I'm back!!!

... so blogs are all the rage these days which got me to thinking about this blog that I started just over 2 years ago and which has been dormant since Christmas 2005 as you will be able to see from the previous post.

I'm back in Australia now and there have been some huge changes since the last blog. When I last left you I had just arrived home from Australia round 1. Here is a briefe update on what's been going on in my life since then:

• I am a graduate of Elon University! Boy do I miss that place and all the wonderful people that I met there. Can't wait for the reunion!

• After graduation I came back for Australia round 2 on a work visa with Lexo and a couple of other AOTT's.
• Little Beanie started college at the Buck.
• Andrew and I got ENGAGED!!!

My visa ended so I went back to the US and spent 5 months living with Twinnie in good ol' Chapel Hill while working for a fantastic photography studio. http://www.tamaralackey.com/

• The new visa came through and I have now been back in Australia since April and just happen to be working with another lovely Elon AOTT!
• We got a puppy! Little Alfie is heaps of fun and enjoys pigs ears, shredding tissue boxes while we're out of the house, eating snails and locking himself in the bathroom.
• Twinnie and Drewseph got ENGAGED!!!
• Mooie is about to turn 22.
• Andrew and I are a month and a half away from getting married!

When I look back at my last post from 2 years ago, I don't think anyone would ever have expected my life to turn in the direction it has. There have been tremendous highs and some low lows with all of this change. This is the first time in 2.5 years that I have been settled in one place for more than 5 months. I am living 1/2 way across the world from my family and best friends and I am trying to make a life for myself in a foreign country where a lot of the time I still feel like a foreigner.

Some of the things that make me miss home the most:

• The fact that Australian's don't seem to know what a real bagel is.
• Always being asked if I am "Canadian." (What???)
• Having to wake up at the crack of dawn to catch the Red Sox on TV (but thanks to Andrew getting me Foxtel I am at least able to watch most of the games!)
• My sisters, Mom and Dad and my Elon bestests. Shout out to 305ers!
• Goldfish
• 2 story houses
• Cheap clothing stores like Old Navy and my tallgirl shop in Boston

Some things that are fantastic about Perth:

• Andrew
• Warm winters
• Sunday Sessions at the beach
• A relaxed and layed back lifestyle that is hard to find anywhere else in the world.
• Aussie Rules Football! Go Freo!
• The accent
• Tim Tams and most other Arnott brand cookies
• Kangaroos and the outback

Those of you who end up reading this probably know most of these updates in more detail, but I will try to be better at updating you all about my life. There is in fact a 12 hour time difference between us which makes phone calls a bit tricky so I thought this might help.

I hope this new message finds you all happy and healthy and doing well back home and it is an understatement to say that I am beyond excited to see most of you at the end of November!!!

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