Merry Christmas!

I can't believe that Christmas is finally here! As always, Santa is one of my favorite people ever and was more than generous. It's so great to be home in Boston with the family for the holidays. I can't imagine being anywhere else and not having all of the traditions and laughter that come at this time every year, (although I do wish someone could be here as well ;)).

It's always so easy to fall back into the roll of being one of 4 sisters once we're all home. Everyone sharing one tiny bathroom, fighting over the mirror or shower times. Helping with chores around the house and playfully beating each other up (Kaela, don't even think about saying you beat me because I totally kicked your ass!) Every Christmas Eve all 4 of us always sleep up in my and Twinnie's room and although the tradition has changed slowly over time (as in we do not wake up at the crack of dawn only to find barracades keeping us from the living room and signs posted on the ceiling saying to stay in bed until at least 7am...) we still enjoy the time together being sisters.

The rest of break will be filled with sleeping late and relaxing before heading down to see LEXO for New Year's in PA! Can't wait my friend... it's been way to long and we've been apart for far too many months. We have so much catching up to do roomie! Next stop after New Years is back to Elon for my last semester as a college student. Wow, when the hell did I get this old? I feel like we all just got accepted a few months ago. Can't wait to see you Eloners soon though and those of you gone for winter term, hurry back so we can play. Seniors '06.... this is going to be a crazy and wonderful semester.

Stay classy friends. See you soon! :) Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Kate

p.s. Aussie guy... "smiling is my favorite." :)

Computers Suck

So I'm home! Back in the good old US of A up in cold, snowy Boston. It's the first time I've been home in 5 months and it feels a little strange to be back. It's so nice to see the family and friends, but it's hard to adjust to the hectic and busy lifestyle that awaits me here. Boston's cold weather has been a shock to my system which has led me to wear about 5 layers of clothes every day and sleep under at least 4 blankets! However, no matter what the weather, home is always home and it is good to be back, even for just a short while.

First things first... I did have a couple of Blogs from the end of Australia and while I was in New Zealand with Dad... BUT my stupid computer hard drive decided to go be an ass and crashed while Dad and I were still traveling and I lost everything! I think any of you reading this should feel a little bad for me because all my pictures from Elon, Australia and New Zealand are gone and to get them recovered would cost me between $1700-$2700 dollars which is more than my freakin' ticket to Australia! So needless to say, I'm a little sad and the pictures and all my documents and a few blogs are gone, never to be seen again (unless anyone reading this is a computer genious and can recover documents for me!!! I'll love you forever if you can :)) P.S. document recovery people suck and should all get punched in the face for charging that much to recover a few pictures! Grrrrrr.

The entire Australia trip and experience was a blast and I enjoyed every single second while over there. I already miss the people, the places and the lifestyle from the land down under and hope to make it back someday in the not too distant future.

For those of you who don't like cheesy girl stuff... skip the rest of this paragraph ( stop rolling your eyes at me! ;))Thanks mainly to a certain Aussie guy, my last few weeks in OZ were amazing. I've had a permanent smile on my face since November and it has continued even a month later after reluctantly leaving Perth. Aussie guy: If you are reading this, know how much I miss you and how happy you make me. Fishing, hot chocolate, Mexican food, strawberries, supreme pizza, playing soccer at the beach, fish and chips, falling asleep while watching movies, tickling, matthew reilly, King's Park, kissing in the rain, your wool socks, Queens, tim tam ice cream, Carnegies, the beach, the airport, emails and phone calls from 1/2 way around the world... missing you and it all. Thinking of you always... spring come sooner!

Ok... if you are one of those people who doesn't like cheesy girl stuff and didn't skip ahead like I told you to and read that last paragraph anyway, stop whatever moaning or laughing you are doing. I can hear you all the way in Boston! :)

Ok so on to New Zealand. What a trip! Although all the pictures are lost except for a few from the last couple of days (including one of Dad in the kayaking skirt... classic, might have to frame that one) Dad and I managed to have a fantastic time for 3 weeks traveling around and experiencing everything we could. We met long lost relatives, saw mud pools, traditional maori meeting houses, canoes, dances, went kayaking, jet boating, hiking, cruising and even managed a few days of relaxing. The scenery in NZ is stunningly beautiful and we are lucky to have had the chance to experience it all. Kiwis are very friendly people and are outgoing and helpful. It was great to experience another culture and being able to spend 3 weeks alone with Dad is a memory I will never forget. Thanks for an incredible trip Dad!

Now, back in Boston, we are all home (except Mooie... hurry home but good luck on exams!) and getting ready for Christmas next week. It is much easier to get in the Christmas spirit with snow on the ground in stead of hot summer weather over in Australia and New Zealand. I'm hoping for a white Christmas so everyone keep your fingers crossed!

Friends from home: I can't wait to see you guys once you are all back for the break!

Eloners: WT is going to be crazy... get ready friends :)

Roomies: You guys rock my socks off and this last semester is going to be off the wall. Can't wait to be back in our house being crazy as always. I love you guys and can't wait to see you in a couple of weeks. Shan, have a blast in Africa and hurry back!

p.s. Happy 22nd Lexo!

Aussies: Hope you are all enjoying summer break. I miss you guys already, especially your hot aussie accents ;)

Aussie Guy: hmmm... :) :) :) Smiling like always.

Stay classy friends. It's good to be home.

Kato

Playing in Aussie!

Classes are over and I'm done with finals!!! Wooohoooo! Let play time begin. For the next coupe of weeks I get to do whatever I want around the city. It's amazing to have the chance to explore on my own and do all the things I've wanted to but haven't had time to do yet.

Last weekend about 30 Curtin kids got together and went camping out on Rottnest Island. So fun. I didn't realize how much I missed camping until we got there. First, let me just tell you that if you ever get the urge to work on your balancing skills, go get on the Ferry in Freo that takes you over to Rottnest Island. For serious people, stading still out on the back deck on the ride is virtually impossible. Ha, we were gripping the rail, holding on for dear life just to stay on the freakin' boat! It was way better than staying inside and getting sea sick though. :) Anyway, the first night we thought it would be fun to test out the tent's waterproof ability... let me tell you... our tent failed with flying colors. Debbie woke up in a puddle... soaked through! Debbie and I were up all night (seriously maybe 30 minutes of sleep total) attempting to keep some body part dry and use our body weight to keep the tent in place so we wouldn't go blowing all around the island. We were so tired and cold and sore from sleeping on the ground in our paper thin sleeping bags... it was crazy. I think we actually started to go insane for a few minutes around 5am when we broke out the video camera and breakfast bars to help pass the time til we could go find coffee. So... going off no sleep, logically, the next thing to do would be to get up and decide to bike the entire island! Yes! Ha. Ha. Ha... half way up the FIRST hill I got off my bike, put the kickstand down and curled up in the middle of the street using my backpack as a pillow. We made it all the way around the island... eventually... and it was really beautiful. Totally worth it, even though I think... wait, yes, I THINK... i am positive, that my ASS has never hurt so much in my entire life! (No jokes inserted here William... thank you.) Anyway, Rotto was a blast and we played on the beach and had a fun BBQ to end the weekend.

Now some of you will understand my reference to "tea" on Sunday night (stop laughing)... others... just don't ask. It's a long, embarrassing story that was the amusement of most of the campers (minus myself) for pretty much the entire weekend... I will say however, that it was the best "tea" i've ever had and 24 hours of fun that has left a smile on my face. Monday come sooner!

Ok... so onto our next adventure... the CASINO! I will put a disclaimer right here in the beginning: I AM NOT A GAMBLER. Ha... going to the Casino was great fun and I had a blast drinking free hot chocolate all night, but I think it would have been helpful if I had known how to play... oh let's see... ANY of the games they had. The only one I had the slightest clue on was some coin flipping thing... not exactly sure what they were doing but I got that you win some stuff if you place your bet on heads or tails and that side of the coin lands up. Somehow the actual flipper of the coin gets money too... Mville won $37.50 just by having some guy toss the coins FOR her... I guess she is a bit challenged in the coin flipping department. It's ok Mville, not everbody is graced with that particular talent. You can practice. I have faith in you.

So today Debbie and I ventured into the city for a day of fun at the Zoo! The zoo was actually kind of small but we saw some pretty kick ass, huge headed rhinos... a homeless monkey... an orangatan that looked eerily like a hairy old man... a sleeping koala... and a penguin that might not have had a head (ok it did have one, but it took us like 3 minutes to find it seeing as it was all curled up under a rock.) Fun story: On the way to the zoo debbie tripped on the curb and almost fell... I of course couldn't stop laughing until a couple of blocks down the road where I proceeded to do the exact same thing (shut me up pretty quick)... except I really stubbed my toe on the damn curb and it wouldn't stop bleeding for a couple of hours. Ha... I was limping around the zoo all day. Great. Good job Kato. Classic. That's me attempting to bandage it up with a napkin in the middle of the sidewalk.

Snap... I gotta run b/c I have heaps of work to get done before heading off for a day at the beach tomorrow. Then I'm supposed to cook dinner for Lara, Will, Debbie, Sandra and Claire.... oh shit... me cooking dinner for other people who are actually going to eat it!?! All I can say guys is: eat a big lunch.

Ok, catch ya'll on the flip side :) Hope all is well with the crew from home, miss you guys like crazy and can't wait to see you soon! Special shout out to my favorite guy... you know i'm thinking of you.

Cheers Mates!

Kato

JC Weekend and Oktoberfest!

John Curtin is the dude that founded Curtin Uni. The Uni thought it would be a great idea to name a weekend after him, which is what JC weekend is. For JC weekend, over 400 volunteers go out to small communities around the Perth area and stay for the weekend doing work on various projects. I think I managed to find the smallest community in WA, maybe even the world! No i'm just kidding, I'm sure there are way smaller, but Wyalcatchem is the smallest community I've ever seen. There are only about 300 people that actually live in the town of Wylie (which looks like a scene from the 1950's with it's one "main street" which really is not a "main street" at all.) and only about another 200 or so people that live in the shire surrounding the town. Don't ask me what a shire is because I really have no idea. But I saw a sign that said that so thought you guys might find it interesting too! Anyway, the entire weekend was a huge success and I had a blast. Wylie members are incredibly nice and welcoming and have a way of life that appears on the surface to be relaxed and stress free. Some of the people we worked with were born and raised in Wyalcatchem and had not been farther away than Perth, 3 hours south of the town. The actual town is situated right in the middle of the WA wheat belt so the town is run around harvesting wheat. We got a tour of the wheat bins where billions upon billions of grains of wheat are stored. We got to climb to the top of the wheat shoot where we could see the entire town spread out in front of us. The rest of the weekend was spent painting, caulking (sp?), and working on improving barracks for cheap housing. We also got to help dust a tractor museum down the street from the one bar and general store. Don't be jealous that I got to see first edition John Deer tractors guys, it was really cool, but still, don't be jealous of me. I was just doing my volunteer work. ;) It was really fun to go away for the weekend and meet all these new people and learn about their lives. It was a home-stay weekend and I was with Scott and Mel MacKenzie and their 2 adorable little boys, Campbell (yes, like the soup) and Finley. Campbell called Claire and I his "ladies" and didn't want us to leave. I guess we just had too much fun "breaking into the park down the street" and having tea and scones... aka rocks and sticks with imaginary tea. Needless to say, when we got home and told Mel that we'd hopped the fence into the playground we found out that a gate farther up towards the school was actually always unlocked... whatever, it's more fun to hop fences anyway and it sounds cooler too. (until you hear that it wasn't even locked and then i guess we just end up looking like idiots.) Anyway, it was a blast and Wyalchatchemins' will always have a special place in my heart. Awwww.

Ok so next is a weekend of partying. (Don't worry dad, I did work during the day!) It actually wasn't an entire weekend, that's an exaggeration. Wednesday night is technically the start of my weekend (you can be jealous of this one guys) and of course what would we do on a wednesday night but go to waterford! We ended up pregaming at 32 and learned a fun new drinking game (which apparently American's are already supposed to know b/c I guess it's an American drinking game...) called "ride the bus." Basically, like most drinking games, it gets you wasted pretty quickly... I'm not sure where the name fits in, but it doesn't really matter as long as you're drinking so who cares. Anyway, we were all in fine form and had a wicked fun night at Waterford listening to karaoke and dancing the night away. There was also a bit of fun gossip when 2 of our advisors kissed in the middle of the bar... repeatedly! Hahaha... way to go advisors.

So night 2 of partying was last night (Friday) for Oktoberfest. (I don't have pics yet, but will ad one as soon as Lara puts them online.)Yes, I know we are not in Germany, but Curtin thought it would be fun to celebrate the German Beer festival along with Germany, just for fun. On the way to the festival, the group I was with decided it would be fun to make up fake names for the night. (Don't ask... I have no idea why we thought this was so funny.) Will is now known as Chad, Lara is Maddison, Renee is Alexis, (not lexi!) Mville is Jinny or Jenny or Jilly or something... I think Sarah was Haley and I'm now known as Gertrude. Ha. At one point Sarah and I thought we should be called Petrey and Little foot, you know, like from land before time? Cool huh? So anyway, basically, the entire student guild section of campus was turned into a festival setting with loud music, steins, workers in customary german outfits and lots of beer. It was pretty cool to see the transformation of the campus and the place was packed people having fun. Of course there was the typical drunken events... drunk girls falling on the floor in the bar (yikes), security throwing people out (one guy tried to hold onto a wall to keep security from escorting him... not a good choice of things to hold onto man... you've really got nothing to grip!) and there was even a guy who thought it would be fun to "moon" the crowd from up in a tree. Securtiy got him down pretty fast and the guy had a classic "what'd I do face?" that made everyone laugh. It was crazy, but lots of fun dancing and listening to good music. Elon really needs to get on the band wagon with fun festivals like this. Seriously Elon, think about it. We can celebrate with German beer too!

So I think that's about it for now friends and family. I miss you guys! Hope you are all well.

Eloners, have fun on fall break.

Catch ya'll on the flip side!

Kate

I Love Flies... seriously.

So I guess I have a bit of catching up to do... ok a lot of catching up to do. It's been a while and of course, OZ is always a happenin' place with lots of fun stuff going on that I haven't filled you guys in on. Last entry I left of about to go White Water Rafting down the Avon River in WA. Ha, quite the experience. The "white water" turned out to be more of a quick current than rapids. Will, Lara, Mville and I left early in the am in the pouring rain on our adventure after a late night out. Of course, you can imagine our excitement of sitting on a cold river in the rain all day... but as always, the weather in OZ is continually changing every 5 minutes and although it was chilly, it stayed sunny the entire time we were on the river. We actually ended up having a lot of fun in our raft which involved water fights with the old people in other rafts (they must have loved us), jumping ship to other rafts, and attempting a helicopter maneuver which landed our entire raft in the water... a few times. It was great though and at the end, at the most "rapid" point in the river I got to stand in the front and do a "titanic" impression with arms outstretched as we went down a "waterfall." Lexo... I think you would appreciate the little flare of the dramatic there ;)

Ok so the next big event was the party up in Flat 32. Acutally that might have been the night before WWR, I can't remember. Anyway, hahaha we spent the beginning of the night drinking and playing circle of death. (Franco didn't play, but showed us a little leg in stead ;)) It's always great to play that game for the first time with people you have never played with before. You sure do learn a lot about your friends! Of course, we are all angels and nothing interesting came of it. ;) We broke out the video camera all night though and got some pretty fun quotes to remember the evening by. I do believe that the night also included Marty and Franco having copetitions to see who could climb higher on the hall wall, a lucky red ticket that got a lot of looks and Sarah... oh Sarah... she did not even make it out of the flat! She did get a great wake up call at about 2am from Renee, Ash and I. I'm sure that made her night worth it! I believe Ash also poured water on her in bed at one point... I'm sure she loved that the most. Yeah Sar? I knew it. Hahaha. Good job my friend... very classy.

Speaking of Sarah Hartman... Happy 21st Birthday for like the 8th day! Sarah's birthday happened to fall in the middle of our outback tour up north so we've seriously celebrated her birthday like 3 times in a week. It's been great. Hope you are enjoying being legal my friend! We got 2 birthday dinners out of the celebration (one free!) and a really good chocolate cake complete with norweigan singing on the outback tour. Quite the way to spend your 21st Sar.

Ok... so now onto the bulk of the blog. First, let me start by saying that the Australian outback pretty much defines what you mean when you say the "middle of nowhere." Seriously, we drove for hours at a time with out seeing any elevation about the bush (which is like half my height) or seeing other cars pass by. A road train would rattle our bus ever now and again, but that's about it. The landscape is incredibly beautiful though in a very infinitely barren way. I even managed not to get car sick! Bonus! We spent half of our time on the trip traveling through the outback in a super cool tiny bus with the most uncomfortable seats I've ever been in. We found ways to amuse ourselves though including "bug splat bingo" on the windshied, hangman, singing to some awesome blasts from the past, and playing other random car games. It's funny though... you can't play the license plate game or any games including signs b/c well there just aren't any cars or signs around except ones to say beware of roos crossing.

So anyway, to start off the trip we decided it would be fun to blow out a tire. Once fixed we made it up somewhere north of Perth along the beach and stayed in a beach house. All the accommodations on the trip were way better than expected and were pretty much hostle style. We drank and had stew as the sun set over the water. It was beautiful. The next few days we traveled along the coast stopping at the Kalbarri Cliffs and the Kalbarri Gorge where we took some pretty cool pictures pretending to be rock climbing. We all know that I like to get myself in trouble so what would a trip to the gorge be with out any trouble? Acutally... I just ended up hurting myself, but what else is new right? So Renee and I were lagging behind the rest of the group and saw a sign that said something about "Danger, be careful b/c you're basically standing on the edge of a cliff" type message. Ha... me being the ass that I can sometimes be thought it would be funny to get a picture where it looks like i'm haning on to the sign to keep from falling down the cliff. So anyway, I get down in the dirt and am hanging onto the sign to keep from falling down the slope when a stupid fly lands right near my eye. I proceeded to jerk my head to the side and smashed my forehead right into the post I was hanging on to. I lost a shoe in the process and it almost fell out of reach... I also managed to take a chunk out of my forehead which is why you can see the cut in pretty must most of the outback pictures online. Ha. I was fine, but I had a lump on my forehead for a day or two and got a headache from the entire process. The important thing though: we got the picture. :)

After Kalbarri we traveled up to Monkey Mia where we saw dolphins and went sailing on a catamaran. The next day at Coral Bay we got to go out on a glass bottom boat and went snorkling at one of the reefs in the bay. It was beautiful and freezing at the same time. I hadn't been snorkling since 5th grade in the Carribbean with my family so it was great to get back in the water and play with the fishies. At some point during the trip we stopped for a picnic lunch on Shell Beach. There is no sand on Shell Beach and the shore line is literally made up of thousands and thousands of tiny white shells. From a distance it just looks like white sand, but up close you can see each individual shell in full form. I've never seen anything like it.

Exmouth was the next stop and the farthest North that we actually went. We stayed there for 2 nights and had a champagne sunset at the lighthouse overlooking the ocean where we could actually see whales surfacing behind breaking water. I've never seen anything more beautiful... the way the light hit the lighthouse and caught the edges of the flowers in front of it. The picture doesn't even do it justice. Also at Exmouth, we got to spend an entire day playing on the beach at Turquoise Bay. I've never seen sand so white or water so many shades of blue. We played frisbee, listened to music and had a bbq chicken picnic lunch.

During one of the last 2 days we ended up blowing out another tire in the middle of nowhere. The big bus in front of us didn't see it happen and continued along their merry way leaving us to fend for ourselves in the middle of the Australian Outback. Ha, that's a bit dramatic... we were only stuck for like 30 minutes and some guy in a yellow truck came and helped us. I amused myself by pretending I was roadkill on the side of the road. We got some fun pictures of that and some fun footage.

The one thing I did not enjoy about the trip was all the flies that are around on the west coast. I don't know what the deal is, but they were seriously everywhere! Not a day passed that was fly free and while outside (which was a lot) we spent the majority of our energy running in cirles to escape them or just swatting them away as much as we could. I was incredibly jealous of all the old people who had the really cool fly nets attached to their hats. Seriously... it would have become the new fashion statement if we had found any on the road.

So the last day of the trip was completed by making a quick stop in Geralton where the wind blows so hard that the trees literally grow bent over horizontally. After windy Geralton, we stopped at the Pinnacles desert and played on the large rock formations (shhh... don't tell that I actually stood on one! It's not allowed!) as well as spent some time being dramatic in front of the video camera pretending that we had been lost in the desert for days with no water. Ha... fun times. I should have gone to acting school. :) It was a great trip though and minus the flies I loved every second of it.

Ok so for all you Blue Dragon fans out there... we had a game on tuesday night and totally kicked ass! Woohoo! We beat the Bull Horns 17-10 which is a huge margin for us. We actually played really well as a team for once. Mville and I celebrated by dancing down the middle of the street all the way home while belting out lyrics to our favorite songs. Hahaha... cars passing us must have thought we were crazy. (I'm not kidding... we were litterally breaking out all the moves right in the middle of the street.) Classic.

Ok, I've avoided work long enough today and have a lot to do. Miss you all friends. Stay classy mates! ;)

Kato

Yay Mother Earth and Indian Food!

So I decided today that I am really a big fan of mother earth. Not that I haven't always been, but I appreciated all that she has to offer today (aka... dirt, water, weeds, grass) for about 5 hours... Ha, ok so I really did have fun volunteering to help clean up the Swan River with other curtin volunteers friends. We spent the afternoon outside in beautiful "winter" weather (cough cough... sunny and 70) weeding and planting to help keep the river clean. Plus, we got free muffins and cookies and well... that just made the entire trip worth it. Especially since they were blueberry muffins. Ok but seriously guys, mother earth is a cool chick so recyle ok? And pull weeds once in a while or plant stuff.

Another new experience was Indian food with Mville and Rob and Ben. First of all, for those of you who saw "dinner date" in my away message... it was not an actual date. That was just a phrase I used to tell all of you compulsive away message checkers that I was simply out to dinner with 3 good friends. There was no "date" involved. Anyway, so Rob and Ben have been to this Indian food place down by the Bell Tower in Perth and it was amazing. It's a buffet style dinner of authentic indian food where all the money they make goes to charity. You pay what YOU feel your meal is worth, and since it all goes to charity, most people feel there dinner is worth a lot more than it really is. Not being a huge fan of spicy food, I was not a huge fan of the actual meal... although I must admit, it was better than I expected and there really was no need to actually "worry" about if I'd enjoy dinner or not. When one does not like spicy food at Indian, might I suggest eating lots of rice and the yummy yogurty type drink. I really have no idea what it actually was, but it wasn't spicy so that made it my favorite part of dinner. Anyway, over dinner Mville and I basically listened to Ben and Rob talk about all of their amazing travels across the world. They have actually been to India which was fitting. Listening to their stories of all these travels makes me restless to get out and see more of the world. It's so big and I've seen so little of it. My new goal is to develop a plan to see the rest. All of it I think. Ok... maybe not Iraq or Afghanistan b/c I doubt those guys would be friendly towards me. Everyhwere else though.

Just want to say yay flat 36 for having a kick ass first ever flast dinner. Ok, so the whole flat wasn't really here, but we picked up some strays and still had a great time. Juwita and Steph... you guys are awesome. Dinner was amazing. Glad I could help with the salad and pre-sliced chocolate chip cookies. ;) Way to be real cooks and make amazing Asian food. I love you guys... and your food.

Ok... other quick updates. Sadly, the Blue Dragons lost our netball game this week in the rain and cold. Being sick (STILL) and having no voice didn't help, BUT we did win team of the week because we had the greatest costume theme. I've never even heard of a Bogan before, but that's what we were... aka: bums. Ha. Ben looked oh so hot in his blue wig, winter hat, flannel shirt and whatever the hell else he was wearing. It was great fun though and our team looked fantastic. This is Ben dressed as a Bogan. Hot yes? Hahaha. We all make great bums. Something to be oh so proud of! Also, as long as the weather holds up this weekend I'm off white water rafting down the Avon river. Should be pretty sweet!

Hope all is well with everyone back home. :) That's it for now folks. You stay classy.

Kate

Blue Dragons Rule!

So I just wanted to send a quick update to those of you who were so anxiously awaiting the score of our netball game tonight. WE WON!!! This is a picture of me happy because we won! The Blue Dragons managed to win by one point (one basket) over Charme. Despite being sick and playing in the rain (sorry Mom, but we needed players...) we had a fantastic time and came out on top. Netball is fast becoming my new favorite sport. Thanks to all of you who were sitting in class this morning sending good luck vibes 1/2 way across the world. (I know all of you actually did that ;)) Anyway, I'm done for the week and the goal before this coming weekend is to get rid of this stupid cold! Wish me luck my friends.

Oh yeah, P.S. for any of you who are technologically sufficient, look into skype. Ok, so you don't even have to be technologically anything b/c technology and I don't mix and I figured out how to use it. Ok that's a slight lie b/c Sarah Hartman had to help, but whatever... just go to www.skype.com and you can talk to me 1/2 way across the world if you want! It's incredible. My skype name is tallkate61 so if you're reading this and want to chat, add me :)

P.P.S. I must just throw in a good word for my flatmates. They are amazing and always make me laugh and sometimes they even feed me incredible food. I love it. You guys rock my socks off.

Yay Blue Dragons!

Bali Baby!

So it's been a while since I've last blogged... and by a while I mean a month. My internet hasn't been working, but surprise! When I got home from Bali last night it was magically back! Mville has been the greatest, letting me use her computer to keep in touch with you all as much as possible. Thanks Mville :) I owe you big time my friend.

So anyway, quick update before we get to Bali. Since the last blog I've been to Caversham Wildlife Park where we got to see lots of fun Aussie animals including feeding kangaroos, patting koalas and holding wombats. We also went to a wine tour and visited a chocolate factory. All of it was very fun and I especially liked playing with the roos... they are my new favorite animal :) Mville and I also spent a day a couple weeks ago back at Yanchep National Park. This time we went horseback riding on the beach. It was an amazing experience riding on the beach... something I've always wanted to do. Granted, I've always imagined it being at sunset with some guy I'm totally in love with... but this version works too! Hahaha. Let's see... netball is under way and we've had our first game. That was an adventure. Not having any idea really what to do until about 3 minutes before my first game, I somehow managed to survive the game and actually played pretty well for my first time. They have me playing some shooting position (don't remember the name of my position) which fits me just fine. I like shooting :) The Blue Dragons next face off against some unknown team this Tuesday night. Our geology teammates will be back from their rock fieldtrip this time so we're ready to kick some ass!

Ok... so Bali. The plane ride should have been an indicator as to the rest of the trip. On the 3 hour flight we got fed about 10 times, free drinks and got to watch Hitch on the way there. Man, it's like the lap of paradise! We even got ice cream and tim tams! I love it. So the island of Bali is an incredible little place. The exchange rate is way in our favor... $10US is worth 100,000 rupia (sp?) We were typicall tourists and got massages and facials because they are so cheap there. We also spent a lot of time in the markets bartering with locals for their merchandise. It's amazing how these people, day in and day out chase you down the street or walk in front of you just to get you to look in their store. I guess it's how they make their money though... after a while you get used to the constant shouts and grabbing, but I won't miss that aspect. It is part of their culture though and a way of life that I am only just begining to understand.

The crew that came with me to Bali included Mville, Sarah, Renee, Will, Lara, Brittany, Katie and Whitney. We split up a lot, but all stayed at the same hotel and always ran into each other. The city of Kuta, where we stayed, is where the Bali bombings happened in 2002. Our hotel was a couple of blocks away. There is now a memorial standing at the corner between the two night clubs that were hit. It was a little chilling knowing that the target in those attacks were Australian tourists. Needless to say, we stayed away from the night club scene and found other ways to have fun.

One of those such ways was probably my favorite part of the trip. On Tuesday we took a bus through the country to the top of a mountain that was overlooking 3 volcanoes. One is still active, one is dormant and one went off a few years ago. Anyway, we got to eat our second breakfast of the day overlooking these volcanoes before taking the bus for a short ride to pick up the bikes that we would end up riding the 20 miles down the mountain on. We got cool biker gloves and helmets to complete the trip. The bike down took about 3 hours and every minute was incredible. Riding through the back roads and hills or Bali was one of the most beautiful things I've ever experienced. All through the hills are fields upon fields of rice, workers farming them throughout the day. Houses are built right up along side the road and children came running out as we passed and lined up along the street to slap us high five. Adults stopped work to say hi to us and at times we got to pull over and get off the bikes to talk and meet the local villagers. The children from the mountain villages of Bali are amazed with our digital cameras. The fact that you can see a picture of yourself seconds after it is taken is such a new concept to them... they were fascinated by it. We were able to see a few temples scattered along the mountain road and even stopped in to see the inside of one family's house. Drinking water for these village towns is a 30 minute walk away and they have made their lives out of the most simplistic of things. At one point in our ride we were stopped in one village while a funeral was taking place. The body was placed in a giant bull replica and was being taken to the temple down the road. There was a long procession ahead of us that kept us waiting in the street for a little bit. It was amazing to see and to hear the songs the villagers sang. We got a chance to talk to some local school kids who again had fun with our cameras.

The end of the trip was wonderful as well. We spent our last night in Bali at a sunset dinner on Kuta Beach. As the sun set we ate seafood and chicken by candle light while locals sang us songs on their guitars. It was beautiful and I didn't want to leave.

I'm back in Australia now, getting ready for a big 3 week grind of class, work, papers, presentations and midterms before heading off on my next adventure around Western Australia. Of course there will be more updates before then but don't forget... wish the Blue Dragons luck on Tuesday night! Hope all is well with you all my friends. Eloners... hope school has started well and that ya'll are enjoying it!

love, Kate

"Electric Kettle's and Doof Doof Music"

I wouldn't mind spending the rest of my life in this place and with these people. Who is ever happy on the first day of classes? Today I was and the only thing I can attribute it to is being here and being surrounded by so many new things.

I have to admit, I didn't thoroughly enjoy feeling like a freshman again, hoping I wouldn't get lost on my way to my first class at a new, not to mention huge, campus. Luckily I made it to class early and even enjoyed being in a huge lecture hall type setting. That's what I tried to avoid while looking at colleges, only to find out here that being in a huge class like that only serves as an outlet to meet that many more new people. Curtin is probably the most diverse place I've ever been my entire life. I love walking around and feeling like a minority at times. There are people who study here from all over the world which only better enhances the whole experience of being here.

Slowly I have been able to start to meet kinds outside of the Elon group that is here studying. For the first week we were so busy we didn't get much of a chance to get to know anyone other than the Elon kids on the trip, but since we got back from Yanchep it's been much easier. Yesterday we had our "race around Perth" competition and I got to have a little chat with Nathan and Lorissa and we discovered the most amazing little shopping area with hundreds of fun stores and thousands of people just walking around enjoying the weather. We saw a man who was half goat, posed for a picture with a man in a tiger mask, explored a midevil knight store, saw a couple practically having sex on a hill in the middle of a park and won a case of redbull for winning the scavenger hunt. It was quite a day!

The way of life here is so different and I love every aspect of it. "No worries" is the token aussie slogan and it is completely appropriate for their way of life. I feel at home here already and it's only been a week.

Tonight Ben took Mville, Will, Lara and I out to the Como hotel to have drinks. It was such a chill night and we talked for hours laughing over differences between our countries. I have found that one of the most popular questions that Australian's ask us is to try and explain the point of Greek Life. Try explaining it to someone who has no idea... it's not easy and you come off sounding a bit rediculous when you mention that you pay money to belong to an organization that is selective with it's members. We've tried to explain that it's much more than that, but I'm not sure many people fully understand what it's all about.

So I learned 3 new things that stick out today. The first occurred after class today when I was in Sarah's flat chilling with her roommates. Franco (says hi to you Ash!) introduced me to an electric kettle which I was completely astounded by. Basically it's like a tea kettle except all you have to do is put water in this plastic pitcher and plug it in... the water boils in like 40 seconds. It's incredible! Tonight at Como Hotel, Ben was talking about different types of music and when we asked about a particular bar, The Church, he said that they played "doof doof" music. What? Basically we discoverd that "doof doof" is kind of the noise from the base and is a lot like techno music... repetative and with no variety. Hahaha. So the last thing from today made me laugh. I guess the advisors have been fighting over me to see whose team I'd be on for netball. I love it, they're fighting over me because I'm tall, when I've never heard of or played this sport in my life. I could be the most un- athletic person ever, but I'm glad they have faith. From what I can understand, it's slightly like basketball except with no dribbling and very limited running which totally works for me since I was always in the "no dribble club" in HS and am not a fan of running with my stupid breathing. Sounds like the perfect sport for me.

Out for now my faithful blog fans. Happy August my friends :)

Kate

"Oh Baby, That's Hot."

To say it was a slightly bumpy beginning would be an understatement. To start off this wonderful adventure, Sarah and I barely even made our flight to Malaysia... literally running through the airport to make our plane with maybe five minutes to spare and that's probably being generous! As soon as we got settled on the plane we found out that we'd be making a stop in Sweeden. What? No one told us we'd be in Sweeden! The bumpy part starts after Sweeden though and by bumpy I mean literally... being an easily motion sick person the sligtht turbulance sent my stomach into knots for the 11 hour flight to Malaysia. Finally gettin in to Kuala Lumpor at 6 am all I wanted to do was have a drink and fall asleep seeing as how we'd been up for almost 30 hours straight at this point, but alas, I am not an alcoholic and settled for hot chocolate instead. Finally getting to Perth, Australia around 3pm Australian time Sarah and I had the pleasure of realizing that the airlines had lost our luggage! Sarah lost both bags and luckily I received one, oh but wait, of course it couldn't be the one with all my clothes in it! Sarah and I spent the next 4 days in the same clothing and washed what we wore every night in the hotel sink. Hahaha, it was fantastic.

After this bumpy beginning we got to move onto the University Campus where I am finally settling in down under and am already having the time of my life. I'm in love with this country and everything it has to offer. Since we've been here I have had the chance to see Australian rules football, learned to surf, learned to play the didgeridoo, danced aboriginal dances, rode through the outback on the hump of a camel (which hurt like hell by the way) and witnessed an authentic koala brawl (actually pretty scary!)

This weekend was the first time that we had a chance to go out and let me tell you, the night life here is absolutely nothing like Elon's. Northbridge is amazing and is home to about 20 bars and night clubs all within a few blocks. Mville and I had an absolutely incredible night Friday night going out with Brit and Katie. We bar hopped for the first part of the night and then stumbled across a slightly intoxicated Ben who joined up with us for the rest of the night. Can I just say that hanging with him and the girls and dancing the night away (literally danced for 5 hours straight in heels... not a great idea if you like your feet) was one of the most fun nights ever. Ben was great and actually danced like a crazy man, but we could not stop laughing and smiling and it was incredible. Nightlife here doesn't die down until around 5am so Ben, Brit, Mville, Katie, Nathan (who happened to run into us at Mustang Bar) and I ended up eating Hawaiian pizza at a small kebab place until about 4:30 am. We then proceeded to walk a million miles (again, not a good idea if you're in heels and want to be able to walk at all the next day) to Nathan's "car" for a ride home. Well, let me tell you, Nathan's "car" turned out to be what looked like the smalles jeep of all time complete with no trunk and half of the back seat taken up by junk. Oh wait, I forgot the most important addition to Nathan's "car" was the bumpersticker on the back that said "Dip me in honey and feed me to the lesbians!" Oh baby, that's hot. Somehow we managed to squish 6 people in there and make it home safely... you all probably would have payed money to see the sight of us back there though. I really don't think it's humanly possible to do what we did, we must be magical while we're here. Yep, that's it. It was beyond fun though and I think we must have set the fun bar impossibly high. I guess the goal for the rest of the trip will be to beat the first night out.

For now I'm off to bed my friends, classes start tomorrow. And by classes, I mean I have one 1.5 hour class tomorrow that doesn't even start til 4pm! Life here is fantastic. Love and miss you all.