Last week and this week were wild. Last week was the week where I had 3 tests on monday and tuesday. So the rest of the week, I decided to have fun. Wednesday, my friends and I had our usual (new tradition) wednesday night barbie at the Coogee Beach. Heaps of people turned up, so it was pretty much a party outside :) It was a lot of fun!

On thursday, I agreed to go on a date with a guy I met at the fitness center, but nothing came out of that. I guess I said yes, but don't really like him in the end; we're very different.

Friday I visited Cabramatta, one of the cultural hubs in Sydney, mostly Vietnamese. I actually went to visit it because we needed to do our essay on it for my sociology class. Afterwards, I met up with Ryan and Bryant to talk about our trip to New Zealand, and then went out that night to a place called 3 Wise Monkeys. They had a band playing cover songs and popular music and oldies so it was a lot of fun. I went with Ryan, Bryant and Sarah. Joelle was the one who made us want to go, but she was too tired to come out :( Oh well, we had fun. Bryant introduced us to a really nice beer called St Anoud St Cloud. it was light and citrusy and refreshing, very nice!

This week, I had to write my 2000-word paper on Australian multiculturalism and vietnamese immigration... It was a big pain to write, since I really dislike writing essays. I also had to find lots of academic sources: Wikipedia doesn't count :( So I handed that in today and now I have no more assignments or tests to study for until finals! Woohoo!

I attempted to go for a run on tuesday evening. It turned out to be very unstructured between periods of jogging and periods of walking, for a total of about 20 minutes of which 15 were jogging! That's good right? But now, even 2 days later, I'm still sore: my calves and back :(

I still went to the weekly Coogee barbeque yesterday, and ended up staying there until 10pm! And still had to finish my essay! But I'm glad I went because I met some really nice people!! It's okay though, I managed to submit my essay on time, got 8 hours of sleep and spend most of today making Budinca de Spanac, one of my favorite dishes, yet didnt get to eat it :(

Last week I told Jonas I was going to make some spinach dish anyways and he wrote me on msn in big letters with a happiface and everything that he loves spinach so i thought it would be a good idea. I admit I kind of invited myself, but it's okay if it involves free dinner right? It could probably serve 6 people a good meal or 12 people side dish (I made it in a rectangular baking dish) but he didn't want me to come over in the end. I really like him and his housemates and his place, it's really homey! I understand he had to do work, but hey!! it's free food! and good food! with spinach! and me! One of his excuses was that it was his turn to cook. That's not a reason... it's an odd one anyway. Oh well, he just didn't want a guest. Maybe I should have called one of his housemates, but it's okay. Instead I went over to Courtneys, brought bbq chicken, and indulged by getting myself lamingtons, a magazine and a bottle of wine :) We were about 15 people and had a huge family style dinner. That kind of gathering makes me really warm and fuzzy and happy inside :) We ate and talked and talked some more! Then we watched Pirates of the Carribbean 2 and I ended up arriving home at 1h30 am! What a fun evening! Dinner parties, potlucks, barbeques are such good fun! Must have more of those back in Montreal.

xxoooo hugzzz

Sorry I had to...

Hey My parents had trouble downloading the pictures on http://karensb.myphotoalbum.com so I had to delete some of the older stuff so that they could see the newer stuff.

xo

MechSoc, the weather, fashion and food!

It's funny. Now and back in Montreal, I always have the bedroom that doesn't get the sun. I learnt in my PV class that having the sun in the window isn't the way to have an energy efficient house, but I think it'd be cool to wake up with the sun in my face. I never have that feeling. Maybe that's why I sleep in late all the time, because it doesn't get truly light in my room.

The weather in Montreal I hear, is actually warmer than in Sydney. Here, it's probably 10-15 degrees at night and gets warmer throughout the day and get's to be pretty warm, maybe 20 degrees, between 11 and 2 pm. It's always cool in the shade. The way to dress here is in layers. Very different from Montreal. where even in winter you don't really dress for warmth without the coat because everything is centrally heated. It's winter and there is still air conditioning in classrooms! haha pretty funny when you think about it.

Harry and Celine-----------------Hamish---------------------Mack and Will










I have Mech friends (see above). They're pretty damn awesome people, Mech Eng sort of makes people cooler I find :) Definitely not replacing any of my awesome MechEng friends back home, but I'm going to miss them when I leave. "when I leave" is a more common conversation topic nowadays. THere are 2 weeks left of classes before finals then everyone is either leaving or traveling or staying for a year or for a degree. I'm going to travel. I am defnitely going to Brisbane during the 2nd week of July and maybe longer, see Rajiv and Sam in Brisbane, then traveling down the coast of New South Wales back to Sydney with Joelle. I was thinking maybe I should do a trip to Northern Australia, because you can't come to Australia and not see Uluru!! But it's so far!! Plus, Catherine and I want to travel for 2 weeks after she's done work and I really want to go to Thailand. (or Malaysia or Indonesia). And that trip will be a lot of money as well...

I attended MechSoc (Mech Eng Society) staff-student meeting and it's very different to MAME meetings (not that I've been on mame council but i've attended a number of times!) It was so official, no real mech council positions except the president. And apparently there wasn't even a council until this year or the year before. The meeting was mostly about computing issues in the Mechanical Engineering building. the students addressing those issues to the staff and discuss what can be done. It was an informative meeting, but I want to know about the events!! Hahah There's an Eng Ball in October :( I won't be here. There's a Mech Eng Harbour cruise (maybe equivalent to mech banquet) next semester in august (Maybe i'll be there). Next week there's a homebrew competition haha that should be funny!


I've gotten to the point where I don't need to bring a map when I go anywhere. It's not just not that I stop bringing a map, but a month or a month and a half ago, but I just wanted to mention it. I know street names and where I am most of the time. I know which busses to take and I really feel I know this place, it's my home (for now).

Fashion here is weird. I assume it's the same fashion in canada too. But I don't like it. for girls... lots of leggings and dark tights, with long shirts as "dresses" and high waisted everything (which isn't so bad when it comes to skirts and business outfits but not for me) and suspenders. Though I really need to get a pair of flats because all I have are running shoes and flip flops and no in between. I don't know what men's fashion is, but I don't like women's fashion. It "gives me the shits". Aussie for it's annoying or agravating. ;)

I love cooking. I think I'm a decent cook :) I definitely enjoy it and try to learn as much as I can. I've made fudge for a party (and made so many friends because of it) And I made Anzac biscuits and managed to bribe someone (as a joke). I made fish at a barbie at the beach a couple of weeks ago and it was so good my friends wanted the recipe, which was basically, put a bit of everything you think would taste good. I think the rule of "add in whatever you have" is a good cooking rule. I bought a baking dish, so that I can now make things in the oven. Like lasagna or chicken.

I live with 4 asians. China China Korea and India. I can't really adopt what the Indian one makes because it involves so many spices that I have no idea what's going on. I'm not that big a fan of curry anyways. But I think I'm turning east-asian. In my cupboard I have rice paper, rice vermicelli, korean seasoned seaweed, aloe drink, soba noodles, those instant noodle packs (but everyone has those). I eat with chopsticks a lot of the time, and sometimes I'll even eat asian food for breakfast (like today) because i dont think they eat a different type of food for breakfast. Bo my Korean flatmate has rice or soup for breakfast. I had my left over chow mein from last night for breakfast today. And at the restaurant yesterday, I had to explain to Joelle all the different kinds of noodles. I made sushi a couple of times too :) I go to the oriental supermarket sometimes and there are so many weird things there, I wish I knew what they were.

A popular dip here is sour cream and sweet chili sauce. Sweet chili sauce is awesome. It makes chicken taste so good with rice, and it's so easy. I crave potato wedges with sour cream and sweet chili sauce (I'll make it when in canada). And things are flavoured always at least that, and also another different flavour is chicken. like for chips. that's so funny!!.

Skype is awesome. I spoke to Marco yesterday!!! I miss Marco!

I miss everyone HEAPS

Thanks to Loksun for the postcard!

Karen is up to this

I've been up to lots of partying especially last week since we had wednesday off because of Anzac Day. Jonas and his house mates (pat, dharma and julian - also fun people) had a house-warming party on that tuesday. And then on wednesday, after getting home eventually (I took a bed for the night at jonas'), my new Mech Eng friend Mack invited me out into the city with Hamish and Will and Lucas (also Mech Eng boys) to a couple pubs. We went to one called Jackson's on George (on George street!) because Mack's brother was actually there with his friends. Apparently on Anzac Day, you start early playing some betting game called Two... something... where there are 2 coins and you either bet both heads or both tails or one head and one tail. So Mack and Hamish and them were out since a long time. Joelle and I only joined them around 7 pm. Joelle and I said we weren't going to drink, but the guys kept buying us schooners so we kept on drinking them. A schooner is the size of one beer usually. Depends on what state you're in. Then we went on to another place called the Paragon, where we played some sort of game where if you put a coin in someone's glass they have to scull (chug) it right away. I got "coined" first so I had to chug. Blah, chugging is annoying. Joelle and I taught them our drinking song and they have one too.

Here's to _______, he's (she's) true blue.
He's (she's) a hasher through and through,
He's (she's) a pisspot so they say.
Tried to get to heaven, But he (she) went the other way.
Drinking down, down, down, down,
Down, down, down, down,
Down, down, down, down,
Down, down, down, down.

Lucas eventually got himself kicked out, he's pretty crazy. He's czech also and was impressed on my counting abilities hehe. Will went outside with Lucas. Mack left to meet up with his bro for a lift home so Hamish, Joelle and I went for pancakes. By then it was still pretty early (about 10 pm) but they had been drinking all day so it's been a long day for them. Pancakes at 10 pm seemed like a good idea at the time (really yummy!!!) but then when I got home, I kept on burping pancakes flavor and didn't enjoy it at all.

On saturday, some of our fellow exchange students had a party at their place. It was really fun. Most of the people there were exchange students so I knew a lot of people.

This week has been very warm. And by very I mean just about 23 degrees at the highest. But during midday and the sun is out, you just lie on the grass in front of the library and the heat feels so good. The reason it's a bit chilly and it's actually autumn nowadays is because of the more or less constant breeze. Yesterday I fell asleep in the grass for a bit and I was probably playing there for 15-25 minutes and then realized I got slightly burnt just being out there, at 11am by the way. I noticed a line on my skin. It wasn't really red and within the next hour, the line faded and the reddish hue became golden hue, so that's good.

Today Joelle and I and her friend Courtney (from Georgia Tech) had a barbeque at Coogee Beach. It was fun, even though it was dark. I figured I needed to buy fish so I got some of the cheapest ones at the supermarket. I don't know how to cook fish. I don't think I've ever even tried to. one of the fish piecces I got was african cod I think ?? Anyways, I wrapped it up in Aluminum foil and didn't really know what to put on it so I just put a bit of everything I had in the fridge : tomato, onion, garlic, oil, salt, pepper, paprika, spinach, lemon and wrapped it up and left it to cook for about 15 minutes and it was actually really good. It cooked nicely and the flavors were really nice. I also made them garlic bread. My stuff turned out delicious :) And I feel like bragging about it to everyone.

After that, we headed to Jonas' place as we promised them about a month ago that we'd come over and make them cookies. They had all the ingredients, well except for the chocolate chips, but everything else. Joelle and I made the cookies.. they helped a bit, but it was a lot of fun because they are a lot of fun and cookies make it so much better hehehe ;) They turned out pretty good. I ate a lot of them, and brought a few home... And I can smell them from a meter away and everytime I get a sniff of chocolate chip cookies I have to stop mysefl from eating them because i'm still so full!

So Tanya's in Swiss for the summer. That's crazy huh?! Yup.