Saving my Dignity

I have no idea who that crazy girl was that posted on my blog! Haha, ok ok, that's Jenna, from Cali. You'll all have a chance to meet this character, (bc she really is a character) when she comes to visit Purdue next semester!

And as for the horse's leg comment...I really have no idea what she's talking about!! :oP

However, I did enjoy how several friends here asked me who the guy I went home with was....after Jenna told them she saw me going home with some guy....I was beyond confused! Just for the record, that wasn't me!!

Things here are still going pretty well. School is well underway as well as volunteering at a local grade school. The kids are so cute! Right now I'm in the midst of talking to my sis and planning a trip for us when she comes to visit in the next few weeks. We're aiming for the Whitsunday Islands in the heart of the Great Barrier Reef. Hopefully that will be a go!

Oh my goodness!!! THERE WAS A SHARK AT THE BEACH LAST WEEK!!!!! :o( Not too happy about that lol.

Also, I do appreciate the emails and messages asking if I am still alive bc of the cyclone....yep, alive and well. The cyclone hit near Cairnes, northeast Australia....Sydney is a good 13 hours south.



Everyone needs to dl Skype! Skype lets you make you international phone calls via your computer, and it's free! I can use my roomies' webcam too, so it's even better!! Conclusion: dl Skype!

I hope everyone enjoyed their spring break! What are everyone's plans for the summer?! Let me know!


<3, Nadine :o)

I love Nadine Hanna

So everyone, I love Nadine Hanna. I just want to put that out to start with. She is in good hands here in Australia. I make sure she has a good time, eats enough, and stays safe. I have discovered that Nadine finds very weird experiences quite normal so all you friends at home must engage in some pretty bazarre activities (surf weekend). So, Tim...if you are reading this...I love you too. Nadine and I spent a long time trying to connect with you with no luck whatsoever. I can't wait until we can actually connect.

Not only does Nadine find out of the ordinary things "normal," she also come up with new phrases that she also thinks are "normal." So to explain the change in attractiveness of the German guy at the reception desk she says "he's gotten cuter by a horses leg." She takes this comment back and says "NO! By a giraffe's leg." Okay so here is how it really went ( i think it may be one of those "you had to be there moments"). So what happened....I said "so Frank is getting cuter by the day," and Nadine says "by a horses leg...No by a giraffe's leg." I say "nadine...what are you talking about" so it was a misunderstanding. Nadine thought I had referenced the phrase "he won the race by a leg" ...what this has to do with Frank being cute though I have no idea.

so basically Nadine is one crazy bitch. oh yea...and when bouwman (who i called "bellman" to my embarrassment the whole time he was here) and i were walking down the street we caught nadine strolling home from the bar with some random fellow. Then she would'nt respond when we called her name. That slut. Anyway, the girl ended up not being nadine. She just walked and talked like her (actually i dont know if she talked like her cuz i didnt talk to the girl i saw walking). But I did yell out to this random girl "yo, bitch, turn around when I'm talking to you!" Okay so that's the story of Nadine and my friendship. Also we are stalkers together. And we live happily ever after.

Yours Truly,

Jenna (nadine's favorite lover)

G'Day Mate (Bouwman's Final Blog)

Well everyone...I write this six hours before I'm forced to leave this wonderful place. Nadine has been nothing short of an extraordinary host. I highly recommend you come visit her, she'll make sure you have a great time! I really do not want to go home...can I stay please? If you have time left in your schooling and have money to go, then GO! If I weren't so old and broke, I'd come down here, it really is awesome. We went to the beach yesterday and had an awesome time. Weather was a little crappy so the beach was pretty empty. Kelly and I caught a couple of good waves with the boogie board (we wanted to rent surf boards but the places were closed) Nadine didn't want to because of a wardrobe problem. ha I think the surf trip the weekend earlier scared her :)

If you come down here I recommend Arthur's pizza place, the Eastern Lounge, Waterfront restaurant in the Rocks, and Three Wise Monkey's. All of the above were excellent food and drink. We (Bouwman, Kelly, Nadine, Megan and Laura) took an hour train outside the city to Featherdale Wildlife park and saw a bunch of Australian wildlife. This was awesome, I'm sure you'll see some of the photos on Facebook somewhere. Killer Emu's were walking around all over the place, I hate them. In Nadine's list of Fun Facts she states that "an hour in the Aussie sun and you'll have the best tan of you life" This may come as a shock...but I'm still white. A little browner/pinker but still white. haha She's not lying about the money though...it doesn't rip (I tried).

This was a great spring break trip made possible by Nadine's hospitality. THANK YOU SO MUCH!! We'll never forget it and we'll always want to come back. Enjoy it while you can, Purdue's waiting in August. Come and visit her if you can...that's my one word of advice for the night. It doesn't matter what you have to do to make it work, but do it. I personally guarantee you won't regret it! Flight is coming up soon, I'm falling asleep! Take it easy everyone!

Guest Blogger #1!

Nadine has asked me to be a guest blogger, so I'm going to add to what she already has. She's not lying the currency is made of plastic! My sister and I (this is Bouwman by the way) travelled all the way down here to Sydney a couple of days ago for spring break to visit with Nadine and see the sights. We seem to be doing more of the latter (she likes to make it seem like she's a busy person with 'school' and all) haha just kidding. The city is amazing, clean, friendly and fun. The weather is also amazing, I didn't expect it to be so nice and warm down here! Being a visitor to Nadine's place is quite interesting. The building she lives in has a lot of protocol to enter the building. This is the first time I have ever seen an elevator which requires a tag that you have to use and it only lets you go to the floor the tag indicates?! I'm still wondering if you can walk to other floors via the stairs...you'd have to be able to right, so what's the point of the tags? I'm sure she knows the answer, I just haven't asked.

We have seen most of the sights in the city and most of the beaches! It really is an awesome place. Tomorrow we head off to the Blue Mountains on a tour outside the city. I'm looking forward to this a lot, I've heard good things. Nadine should be done with classes by Wednesday so maybe then I'll have more interesting stories to tell. The only embarassing story thus far- going into a department store and the clerk asks me what my dress shirt size is...I tell him 16 neck 34/35...he gives me a weird look and tells me he'll have to measure, measures me and tells me I'm a 40 centimeter neck with an 84 centimeter length sleeve. Haha, I felt like an idiot. Until there's some crazy news, no worries mate (sorry, but I've been wanting to say that)!

Home away from Home

Hey everyone! So I am starting to make a home away from home. It took about a week to not feel like an idiot when 1.) paying for something b.) crossing the road 3.) using the public transport system whether its the bus, train, or ferry and 4.) gorcery shopping....(it took me and Laura 10 min to figure out that cold cuts are ordered in grams...haha it was quite entertainting, mother would be proud.) Things are starting to feel natural and I sometimes catch myself wondering if we drive on the left side of the road in the states too? Haha, that's def going to screw me when up when I get back. Since classes started and I've learned my way around the city and towns, I no longer feel that I'm on vaca.

The academic system is much different here. College is a 3 year program, as opposed to being a 4 year progrom. Whatever your major is, you start to study it in high school so you enter college with an understanding of the subject matter. The max load is 4 classes and you are expected to put in 10 hours of work outside the classroom for each class. The final exam for one of my classes is worth 60% of the final grade....crazy! Most of the final exams here tend to be 3 hour long essay exams. Homework and quizzes don't exist. It's all study study study for 1 or 2 exams a semester. If you screw those up, you're done. All the "suggested reading" back home is required here. Each class has a tutorial where, from what I've gathered, major projects are done as well as group work depending on the class. Tutorials don't start until next week. I found it interesting that the university has an 80% attendance policy...if you attend less than 80% of your classes, you automatically fail. My HR course is the only course that doesnt' have an exam, that was just changed this year. Instead, we are to put together a professionaly portfoilio throughout the semester, using all the lectures and tutorials. We have to then use that to apply to a job in Sydney. As long as I stay up with the work, I think i'll be ok. I was warned. Nonetheless, Australia is still amazing.

Good luck w/ exams everyone and I'll be waiting for spring break stories and pics!! :o)

Sour Apples

This month's upcoming highlights:

- this coming weekend: Sydney's Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras - world's largest mardi gras
- weekend surf trip
- kayak in the Sydney Harbour
- see a show in the Opera House
- Bouwman and his sis visit.....hopefully!

Highlights after March:

- my sis visits!
- Paul and Tim visit!
- Scuba dive in the Great Barrier Reef
- Wine tasting in Hunter Valley
- Sky diving
- Horseback riding along Marouba and Malabar Beaches and Headlands
- climb the Sydney Bridge
- stopover in Figi on my way home

“One time, when I was really little, I climbed a tree and ate these green, sour apples. My stomach swelled and became hard like a drum, it hurt a lot. Mother said that if I’d just waited for the apples to ripen, I wouldn’t have become sick. So now, whenever I really want something, I try to remember what she said about the apples.” -The Kite Runner (good book if you're looking for something to read)