melbourne.

i love melbourne. it is unbelievable. i love the culture, the color, the fashion, the music everywhere, the cafes, the alleys, the galleries, brunswick street, chapel street, the people. it is amazing. the only flaw that i found was the public transportation is pretty damn expensive.

the first night that we got there, we went out to dinner (after a long nap) to the dockside and ate at this italian restaurant called medici. it was right on the water and it was based off of this fashion designer from italy. we had a bottle of red wine, cannelloni and salad and then finished off with a toberlone drink. it was amazing. then we went over to the dockside and played with all of the cool statues. haha. they were beautiful. it was a little chilly there, actually, we were freezing.



after dinner we went to the esplanade. it was so much fun. it was a triple leveled bar with bands performing, pool tables and another concert hall all in the bar. it was so ridiculously hot. everyone from the boston university program was there. the next day in our briefing before we went off for the day, our advisor asked us how many of us made it out to the espy. i think that only two people didn't raise their hands (out of 85 mind you.) after this meeting we went to the australian center for moving image which was amazing. it had an exhibit of 50 years of australian television and it was beautiful. they also had an area where you just sit down and watch short films. whenever, for as long as you want, for free. it was great.



the next day we went to the basement of myers which is pretty much my closetx1000000. it was amazing. i think i was too overwhelmed to shop though. i just spent a lot of my time looking around. i bought a little shrug thingy though. i like it. after leaving there we headed over to south yarra and met up with sami's friend, drayden. we went to lunch at this little gormet french cafe called "laurent" and then went shopping on chapel street. i found the stores i love: quick brown fox, genki, fat. they are amazing. then we got into the vintage area of town. which was amazing as all.

on the way back to the train station we went into MAC to get alyssa some makeup so that she would stop using mine :) and we met an american in there. his name was jay and he was the cutest man ever. he moved out here because he was in love with a man that he met in england and he moved out here with him. that ended and his love moved back to england but he stayed in sydney. he went to a psychic in byron bay and she told him that melbourne was calling him. two nights later, he met a man from melbourne and moved out there and has been there since (and he is still with him). kinda cute, right?

we went back to the unilodge at flinders station and got ready to go out. we went to this thai infused restaurant named "cookie" we loved it. we went to bimbos on brunswick street afterwards but it was a monday night so it was dead.

the next day we did it all over again and went shopping. we went to brunswick street and it was so fun. we are back in sydney now with a lot of stuff to do before my entire academic education ends in a week and a half. ahh!

xo, a.

wine and wildlife.

lyss, alex and i just got back from hunter valley wine tasting tours. it was my first time on anything like that so it was really a lot of fun. it was a great day for the three of us to get out of the city and see the country side and wine country. we discovered a new wine that we like to. it is called verdelho. its a white wine and it is really crisp and amazing.

yesterday, alex, liz, lyss, al and i all shot "the addict." it was amazing and so much fun. everytime i pick up the camera to do a shoot again, i forget how much i enjoy it. it makes me that much more excited to edit too. i know, i am a dork. a huge one. anyways...we shot that and then we shot parts of alyssa and liz's movie. it is a music video to this funky-ass song. it is full of glass breaking, zippers, cars beeping and moving. it is beautiful. it has some electronic piano in there too. its going to be a very cool video. anyways, i tumbled for them. it was my first time tumbling in 3 years. we went over to victoria park and i did back handsprings and front handsprings and aerials. i was so proud of myself to know that i can still put that on the "talent" part of my resume. although i can't really flex any part of my arm today without crying.

last night we went to the afl finals series. the sydney swans played the fremantle dockers. it was unbelievable. we left unilodge at around 7 to get to the game at 8. corey and i walked down to the atm and all of the other boys were standing outside. they were all just hanging out and talking, and they all had their faces painted. this man walked up to them and asked "is that an american accent i hear" and as jake replies, "yes" the man (with his little boy) starts getting up in cassidy's face and screaming at him. he said, "get out of our f***ing country you nazi cunt." (i apologize for the bad language). this was the first encounter we had with someone who really didn't like us. i guess he then got more and more in jake's face and so he had to defend himself. the little boy was standing a few feet away covering his ears, as if his father does this a lot.

it was interesting because we were a bunch of liberal, american students, studying and learning about their culture, dressed in their sporting gear, going to support their team, and this man just came up to the boys and attacked them. it was a little creepy.

the game was ridiculous. we were ten rows away from the goal post. the field is two times longer than an american football field. the men wear no pads at all and it is a mixed sport of soccer, football and hand work of volleyball. there are four quarters of 30 minutes and they have this cheer that they play at the end of the game. it goes:



Cheer, Cheer the Red and the White
Honour the name by day and by night
Lift that noble banner high
Shake down the thunder from the sky
Whether the odds be great or small
Swans will go in and win over all
While her loyal sons are marching
Onwards to victory.



after the game, everyone was talking to us and thought that it was cool that we dressed up and went to the game. overall is was a great adventure.

also as a side note, i caught my first real wave thursday morning. it was about 6 feet high and i dropped into the wave. justin and i both caught it and it was amazing. i can't wait to get better.

melbourne tomorrow (actually in 10 hours).

xo.

madness at the market.

so this weekend was insane. it was so much fun. starting out with thursday....justin and i took our new boards to manly. we take the ferry from quay over to this little surfing town and its amazing and beautiful and perfect. we caught a few waves and got slices up on our board. but they are amazing.

the next day we woke up and did it all over again...we booked out spring break, which we are all incredibly stoked about. and then we booked it out to manly. the whole crew was there and it was a riot. bondi was beautiful and fun. minus the immature 5th grade action that went on with our boys...but they are 21 year old boys. what do you expect. we surfed there but the shore was really weird. the sand was like a wall, so when you surfed in...you just crashed into the wall. no fun. later that night justin, sami, alyssa and i went to go see boris belkin play tchaikovsky in the opera house. there was a movement by beethoven and a piece by mozart as well. it was beautiful and amazing. after we went to wooloomoo bay and ate a divine dinner at china doll. not knowing what to do next or where to go, we headed to kings cross (of course) and went to world bar (of course) and had another tea kettle (of course).


and again....lizzy lyss and i woke up and took the ferry out to manly again. the waves were perfect. we went shopping at this store called surfection and stopped at supre on the way back. we got decked out and went to cargo bar. it was the most beautiful bar i have ever been to in my entire life and i loved it. lizzy and i stayed and danced the night away.

today we went to the george street market and shopped. i got gifts for lots of people and post cards that i am going to send out so be sure to IM me your address if you want one! (they are really cool by the way). alex and I rented shaun of the dead to watch tonight. pretty exciting. we also rented a couple of australian films to watch.

meat pie madness starts this week. stay tuned.

time is tissue.

i just got in from seeing snakes on a plane with alex and it really opened up some doors for me. haha. just kidding. it was a riot though. as long as you dont have problems with graphic violence and snake cam, youll like it. youll at least enjoy it for its french special fx and sound track consisting of gym class heroes.


i really have nothing interesting or cool to say. i miss a lot of things. i miss my girls, match. i miss anne marie keeping me in line, haha. i miss waitressing, weird i know. i miss the boylston crawl every night after work. i miss assholes and mean people sometimes, they keep me in check. i miss him, i miss laying there with him. i miss my gay-lover. sexually. i miss my scorpion pincher, haha. i miss the T...weird i know. but it is soooo simple compared to here.

there are new things here, they are beautiful and amazing but i am ready to travel more, i can't wait to see what the rest of the world is like. this is a very good adjustment from america to begin my explorations, but i feel that i have a long way to go before i become anything close to as cultured as i want to be. it keeps me going, my heart racing and my soul alive.

this is how the next couple of days look: surfing tomorrow morning, class, scu bar. hollar. surfing friday morning, quadA production meeting for meat pie paradise, classy ass dinner, opera house and classy ass bar. saturday, not gonna lie, prolly surfing again, dance class at the sydney dance company. ya know? sunday: markets...george street, hitting up the rocks baby.

xo, a.

p.s. if you want anything specific from here let me know...otherwise, im getting your ass something random.

seven mile beach

so we had surf camp this weekend. imagine hammocks and cabins and barbies and beaches and cute surf instructors. got it? nice. now think of rain, 20* weather, hail and sleet while on the water and winds up to 50 mph. yes that was what we endured this weekend. honestly, now we can handle anything.

we spend 48 hours cooped up in blankets, towels, steam from hot showers, anything to keep us warm. getting our wetties on was a psychological challenge that we all had to overcome. i was proud of all of us.

on the way back j. and i bought boards. were super stoked, we are going to surf off of circular quay (i know it looks like QUAY, but it is actually pronounced KEY--weird, right?)

besides surf camp, i am getting really excited for my internship. i think that my advisor wants to set me up with spectrum which is within fox studios. so as long as i dont mess up, ill be good to go. i am bored as all hell in class. we are taking a video production class and learning about composition, angles, structuring ideas and how to make storyboard. this is all old news for the four of us but really really informative for everyone else. it is starting to get exciting now because we are going to be workingon our film. alex, alyssa, liz and i are going to do to a 20/20/christopher guest/mock-documentary style film on a girl obsessed with mean pies. genious, i know. thanks alex.

i just got back from the notorioius 2078. we were watching the beginning of the second season to LOST which is bad news. that is all that will be going on for the next 4-5 days. just a forwarning.

we are thinking about wine tasting this weekend, possibly a show, definitely dance and surfing. the uni gym is pretty key. went today, lots of aussie boys for liz and dee to scope out. lots.

still sore from camp, also have a rash burn on my neck from the wettie. yea, we were real, bad-ass surfers this weekend.

xo,
a.

sydney

so everything had been insane. honestly. from when we left bondi and came here it has been all about class, school. orientation and going out. not that it hasn't been incredible, its just been a little chaotic.

first day we got here we discovered how ripped off my room mate and i were in our room. honestly, i mean it is better than rich floor three, but it is pretty freakin small. the place we are staying is called unilodge and it is pretty much like a hotel. they give you everything you need...except they forgot to give us a couch so we just stole one from the common room. the first weekend was full of boat cruises, surf lessons, free food and drinks with the professors and advisors and pregamming with our floors mates.

we pretty much have a team of friends that rock. we all pregame everynight by playing kings in joeys room on the deck, drinking a bottle of sparkling wine named "pink" between lizzy and i, and knocking each other about our pasts, presents and futures. we all know each other too well already that we are making fun of each other and calling one another out.



weve gone out to a plethora of places. first night we went to a grungy bar because no one wanted to pay a cover at abercrombie hotel. then we went to abercrombie hotel the next night and rocked our asses off. lizzy and i clicked way too much and integrated the running man into australian culture. we jumped on the dance floor with some guy dancing alone and a lesbian couple and started the dance party that ended with a lost purse and sore feet.

the next day lizzy and i explored the sydney dance company. we signed up for classes and learned an amazing dance to sexy back. it was amazing and fun. on our way home we went to china town where they were having a spanish fiesta with a mix of australian and latin culture. we had sushi for the second time that day and went home to listen to music and chill.

the beginning of the week was insane. we started classes, which for us film students are 5 and a half hours long. we had two guest speakers this week, one of which was peter faiman (director of croc dundee) which was pretty cool considering i grew up on that film and it was one of the reasons i wanted to come to australia in the first place. the video production class is hard to sit through though, at least for alex, alyssa, jake and i. this is about our 5th time learning about composition, exposure, story boards and types of shots.

the other class we are taking is about australian culture and society. this week we learned about aboriginals and how they each kangaroo pizza.

the other night i went out with the boys to the star city casino. it was a riot. i played craps and blackjack and won a good amount of money at the slots. it was good to be out with the boys, even though it doesn't even compare to my boys at home.

we are off at 6 today to travel north for a three day surf camp. it should be amazing. it is kinda chilly here right now but it is a little closer to the equator so we are keeping our heads high. we get surfboards and wetsuits and everything, so it should be fun no matter what.

all in all, it has been amazing and crazy and hectic. it is fun here and i just had a meeting with my advisor who is thinking that he wants to send me out to be a PA for my internship. that is exactly what i wanted to do and it makes me really really excited that he had faith in me that i can do that and that he is willing to send me out as a representative from boston university for a position like that. it is going to start getting academically insane when we get back from the surf camp, so who knows what is going to go on.

ill keep you all posted. sorry i have been a loser with postings. heres some pictures :)