alu- minimum

haha. so today during my chem lecture, my professor is talking and what not and he goes...alu-minimum...pretty much he pronounced the word that we americans know as, aluminum as two separate words. it was hilarious. i wished there was another american in the class with me, so i could have given them a side glance when it was said, but there is only little ol' me, so i had to store that one away and share it with you all. because i know it would be appreciated it.

so this past week has been full of many interesting things. on saturday, we finally got to the aquarium which was definitely worth the 17.00. it was pretty sweet. i'll put up some pictures from those adventures. then, siobhan & I trekked our way over to Newman to hang out with Alycia and Kristen. we proceeded to watch 5 episodes of top chef which was absolutely wonderful. they don't have the wonderous channel of bravo here, so thank god for alycia's sister TIVOing shows for us and then sending them. thank the good lord.

sunday was pretty uneventful for me. i pretty much just got work done. so yea, that was sunday. monday was monica's birthday and that was a lot of fun. we (the girls) went out to dinner at this thai place which was DELICIOUS and then we went to Max Brenner's Chocolate Bar which was unbelievable. i shouldn't use this word because i truly don't have a grasp on the meaning...but if must say, it was orgasmic. haha. the thai place was delicious although the service was lagging behind the serving curve. monica, the birthday girl, was not only the last person to get her meal but she also didnt receive her meal for a solid 20 minutes after our first meal was delivered to our table. so yea i guess you win some and you lose some with this whole not tipping thing. oh, that is another huge difference between the stats and australia. they don't tip waiters and waitresses here. at all. its not customary because the minimum wage here is so high ($18.00/hr) and its just not apart of the culture. they don't even include anything special in the check...it just doesn't exist. strange, huh? but yes, dinner was delicious and they included a delicious slice of chocolate birthday cake. however, dinner was good but dessert was OMG. lol. yea, the chocolate bar was delicious and extremely reasonable. supposedly, there are two max brenner's in the NYC, and i will be frequenting them upon my return to the states. but yes, it was unbelievable. i had a belgian waffle with chocolate syrup and bananas. the description can not do the meal any justice. we then went to the turf club afterwards and that was a lot of fun. the boys met up with us at the turf and it was great per usual.

tuesday was blahh. i should've been much more productive than i was but then wednesday was also very good. classes were class BUT we went out last night and that was awesome. first, siobhan, alycia, monica and I went to this place called bar-nothing which was in north carlton and is known for their 7 cocktails for $20 and they were very excited about that. i was obviously just down for going out, socializing and meeting more people which was very successful as well. the bar was a little bit of a hike but it was a really cool venue which i think will become the wednesday "pre-drink" to P.A.'s. so we met these two aussie boys (twins!) and they were a lot of fun. bar-nothing closed at 11 which was great because it was prime-time for PA's. the heartstopping moment of the night was when we were getting ready to get off the tram stop and the ticket catchers came to ask for our tickets! eeeeeek!!!! so, we get off and all of us have tickets but we just didn't validate them (because, thats what you do to save money), but they knew our scam so we pulled the americans who aren't used to this "validating system" and they weren't buying it. so, thank god for our twins. one of the twins came through and saved the day and was able to talk us out of getting written up (awful $150 fine) and we were free to go. my heart literally almost jumped out of chest during this whole debacle but thankfully, we are fine free.

so we got to PA's and it was so much fun. it was good to obviously see people who you dont get to see on campus during the week and just hang out, dance and have a good time. it was a solid night. so, tomorrow although i would love to take an adventure, i will unfortunately be stuck in my room writing this paper that i have due on monday. my first aussie paper!!! eeek! so yes, only 1000 words...but i want my H1(an aussie translation of an A). perhaps on saturday i shall take a personal adventure or something because a bunch of my friends are going on a field trip from friday-saturday to an indigenous community for their class. but we shall see!

one major positive about australia (they're really aren't any negatives) is that they don't allow smoking in any of their clubs, pubs, bars or restaurants. so unlike in DC, when you go out you dont have to worry about having the gross smell of smoke in all of your clothes and hair and such. so that is a major major positive. another positive, is that there is no humidity here. its wonderful. i don't even know if they know what humidity is or if it exists below the equator(doubtful) but maybe it has to do with this whole island-country-continent thing. but yea, no humidity= great on the hair. a negative about campus is the enormous amount of wind tunnels! the uni is built with all of these interesting but architecturally crazy buildings that give you the most insane wind tunnels ever. its 10 x worse then academic center (for all of you gdub folks).

until next time (which will probably be tomorrow)...cheers mate!