Just a casual update...

So, I just got an email from Helen and wrote her this massive reply, then thought, shit, i havent blogged in a long time (my sincere apologies for being lazy, apparently all i do is party.... err, i mean, study...?) So this is pretty much it, with a few editions... Promise to be more up to date, now that i've got my blog off Facebook!

Can i first start by congratulating my second cousin Di and her husband Shaun on their new baby girl Chloe Maree!!! I cant wait to meet her, and am eagerly awaiting pictures :D

So its just changed to end of daylight saving, so now we're exactly 12 hours behind NZ, which does make it easier for calling and skyping people (add me, zoededes, on skype!!!) Im very happy, because, at least for tomorrow, I get an extra hours sleep- yay! :D Its also getting colder here after the weirdest few weeks of weather- it was HOT!!! I was thinking, I swear someone told me it snowed in this area.... LIARS!!! But then the cold arrived, and out came the winter coat again, which had a wee rest hanging by the front door for the past 2 weeks...

Tomorrow a bunch of us are going to the worlds biggest ice cave!! Im very excited, its 40kms out of Salzburg and we need to train then bus there, and (apparently) its gonna be SO cold in there (ha ha ha, get the joke?), so im gonna have to rug up warm!! Not really looking forward to the freezingness, cos i have the snuffles, but oh well, should be an experience and half!! Gonna try take some sneaky pics, so keep an eye out on Facebook!

Oh well... I want to tell you of my plans over the Christmas/New Year break! Im so excited!! I have christened my girls the "Awesome Foursome"-- Kylea and Anna (+ Me make us the Kiwi Three) and Tasha (Miss America...). We are travelling for 3 weeks together, starting by training from Salzburg to Rome on Dec 19th, then we fly to Paris for Christmas!! Then we go to Madrid on Dec 26th for 3 days. We're flying to Barcelona on the 29th and are staying in our friend Oriol's apartment (yusss free accomodation!!) and celebrate New Years there! Then we fly to Genoa on the 1st, and have a mosey around the Italian Riviera, train to Florence on the 4th or 5th, then to Venice on the 8th, and back to Salzburg on the overnight train on the 10th and arrive the day before my birthday! :D

So i hope that makes you insanely jealous.... Im so excited, we're all looking forward to it and being Scroog McDuck's in the meantime!! :P

In other news, it seems that im making friends with lots of boys-- I think i've already mentioned Dario? He's Austrian and lovely and really opinionated and plays the guitar. He may be coming to AUT for a semester, which would be SUPER if he did :) There is also Ivo, he's from Vienna (Wien), who-- wait for it-- I taught how to cook a meal last night!!! I know, I know, everyone i've already told knows I cant cook! But no, in comparison to Ivo, im (almost) Jamie Oliver!! He didnt know how to boil pasta, chop onions or wash a dish.... Poor guy, been living under a rock, i think.... And he's not dead yet either, so I cant be THAT bad a teacher.... There's also Fredrik, the Swedish guy who hangs out with us all the time, he's awesome and dresses well, we have a good friendship going on, he's getting to be like a brother :) And Marcin (said Marchin, so close to Martin...) he's from Poland and is so funny, he seriously sounds like Borat!! He's so nice and made this Polish apple cake thing at Anna's the other day- ON her bench. Like, flour, eggs, sugar, just sort of piled it on the bench and started kneeding it!! He's so spastic.... I have the Spanish Connection too- Jordi, we watch the F1 together; Javi, mein Mann/"mein Schnucki", the onrunning joke since Prague insinuating that we're married, and thanks to having German class together, each week our life gets more interesting-- last week it was "Ich bin Hausfrau, Er ist Kellner (i am a housewife, he is a waiter... i dont really see that one working out!! ha ha ha); and Oriol, the most pessimistic bastard in the world, but he's lovely and means well and i like him for that :) Then there's Tobi and Andi, the Germans, who are both so lovely, theyve been with their girlfriends for centuries!... I use Tobi's vacuum cleaner and we sketch together down by the river, and Andi gives me onions to cook with...!

And finally! Roger! He's my newly adopted brother, such a sweetheart, from Cologne in Germany, and is 25... And he cooks really well! So, the other night, because we normally all eat alone, i invited everyone over for a BYO dinner. However, damn intercultural communication, Roger showed up and was like, wheres dinner? I told him it was Bring Your Own, but he was leaving for Colonge the next day and had nothing to eat in his house. So we ended up cooking together-- well, i made one DELICIOUS salad, he whipped up the nicest tomato sauce with onions and salami in it, oh my god i could have died, it was the nicest thing ive eaten in my room since i arrived :P So yeah, we're gonna make a little tradition of Roger coming to my place weekly to cook. And i do the dishes.... The only thing i can really master in the kitchen! :P

So, classes; probably should mention those some time too... Ive started PROPER uni, which is a bit of an exaggeration, because seriously, its like one week I have class, the next I don't-- One Monday i had class from 10am till 815pm, the following Monday was 10am till 1130 and I was done for the day!!!! And some are still yet to start. I did have my first Photography class, in which I was about to smash my head into the table, because I did two years of photography in school, and the first hour of class (which started at 9am and I was late for and had to run up to the 4th floor....) he was explaining Analogue cameras- "This is a shutter, look how it opens to take the photo" YARRRR TRICK YARRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!! :P My favourite class is concept development with Till Fuhrmeister. It's fun and interesting, and my group rocks, we're called MindFunk and we came up with the best concept in the class, woohoo!

Otherwise though, thats about it to report from campus, without going into the intense drinking sessions that happen to occur on a regular basis... For that, just look at my pictures on facebook... Or dont, and you can believe that i'm being very studious and hardworking, he he he :P

OH!! And last bit of news-- My Daddy leaves tomorrow for America, and at the end of his trip he's coming to visit me!!!!!!!! Im so so super excited, because Jordi and Freddie both have their parents here and its so cute, but it really sinks in that my people are so far away.... Oh well!! Ive also come to the conclusion that, when I arrive back in NZ, im gonna be so insane-o stir-crazy, my new two year plan is to be back in Europe... Sorry team!! Maybe you should all move over with me??

Anyway! its now 2:40am and I have to wake up early (nooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!) so i can get ready for the Ice Cave Adventure!! (Im wearing my hiking boots, yaaaaay!!!! their first outing... Thanks Dad!)

I LOVE YOU ALL HEAPS AND HEAPS!!!! But im not really missing you too much, no offence! :P

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

P.S Thanks Daniel for the spelling correction! :) xxx