You can now call me Master

So, I did it.
I'm done.
Finished.
All my tests, reports, projects, have been submitted.
Now I get to wait for the university to confirm that I did (and passed!) everything and I will have a Masters degree!
(And then, I guess, find a job?! What is a job?! To use one of my favorite scenes from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia....)

(Also, while I'm at it, here's my all time favorite scene from It's Always Sunny. I cannot NOT laugh whenever I watch this...hope you enjoy it as much as I do!)

In the month since I've been back in Australia after the wedding, all I've pretty much been doing is finishing up projects and studying for finals, so not too many exciting stories to tell. I did the Coogee to Bondi Coastal Walk again, because they have this event called Sculptures by the Sea every Spring. The name pretty much says it all; they put sculpture, by the sea, along the coastal walk. 

Lego trees and flowers, of course I had to smell them. They smelt of plastic and sunshine.

Tamarama Beach, with sculptures (by the Sea!)

One of my favs

These things were neat. As the wind blew, a propellor at the top spun a stick that hit the bamboo pole, making a cool noise.

For Halloween, there is one other American that lives in my apartment building, so she organized a Halloween party for us all. Australians don't really do Halloween, so she had her parents ship over a bunch of decorations and candy from the US for the event. This year, I was a panda, and my genius costume making skills won me the costume contest at our party. Yay! 

No panda is complete without their favorite yummy snack, a stick of bamboo!

When I came back from the US, my friend Momoka requested I bring all the fixings for some good ol' American S'mores. Marshmallows in Australia and New Zealand are weird, they're not like what we would typically think of as a 'mallow. I splurged and instead of getting the generic brands, I made sure to get real Jet Puffed marshmallows, Honey Maid graham crackers, and Hershey's chocolate, because NONE of our international friends had EVER had a S'more! Tragic, I know! So, we had to make sure their first time was good! And, my fellow American mates needed a taste of home.

We had planned for a beach BBQ again (because it was Julian's last day before heading back home to NZ), but it started raining on us. SO we had to improvise and roast our mallows inside over the stove. :) Still got the job done! We had to explain that you don't just stick the marshmallow straight into the flame (which MANY of them did right away!), that there is an art to perfectly toasting the marshmallow so when you stick it between the crackers and chocolate, it squishes down to melted gooey perfection. It took them a few tries, but in the end, they all mastered it and now understand why S'mores have the name they do!  ;)

Momoka teaching the non-Americans how it's done.

Kate showing off her finished product, with Jared stuffing his face, clearly enjoying his first S'more!

All right, time for me lower myself into the job cannon.

I don't know if my student health insurance covers that.

PEACE.

Home is Where the Really Tasty Pizza Is (And Heart, I suppose)

Yes, I realize it's already been a month since my last post; sorry again, Grandma. BUT I say it's alright since I got to see you in person a week ago Grandma! So, the long wait for a post was worth it?  :)

Here's a quick synopsis of what I got up to on my vacation home. Since it really wasn't a vacation because I was missing my classes to go home, but it was worth it! (However, I now am paying for it. I don't think I'm going to sleep much these next few weeks....too many assignments!)

I flew out of Sydney the 28th, Friday morning, and after 20+ hours of travel, landed in Minneapolis at 2pm on Friday the 28th. Time travel is fun.

Sydney area from the plane.

 Friday night Mom cooked me my favorite meatballs (yay!), and I then went to see Hannah and Jessie's new house!

Saturday morning, after a dress fitting, I headed out to South Dakota to see Little Brother. There was a SDSU football game that night, and a kind old man gave me a free ticket!

During half-time there was a steer auction. Yes, they were selling cows for the half-time entertainment. Welcome back to the Midwest Erin!

We are so darn attractive. Little Brother decided to blink right as I snapped the picture, and I am visibly very tired, still clearly on Sydney time!

After the football game I headed to Sioux Falls to stay with Becca, now officially Nurse Becca! Sunday was a lazy knitting and chick flicks day, and Monday I slept while Becca had her first day of work. Also on Monday we went to Pizza Ranch. Yum! As the title of this post says, pizza in New Zealand and Australia just isn't quite the same as pizza in the US. They have Pizza Hut and Dominoes, but there is something different about the way they make it, it's just not quite as tasty. I think it's the crust.

Tuesday I left Sioux Falls and went to Grandma's house for more delicious food, my favorite Gma lasagna. Megan could smell the lasagna from home, so her and Mom decided to join in too.  :)

Wednesday I went to the cities to have lunch with dear ol' Bill, Tracie, and Sue, my best buddies from 3M, and guess what we ate? Pizza! This time it was at the Black Sheep, a pizza place in St Paul we visited frequently while I still worked there. For supper that night I met up with friends and we watched the Presidential debate...once again, welcome back to the US! I am definitely NOT upset that I am out of the country during an election year, this way I can at least attempt to filter all the political mumbo-jumbo that's thrown at us. :) This surprised me, it took almost 3.5 days for me to see my first political ad on TV; I was expecting that to be the first thing I saw when I turned the TV on!

Thursday I spent the day finishing up my wedding gifts for Hannah and Jessie. Since the wedding was in October, and October is cold, and I'm poor (mostly because I'm poor) I decided to knit them their gifts. Hannah I knitted a pretty light pink shawl, that took me a loooooooong time to make because there was so much detail, and unfortunately I don't have a photo of the finished project. Jessie's gift, I was expecting either a look of confusion when he opened it (a "What in the world did you make Erin? This is ridiculous.") OR uncontained excitement. I got the latter! I knew Jessie likes nice warm winter hats, but hats don't do a good job of keeping your face warm, and let's be honest, ski masks are just creepy. So, Jessie got a thick comfy warm hat with bonus detachable beard for those cold mornings when he needs to shovel the driveway! Becca found the process of me making the beard quite entertaining, as I would hold up the partly finished beard to my face and ask, "Does this look ok?!" She would then give me the "What in the world did you make Erin? This is ridiculous" face that I was expecting from Jessie.  :)

Here it is, right after I finished putting it all together. I tried it on to make sure it looked alright, and couldn't stop laughing at how awesome (how silly) it was.  :) There's a pic of Jessie wearing it somewhere out there.

Then, Thursday night for supper Mom and I had, you guessed it, PIZZA! This time it was Godfathers, our traditional bacon cheeseburger pizza. Yum. (And even after all this pizza, I still somehow fit into my bridesmaid dress!)

Friday early afternoon I headed over to (now no longer) Hannah's house to help get the tent set up and looking beautiful for the reception. (Which, Hannah, Colleen and Co., the reception/tent/wedding was beautiful! I'd say all the hard work was worth it!) The rehearsal was that night, followed by the groom's dinner at Hannah and Jessie's house.

No pizza at the dinner, but they did have smoked ribs, and I'm certain that just between Jessie and Kyle, they consumed at least 3 pigs worth of ribs.

 Saturday was the big day! The gals arrived at the church at 9:30am to make ourselves pretty.

Putting the finishing touches on the brides hair :)

Pictures outside in short dresses in October? What could go wrong? It could start snowing, which it did!

The bride lookin' sassy :)

Discussing important wedding stuff? 

D'awww

Although not clear in the photo, Colleen spent most of the afternoon running around in her beautiful dress, while wearing gumboots :) 

Post-ceremony shot with the lucky groom. Look how excited he is!

Blurry first dance shot, 7 years in the making  :D

After an afternoon of chilly pictures, a beautiful ceremony (which, of course I cried during), and an awesome reception (which Dad stayed for the ENTIRE TIME! You know it was enjoyable if my Father stayed all the way to the end), it was time to pass out and try to get some sleep before my flight back to Sydney the next day. My flight left Minneapolis at 7:30pm on Sunday the 7th, and I landed in Sydney at 8am on Tuesday the 9th, again after about 20 hours of travel. I had about 5 hours to gather my thoughts before I had to head back to class again...and try really really really hard to not fall sleep during it!

So, now I've got 4 tests, 1 essay, and 2 final projects standing between me and my degree....and only 4 weeks to do it in....whew, here I go.

And, as you know...

Peace.  (")>

Mid Semester Break - Australia

Well, the semester is half over already, only about 9 more weeks of uni and I'll be done....that's slightly terrifying.

Last week was our mid semester break and I stayed in Sydney for it because 1) Mom and I had already hit most of the top spots to see in Australia on our adventure, 2) I had an essay due the Monday after break that's worth 40% of my final mark, and 3) I had just bought my plane tickets to come home for Hannah and Jessie's wedding the week before, so that's going to be my vacation for the semester. :)

I didn't just sit in my room all week though! Here's what I've been up to.

Christelle went back to Mauritius the last week of August. :( She did the UNSW semester last year, and finished the degree in New Zealand, but came back to Sydney for 2 months for the graduation and she has family here. On her last weekend here we went out to Featherdale Wildlife Park, which Mom went to after I left for my field trip and she explored alone (so yes Mom, I saw the koala named Sheila) :)

It's a game, spot the owl.

David getting a little too close to the kookaburra's big beak than I was comfortable with.

Momoka and a wallaby.

We were trying to figure out how in the world that was comfy...sleeping with a stick in your bum, alright Sheila :)

Tasmanian Devil, which are actually kinda ugly

During the break I did the Coogee to Bondi Coastal walk (that Mom attempted to do while she was here, but ran out of sunlight). Coogee beach is about a 20 minute walk from my apartment, so we walked to Coogee, up to Bondi, relaxed on the beach for a few hours, then took the bus back. It was a gorgeous Spring day for a leisurely stroll.

See Ma, I did it. (The sand just to the right of my head is Bondi Beach)

Then, on Sunday I made my way back to Bondi Beach for the Festival of the Winds. I don't know how the festival started, but it was an excuse for everyone to fly kites, which made for a really neat day.

So many kites! They were so pretty

Someone even had a penguin kite, but I couldn't find the owner to steal it.

Watching the kites, decided to try and dig my way back to MN instead of paying for the flights; this is all the farther I could make it.

Watched these dancing kites for longer than I'll care to admit. They're so cool.

The break is over, but Australia's Spring is finally here. The same can't be said for New Zealand. My poor poor friends back in Wellington had to deal with 90 mph wind speeds over the weekend and snow today. As much as I love that city, I definitely don't miss the weather sometimes. My moped would NOT have liked that wind (and I wouldn't have liked the snow)!

Peace.

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree

Here's a follow-up to my favorite birds of New Zealand post from earlier this year...

Favorite birds of Australia!

Sitting at my desk, trying to write an essay, and I definitely miss the almost constant song of the tui birds just outside my window during the day, and the morepork after sunset. However, there are a few fun birds that I hear outside my window here in Sydney! (Also, surprise! They have the morepork owl here, but they call it the Southern Boobook. I haven't heard it in Sydney)

I thought to write this post because there was JUST a kookaburra sitting outside my window laughing, but he flew away before I could take his picture.

Remember the old nursery rhyme?

They really do sound like they are laughing monkeys!

This is the Australian magpie, they are EVERYWHERE in Sydney, but at least they have a neat call

AND, another sound I hear often, but it was always at night. I first thought it was a parakeet or cockatoo, but why would I only hear it at night?! Then, I discovered the source of the call, the flying foxes. They are Australia's largest bats. Interesting fact; they eat only fruit, which makes their poo so acidic that sometimes if they drop it on your car, it will take the paint right off.  :)

PEACE.

I'm still here, just really boring

Hello again

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. It's been awhile. Like a month awhile. That's what happens when I start school again. Sorry Grandma.  :)

So, Mom and I had our epic adventure; it was quite epic, and quite the adventure. We did more cool stuff on this trip than most ever do. She's been back home for over a month and still isn't done with the New Zealand portion of her Shutterfly scrapbook. She normally can whip those things out like crazy. (Hmmm, does that mean I should start on MY New Zealand portion of my scrapbook?)

What have I been up to? Not a whole lot really. Since our epic adventure, I've only taken about 5 pictures on my camera. I haven't been back to the beach yet. It got quite chilly here the last few weeks. Which I was warned about. They told me that August is the coldest month, but then once September hits it starts to warm up quick. I even had to wear my down winter jacket a few times last week. We had some Wellington-like weather; lots of wind and rain (but not nearly as cold!)

After Mom left I went on a 4 day field trip for one of my classes up to Smith's Lake, which is about a 4 hour drive north of Sydney. It's an estuary system (that's from time to time open to the ocean) that has various zones of conservation status, and our project for the entire semester is to determine whether these zones are doing an accurate job of protecting the lake.

Since it's occasionally open to the ocean, there's lots of marine creatures in the lakes....like hundreds of jellyfish! They were so cool. BUT there was so many of them, that as we were zooming around the lake in our tiny boats, every once in a while the motor went Bump! as it lopped off a chunk of jellyfish. Whoops.

Doing some real important science-y stuff. Note; we weren't worried about drowning in 2 feet of water, the life jackets stayed on to keep us warm! (It was really cold out)

More super important science. I was in charge of driving our boat, and only almost drove us into the shore like, once....

Getting our super important science stuff ready, also know as string tied around PVC pipes.

The Friday I got back from the field trip, the place I am living at had a boat cruise around the Sydney harbor at night. It was a good way to meet my new roommates (since I had moved in, was there for 3 days, then left right away for the field trip) AND I got to see the harbor bridge, Opera House and downtown all lit up at night. The apartments I am living in are university housing, but it's all post-grad students or final year undergrads. We also have community events ALL the time. Like at least every week there is something going on. Which is pretty cool too, cause it forces me to be sociable. The majority of people living here are international students as well, so I get to continue my international fun. For example, in my apartment, there are 6 of us; 1 American (that's me!), 1 Malaysian, 1 Jamaican, 1 Iranian, 1 from the Philippines, and 1 from Bangladesh. We are quite the mixture, but (so far, and it's been a month so hopefully will stay this way) all get along very well. Also, and I don't know how this happened, I'm still a little confused, because of all of our events, or just because they felt like it, my apartment has a mascot; it's a penguin, and his name is Frank. He makes a guest appearance most all our events. Weird that we have a mascot, I know. Even weirder that it's a penguin, just my luck, right?!

Here he is, Frank the Fat Penguin, in the courtyard of my apartment building. (Look Ma, he likes jumping too!)

What else happened....Oh, Hanah came to Sydney for a visit! Her Mom and Aunts decided to go on a vacation to Sydney so Hanah came with as well so we could see each other again! I met them down by the harbor because not only was it gorgeous outside, but there was a food festival going on as well. So we wandered downtown Sydney, the Opera House, festival, etc and had a grand ol' time together again!

Most all the pictures from Hanah's visit were taken on her camera, this is one of the few I snapped. Just the Opera House from a different angle. Not that exciting.

Alright, I'm going to go to sleep. Hopefully my life gets more exciting soon so there's not a month's break between posts again. :) Or maybe it just needs to get warmer so I can go to the beach and learn how to surf...because I am going to do that before I leave. I will! I will successfully stand up on a surf board.

As you know

PEACE.

Mom and Erin's Adventure Ends

Saturday night. I leave for my field trip in the morning and Mom is taking off to the Blue Mountains....driving through Sydney on the left side of the road all by herself. Gasp! Do we think she can make it?! I have her route highlighted on the map for her and she has turn-by-turn directions written out, and she's leaving at 8am on a Sunday, so hopefully traffic is at a minimum.

Finally settled into my apartment here in Sydney. For those that want it, here's my new snail-mail address:

42 Wallaby Way
Sydney
NSW 2033

I'm about a 20 minute drive to downtown and the harbor/Opera house area, and about a 10 minute drive to the beach!

Here's what we've been up to;

Mom went to Fraser Island by herself...I don't know which are her favorite pics, so I just chose a few

Fraser Island ship wreck 

So excited for a lighthouse! At Byron Bay

Easternmost point of Australia, at Byron Bay. We saw humpback whales there!

Koala at the Koala hospital in Port Macquarie. They nurse injured koalas back to health then release them to where they were found, or keep them there indefinitely if they're too sick to survive back in the wild. Injuries can be anything from being hit by a car, attacked by a dog, or a chlamydia infection (yes, koalas can get chlamydia!)

One of their patients getting a massage for a bum leg

Wandering UNSW

Coogee Beach, the beach that's only 10 minutes from my apartment

Waverley Cemetery between Coogee and Bondi Beach 

Sydney Harbor Bridge

My classmates Julian and Kate joined us down by the harbor, and decided Mom and I needed a jumping picture together

Sydney Opera House and Harbor Bridge

Bondi Beach

Relaxed at Bondi Beach this afternoon, reading and watching the surfers

So, after 3 weeks together we finally part ways again tomorrow for another few months. After exploring the Blue Mountains, Mom flies home on Tuesday the 17th.

Filemu.