penises when it was angered.it was slightly funny, very gory. weirdly paced... i dunno, considering i don't side with chastity and laugh in the face of purity, i couldn't relate. the satire could've been played up a little more, but it was an interesting take nevertheless. run was actually good. i didn't realize that was part of the package, but it inspired me. it made me really want to write a short screenplay. maybe for practicum or something. but then i thought i could be stuffed to sort out the formatting and everything. so i'm gonna attempt to get started on a fictional novel/novella type thing inspired by my e-correspondence with people.i dunno where i'm gonna take it, but i have heaps of material to work with. just gotta think of some strong characters and situations. see where i want them to go... and voila. magic.so i'm gonna conserve my net time for the moment. but moral of the story - melbourne is a magical city. anyone who told me i would love it is right. it feels more like home than sydney does. the vibe reminds me of montreal a little bit, being the little sister to the big city. i'll post some pics later of this street artist who actually creates his work in front of an audience. it's astounding.
so i did the coastal walk from bondi to coog today. and now i'm at school so i can write about it because my power adaptor for my laptop decided to melt and not work, leaving me with access to my personal files and regular net access.
i've been here for an hour, just lurking. doing nothing in particular. oh i did want to print out my boarding pass cuz i will be going to melbourne asscrack early, so i guess that was my purpose too...
but it's mainly cuz i have this strange fixation of constantly being in the know of what's going on with my mates, and letting them know what's doing it my life.
so yeah, coastal walk. of course it was amazing. it took me round an hourish when others said it'd take me 1.5 or 2 hrs. take that suckers.
i walk really fast for a midget, it's creepy.
i wish i coulda taken pictures, but i really wanted to keep my pace. next time. i reckon i'll be hitting it the last few days before i go.
this is crazy.
party tonight, melbourne shortly after
back in syd tues night (10ish)... so wed, thurs, fri, and maybe maybe maybe some of sat... but sat, my plane leaves at 6pm with me on it in a window seat...
crazy crazy shit.
still heaps of people i need to say goodbye to whom i probably won't get the chance to. my bondi mates for sure will leave me with a nice sendoff. asa, asa, annika... and company.
anj and pat have already left, and we never had a good goodbye though they were debatably my closest mates here...
hopefully cat, paige, keya, renee, b, di, simon, jack....
the latter few are questionable, but the girls are def surer bets.
so many people to miss. so many people to keep in touch with.
this is just round one of nikki in sydney.
i will be back.
for a longer period for sure.
but for now... just enjoy the last few days before my canadian home sweet home
whilst writing an email to a girl who will be embarking on her own journey next february, i just realized how little time i have left. it's been fantastic. and well, at this point still relatively unbelievable.telling her about all how to get a job and all that jazz... brought me back to when i first came here, trying to find my footing. i did it all by myself. i was able to help anj. and now i'm helping caroline.i've been able to see how capable i am of coping on my own. i am very independent, and adaptable. granted there were some stumbles along the way, but i was able to see what kind of activities are therapeutic for me. there are a few things of import that i will take time to note right now. a few things that made my exchange more than what i could've imagined it to be...-living on the beach. fuck, waking up to a view of the ocean every morning is incredible.-seeing how grown up i am, teehee :)-falling in love. *sigh*-meeting some swedish soulmates who have given me a reason to visit that beautiful country-being visited by my best friend and then my mother. though i was having heaps of fun on my own, i was truly lucky to have that feeling of home. and to be able to share my new home with them.-having a newfound respect/appreciation for my canadian boys :)etcmy time here's not done. still have 9ish days before i leave. a little reflection isn't hurting though.annika and i are leaving the same day, and we're both so stoked. but we can't deny the great experiences we've had thus far.it's been a trip, that's for serious.
since all my mates are scattered around, i will have goodbye sessions with all my worthwhile friends.it's going to be interesting. my excitement to return to north america far exceeds my sentiment for bumming around in australia.there are heaps of things i will miss for sure... the clicky sound the crosswalks indicators make, not having to tip, the fucking ocean, the sexy accent, the abundance of funny as swedes, the lingo...but i'm happy to be heading back home. i reckon it will be tedious.. i'm saying my nice-to-see-you-agains the way i'm saying my goodbyes, one at a time. so i'm gonna have to tell some of the highlights repeatedly, answer the same questions, etc etc.i suppose that's part of the package so i'm gonna love every second of it!i shouldn't be heaps exhausted when i get back cuz i'm getting over my jetlag in hawaii and california. so i be all rejuvenated for fun times when i return!yayy.ps i got a tattoo today. and that is another reason why i'm ready :)
