slacker. i know.
so yea, way to keep your blog updated, andie. nearly a month has gone by and i have filled anyone one in on what is going on.
since melbourne there has been a few highlights:
lots of surfing
fox studios
darling harbor
spanish festival
sneaky sound system
cairns
whit sundays
boston
so first and most importantly, the surf. im still obsessed with manly, which is amazing. my board is my baby, but unfortunately i think that i am going to have to sell it before i leave because i can't bring it to asia with me. that's alright though. that means some extra dough right away when i get back to boston. corey and i caught some serious waves and i am actually starting to do some tricks.
i had my interview at fox studios and i am actually sitting at work right now. i am working for spectrum films within fox studios which is a post-production company who hosts several diffrent productions at a time. most of the productions that they host are in the editing process, but there are some who are shooting and hanging out during pre-production as well. it is basically a host facility. anyways, fox studios is awesome. it used to be a theme park and has old buidlings surrounding my office. they still have the old ride names posted up all over the place, popcorn stands and cafes. every wednesday there is a market where there are flowers, fresh fruits, vegetables, honey, breads, etc. its super cute. i had a turkish lunch today. next week i think i will finalyl try ethiopian.
i think that i have found my favorite place to go out. i love darling harbor. it is amazing. the bars and the atmosphere and the places that you can just cruz around to. anna and i went last weekend and it was too much fun. it was on a saturday after the horse races (which we didn't go to) but everyone in the bars was dressed like a flapper from the races. it was amazing. we went to bungalow 8, cargo (snuck in twice by acting like we were very important people) and have checked out slip in recently which was great as well.
the spanish fireworks and festival was at the darling harbor the week before. it was a fun night. fireworks over the water while sitting at HOME bar drinking fancy drinks. i think that i had one drink which i bought for myself. the other ones were thanks to the bartender wearing a thrift ski-sweater and faux-hawk and older gentlemen who approached us intrigued by our views on american vs. australian politics.
the weekend before spring break, we had a three day weekend. on sunday night we went to the entertainment quarter in fox studios to the forum to see sneaky sound system. they are a bondi beach based electronica band with funk and style. the concert was amazing. afterwards, jackie, alex and i met up with anna and we hit up havana bar on oxford. everyone in there was filled with drugs and there were girls wearing bathing suits accompanying the sunglasses which everyone in there was wearing.
last week we had our "spring" break in the middle of october. my last spring break ever. tear. a whole group of us went up to cairns. we stayed at a hostel called calypso. it was pretty groovy, very backpacker oriented and a lil more tropical than what we have been used to in sydney. our first night, we decided to go into town and check out gilligans. we had plans to get pretty toasty to help us sleep that night since we were going to be sky diving the next day (our nerves were getting to us a lil). the bar was a total sausage fest. the men were disgusting...i mean they were all pretty good looking, but their mannerisms and the way that they were looking, touching and making expressions towards women was degrading and frowned upon by all of us american girls. we went home at around 2 am and got in bed, ready to wake up 5 hours later to plunge towards the earth from a plane 14,000 feet high.
in the morning i awoke alex, "alex...its time to go jump out of a plane now." our canadian roomie chuckled as we all nervously got ready. cass, alex, lizzy, justin and i all went outside to wait for the bus with the other victims. we took a two hour bus ride to mission beach where we pulled up to a building on a random road and it was then our stomachs dropped. we looked over and found the tiny ass plane that we would soon be jumping out of.
it was a ten seater plane, eleven with the pilot. tiny. we walked over "inside" of the office/building. it was an open room with people doing yoga and rolling up the parachutes into the tiny ass backpacks which would be our mere means of survival. terrified, we all just sat at a picnic table waiting for our names to be called. we were called into the office and checked out a previous tape of a guy sky diving. it was motivating in two senses. it motivated me to get a video and it actually was reassuring to visually see someone survive it and the way that he felt during it. he love it. he was so thrilled and happy.
we waited around for about three hours until it was our turn. when it was, this russian dude, igor, came up to me and told me that he would be my tandem master. "i am igor (pronounced eye-gore) from russia. i have been parachuting for two months and i used to be a male gigallo." smart ass. he strapped me into the harness which felt incredibly loose and unsafe. everyone else got buckled up as we did our interview with our tandem master's video cameras and hung out.
the walk to the plane was the scariest walk i have ever had in my entire life.
i felt like there should have been bad ass theme music playing as we walked. we all piled on into the plane and i pretty much had to sit on igor's lap. another tandem master was in front of me and lizzy in front of him. alex sat across from us since she was the first one diving. her tandem master, issy, whipped out a turkey sandwich on rye and started eating it as the plane was ascending 2,000....3,000 feet. they finally closed the door at about 4,000 feet. as i looked out the window...i asked igor, "how high are we, are we about there?"
he smiled and showed me his measurement watch...4,200 feet only!!
traveling up 10,000 more feet...i swear i could see the world curving at the skyline. the ground looked like i was looking at it from a satelite and alex got ready to go. they rocked, rocked...fell. i couldn't really see that much becasue jake and lizzy were in front of me. lizzy went while igor was strapping me in, didn't see her. cassidy moves up to the door. rock...rock...plunge. that was when it happened. i couldn't speak. i just saw my friend fall out of an airplane and get sucked down by the gravity of the earth. it was as if you stuck him into one of those tubes at the bank that suck up money...although it was just falling into nothingness. blue skies all around as igor pushed me up to the door. i help onto both ends and sat on the ledge of the plan. i held on for dear life, nervous that if we fell too soon or anything bad were to happen, everything would go wrong. all i could see was blue...straight ahead, there was a dark rim of blue where the earth curved down. rock...rock...suck. we got sucked down...it hit me, this could be the last two minutes of my life. free falling towards the earth...flipping around, spinning out of control. my legs were swinging around like crazy and igor wrapped his legs around mind to keep them from flailing around. the cold wind pinched my face and my mouth was completely dry in five seconds. we free fell for 60 seconds. 60 seconds of pure fear, full of the realization that i am alive, more alive than ever.
the parachute opened when we were just under 4,000 feet. "AMAZING! UNBELIEVABLE! HOLY SHIT" i kept yelling in between telling him that i loved him for saving my life. we coasted down over the great barrier reef and landed on the beach. i couldn't believe i was on the ground. this was the ground that i was just falling towards 120 mph. this was the ground beneath me as i plummeted towards the earth. i was alive and felt incredible.
that night was a shit show. happy that we were alive we went out to the woolshed in cairns and partied. we showed our skydiving videos at the hostel on the big screen and everyone watched as jack johnson and bob marley played in the background. everytime i watch the video i relive the experience and it makes me so happy.
the next day we took a two hour boat ride out to the great barrier reef. we started off my goig snorkling. half an hour later we got a 10 minute crash course on scuba diving...got geared up and went under. i was terrified. i think i was more nervous to scuba than to jump out of a plane. i did it though, and i am happy i did. it was beautiful and an amazing experience.
after snorkling...we traveled down to airlie beach on a 12 hour over night bus ride on a greyhound. miserable. i sat in front of this dutch girl with enormously long legs...causing me to not be able to lay my seat back and i ended up laying in alex's lap. we got there and it was raining. we went to our boat and it was beautiful. the most amazing boat ever. it was named the pacific sunrise. the next four days consisted of fabulous food, wine, snorkling, cliff jumping into lagoons, beaches made of coral. it was great. it was a sad day when we docked which also led to a sad next 24 hours where our plane got delayed...cancelled...left with no accomodations or transportation in the middle of no where airport with two gates both outside. did i mention it was in the middle of nowhere?
got back to sydney on sunday afternoon. wanted to check my email, chat with long lost friends, be re-connected to the world. i had 1511 emails, 5 myspace messages, etc. insane, right? i started work two days ago. i am currently at spectrum films within fox studios australia. i take two buses to work every morning...start work at nine, hang out on the computer, visit the editing rooms and talk to wicked people. its a cool company, they host facilities for post-production work. today i helped organize and file through film rolls and stuff.
there is some good news: i am going to be traveling to south east asia (thailand, laos, cambodia, vietnam) as my graduation gift in december. i will be leaving the day of my final exam on dec. 12 and coming back to boston around the 29th. i will be working at match on new years eve to be helping out and hopefully working on a film and visiting my friends/family in boston. i dont know how long i am going to be there or what i am going to be doing besides working, but i am excited, so excited to see everyone. i dont know how long i am going to be there for since i am going to be moving to la with morgan (YAY) but when i am there i would love to see you. especially those of you i haven't seen for a year (coughcoughbeccachristiecough).
please let me know how you are all living and how your life is going. my email: averbance@gmail.com. i would love to hear about your lives, gossip, friends, families, classes, so that i can be caught up when i get back ;) lots of love.
xo,a
since melbourne there has been a few highlights:
lots of surfing
fox studios
darling harbor
spanish festival
sneaky sound system
cairns
whit sundays
boston
so first and most importantly, the surf. im still obsessed with manly, which is amazing. my board is my baby, but unfortunately i think that i am going to have to sell it before i leave because i can't bring it to asia with me. that's alright though. that means some extra dough right away when i get back to boston. corey and i caught some serious waves and i am actually starting to do some tricks.
i had my interview at fox studios and i am actually sitting at work right now. i am working for spectrum films within fox studios which is a post-production company who hosts several diffrent productions at a time. most of the productions that they host are in the editing process, but there are some who are shooting and hanging out during pre-production as well. it is basically a host facility. anyways, fox studios is awesome. it used to be a theme park and has old buidlings surrounding my office. they still have the old ride names posted up all over the place, popcorn stands and cafes. every wednesday there is a market where there are flowers, fresh fruits, vegetables, honey, breads, etc. its super cute. i had a turkish lunch today. next week i think i will finalyl try ethiopian.
i think that i have found my favorite place to go out. i love darling harbor. it is amazing. the bars and the atmosphere and the places that you can just cruz around to. anna and i went last weekend and it was too much fun. it was on a saturday after the horse races (which we didn't go to) but everyone in the bars was dressed like a flapper from the races. it was amazing. we went to bungalow 8, cargo (snuck in twice by acting like we were very important people) and have checked out slip in recently which was great as well.
the spanish fireworks and festival was at the darling harbor the week before. it was a fun night. fireworks over the water while sitting at HOME bar drinking fancy drinks. i think that i had one drink which i bought for myself. the other ones were thanks to the bartender wearing a thrift ski-sweater and faux-hawk and older gentlemen who approached us intrigued by our views on american vs. australian politics.
the weekend before spring break, we had a three day weekend. on sunday night we went to the entertainment quarter in fox studios to the forum to see sneaky sound system. they are a bondi beach based electronica band with funk and style. the concert was amazing. afterwards, jackie, alex and i met up with anna and we hit up havana bar on oxford. everyone in there was filled with drugs and there were girls wearing bathing suits accompanying the sunglasses which everyone in there was wearing.
last week we had our "spring" break in the middle of october. my last spring break ever. tear. a whole group of us went up to cairns. we stayed at a hostel called calypso. it was pretty groovy, very backpacker oriented and a lil more tropical than what we have been used to in sydney. our first night, we decided to go into town and check out gilligans. we had plans to get pretty toasty to help us sleep that night since we were going to be sky diving the next day (our nerves were getting to us a lil). the bar was a total sausage fest. the men were disgusting...i mean they were all pretty good looking, but their mannerisms and the way that they were looking, touching and making expressions towards women was degrading and frowned upon by all of us american girls. we went home at around 2 am and got in bed, ready to wake up 5 hours later to plunge towards the earth from a plane 14,000 feet high.
in the morning i awoke alex, "alex...its time to go jump out of a plane now." our canadian roomie chuckled as we all nervously got ready. cass, alex, lizzy, justin and i all went outside to wait for the bus with the other victims. we took a two hour bus ride to mission beach where we pulled up to a building on a random road and it was then our stomachs dropped. we looked over and found the tiny ass plane that we would soon be jumping out of.
it was a ten seater plane, eleven with the pilot. tiny. we walked over "inside" of the office/building. it was an open room with people doing yoga and rolling up the parachutes into the tiny ass backpacks which would be our mere means of survival. terrified, we all just sat at a picnic table waiting for our names to be called. we were called into the office and checked out a previous tape of a guy sky diving. it was motivating in two senses. it motivated me to get a video and it actually was reassuring to visually see someone survive it and the way that he felt during it. he love it. he was so thrilled and happy.
we waited around for about three hours until it was our turn. when it was, this russian dude, igor, came up to me and told me that he would be my tandem master. "i am igor (pronounced eye-gore) from russia. i have been parachuting for two months and i used to be a male gigallo." smart ass. he strapped me into the harness which felt incredibly loose and unsafe. everyone else got buckled up as we did our interview with our tandem master's video cameras and hung out.
the walk to the plane was the scariest walk i have ever had in my entire life.
i felt like there should have been bad ass theme music playing as we walked. we all piled on into the plane and i pretty much had to sit on igor's lap. another tandem master was in front of me and lizzy in front of him. alex sat across from us since she was the first one diving. her tandem master, issy, whipped out a turkey sandwich on rye and started eating it as the plane was ascending 2,000....3,000 feet. they finally closed the door at about 4,000 feet. as i looked out the window...i asked igor, "how high are we, are we about there?"
he smiled and showed me his measurement watch...4,200 feet only!!
traveling up 10,000 more feet...i swear i could see the world curving at the skyline. the ground looked like i was looking at it from a satelite and alex got ready to go. they rocked, rocked...fell. i couldn't really see that much becasue jake and lizzy were in front of me. lizzy went while igor was strapping me in, didn't see her. cassidy moves up to the door. rock...rock...plunge. that was when it happened. i couldn't speak. i just saw my friend fall out of an airplane and get sucked down by the gravity of the earth. it was as if you stuck him into one of those tubes at the bank that suck up money...although it was just falling into nothingness. blue skies all around as igor pushed me up to the door. i help onto both ends and sat on the ledge of the plan. i held on for dear life, nervous that if we fell too soon or anything bad were to happen, everything would go wrong. all i could see was blue...straight ahead, there was a dark rim of blue where the earth curved down. rock...rock...suck. we got sucked down...it hit me, this could be the last two minutes of my life. free falling towards the earth...flipping around, spinning out of control. my legs were swinging around like crazy and igor wrapped his legs around mind to keep them from flailing around. the cold wind pinched my face and my mouth was completely dry in five seconds. we free fell for 60 seconds. 60 seconds of pure fear, full of the realization that i am alive, more alive than ever.
the parachute opened when we were just under 4,000 feet. "AMAZING! UNBELIEVABLE! HOLY SHIT" i kept yelling in between telling him that i loved him for saving my life. we coasted down over the great barrier reef and landed on the beach. i couldn't believe i was on the ground. this was the ground that i was just falling towards 120 mph. this was the ground beneath me as i plummeted towards the earth. i was alive and felt incredible.
that night was a shit show. happy that we were alive we went out to the woolshed in cairns and partied. we showed our skydiving videos at the hostel on the big screen and everyone watched as jack johnson and bob marley played in the background. everytime i watch the video i relive the experience and it makes me so happy.
the next day we took a two hour boat ride out to the great barrier reef. we started off my goig snorkling. half an hour later we got a 10 minute crash course on scuba diving...got geared up and went under. i was terrified. i think i was more nervous to scuba than to jump out of a plane. i did it though, and i am happy i did. it was beautiful and an amazing experience.
after snorkling...we traveled down to airlie beach on a 12 hour over night bus ride on a greyhound. miserable. i sat in front of this dutch girl with enormously long legs...causing me to not be able to lay my seat back and i ended up laying in alex's lap. we got there and it was raining. we went to our boat and it was beautiful. the most amazing boat ever. it was named the pacific sunrise. the next four days consisted of fabulous food, wine, snorkling, cliff jumping into lagoons, beaches made of coral. it was great. it was a sad day when we docked which also led to a sad next 24 hours where our plane got delayed...cancelled...left with no accomodations or transportation in the middle of no where airport with two gates both outside. did i mention it was in the middle of nowhere?
got back to sydney on sunday afternoon. wanted to check my email, chat with long lost friends, be re-connected to the world. i had 1511 emails, 5 myspace messages, etc. insane, right? i started work two days ago. i am currently at spectrum films within fox studios australia. i take two buses to work every morning...start work at nine, hang out on the computer, visit the editing rooms and talk to wicked people. its a cool company, they host facilities for post-production work. today i helped organize and file through film rolls and stuff.
there is some good news: i am going to be traveling to south east asia (thailand, laos, cambodia, vietnam) as my graduation gift in december. i will be leaving the day of my final exam on dec. 12 and coming back to boston around the 29th. i will be working at match on new years eve to be helping out and hopefully working on a film and visiting my friends/family in boston. i dont know how long i am going to be there or what i am going to be doing besides working, but i am excited, so excited to see everyone. i dont know how long i am going to be there for since i am going to be moving to la with morgan (YAY) but when i am there i would love to see you. especially those of you i haven't seen for a year (coughcoughbeccachristiecough).
please let me know how you are all living and how your life is going. my email: averbance@gmail.com. i would love to hear about your lives, gossip, friends, families, classes, so that i can be caught up when i get back ;) lots of love.
xo,a
posted by andie at 8:58 PM
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