My future...

Being in Austria, i've figured out a couple of things. Parents, if you read this, please dont hate me and these plans are not finalised or concrete in any way. But, I do want to fulfill them as best I can, because at the end of the day, I live once and once only as me, and I want to have the best life so when im old and cant walk, I have interesting stories to tell :)

The way i see it, I dont want to stay in NZ forever. I want to come back to Europe. To see all I can and experience all I can and meet all the people I can. Ok, so I graduate with a degree in Communications. I would hope that could get me somewhere. But, at the same time, I do NOT want to end up in my 30s with a fat ass resenting the last 10 years of my life.

I wont be in Europe forever either. I will work here, I will travel, and I will return to NZ or Australia or somewhere, and settle. But, while im young, agile and silly, I want to make the most of my chances.

So, when I get back to New Zealand on Feb 25th 2009, I need to do a few things:

• JOIN A GYM!!!!! Im so unfit its ridiculous
• Find a babysitting job
• Set up my own house-sitting service
• Sort out my uni timetable so I can fit working at Trends around that
• Get a car!!!!!!!!!!!!! (and go on a road trip-- tan??!)
• And, eventually, graduate...

I think that, if I can get paid to look after peoples houses, and babysit on top of that, and then work saturday or one day a week at Trends, ill be good.

In my final year of Comms, I need to work on doing my best, but also having a good time this year. No holding back. I need to explore my country, hang with my family, party with my friends, and then, in 2010- im getting back into SAVINGS FOR EUROPE!!!!!!!

The countdown is on, baby!

The Progress Report

OK! So now that im a big 20 year old, I have buckled down and done some work - finally :P Whoever said I came here to party, this is to prove you (half) wrong :) I have compiled a list of work I have to do, my deadline is Jan. 22nd; the real deadline set by the FH is Jan 29th.

Last night at 2:09am I finished my sketch of Marilyn Monroe that I had to do for Materials and Ausdruck. Personally, I think its the best sketch i've ever done. And because of this, I took 'progress' photos, which I think is quite interesting :P





I finished Hugo, my oil painting, the day before my birthday at 2:54am. I like it, aside from the teeth which remind me somewhat of a horse. But, ehhhh! Cant be bothered touching it up for fear of messing it up further.


I've almost finished my class for Customer Relations Communication... After sitting through the first class (torture, thanks to my birthday hangover) I quite like it, and hope that I understand the assignment! The funniest part of class: I went with them to the Bräustübl Tavern in Mülln- a famous beer garten- on Thursday :) My class invited me to come along and they invited the tutor along too!! It was so fun. They're all lovely and older than me- about to graduate with Masters! We had good conversation, about politics and history and beer... :)

I completed my poster for Design Compilation on Jan 11th too, its kind of like what I did last semester with Visual Communication. My tutor said he liked it, which is a good sign... Its a stupid class, but in the end we did come up with a marketing concept and did some interesting things, so... Good :) (I cant seem to upload it with the normal colours, it goes blue and green, so- grrr!)


Yesterday (a Saturday), believe it or not, this party-mad lunatic cancelled the party for this evening because she spent 12 hours working in the third floor common room with Wolfy to finish our group project!! We painted Super Mario Land, and after it dries we are going to paint our own characters into the area. I'm going to draw a flying sheep above the door... We finished in the wee hours of the morning, I got home at 1am, but that was after taking off all the masking tape lines, picking up all the shit from all over the floor, attacking each other with the blue paint, etc etc. And, as I write this, I'm still covered in paint. A good look :)

Thus, I am very happy right now, because crossing things off my To Do list is very satisfying! Only Media Mix and a few more art pieces to finish! WOOHOO!!

And, in other news:

• TASHA MIGHT COME AND VISIT!!! But thats all I know thus far..!!!
  
• It got so cold here, the river FROZE!! It was insane!
• I have a couch surfer coming to stay!! His name is Dave, 19 from London, and he arrives on Wednesday to sleep on my couch :)
  
• We went to Germany to party for Tobi's birthday on Friday

BEST BIT OF NEWS: I DROVE THEM HOME!!!!!!! It was even a manual!! Which was weird changing gears with my right hand, and admittedly I did stall, but only ever in the car park!! I even did a U-turn, Three point turn, and a parallel park- which was GOOD! HAHAHA So happy :) Did I mention I was the only sober one, and had 4 people in the back seat? Kylea was a pillow, and Kathi did not stop screaming the whole way. But it was fine, I stuck to the speed limit and Kathi didnt die of a heart-attack!

Think thats it :)

My Birthday- Summer in Winter!!

Whoaaaa what a day!! Firstly, I couldnt really grasp the whole extra-long birthday, so it didnt feel right talking about my birthday when, in Austrian time, it wasnt :P

Secondly, I cant believe im 20 years old. Jeeeeeez!

Thirdly, and this was my favourite part. My darling friends here are way too cute. Anna, Sarah and Ky-unit were gonna come over and say happy birthday at 12, but i was tired and two of them were too, but Ky came over and was so sweet, we discussed wrinkles and aging... Then Jordi shows up at my door with cake (from Spain!!), two cards (Ace, my nickname) and this FANTASTIC cd called Rhythms Del Mundo, which is some of my favourite songs REMIXED to the Buena Vista Social Club!!! AHHHH!!!!!!! I was so happy and suprised, it was so thoughtful!! And the cake- so good!

Anyway, day was lovely, SUCH good weather (all things considered, like, the fact that it was covered in SNOW!) I went into Salzburg to find some decorations for the party, Summer themed!! Everyone in NZ was telling me how lovely the weather was, 30 degrees, sunny, bla bla bla

I got lots of things, it was so nice cos i really didnt expect anything, just one hella-good party!! I got Spanish cake and this awesome CD from Jordi, then he and Oriol got me a Football Club Barcelona shirt (not cheap!) AND got my name and 20 on the back!! hehe i was so happy... Anna made me cupcakes that looked like eggs (the icing) cos eggs are my favourite food, and MAN so super yummy, and she got me this necklace ive loved for ages :) Ky got me little gifts from Venice and Florence i didnt go there, and chocolate, i got a clock from Venice (special glass, so pretty), a diary from Portugal, these really cute bracelets, LOTS of wine, chocolate and lollies, and a voucher for this store I like :) Ma gave me money, Dad got me my camera when he came over here, I was very spoilt :)

We had the BEST Party!!! Started in my room about 8, Marcin all dressed like an Aussie with his boardies, open shirt, 'beach hair' and sunnies, I was in my swimsuit and had my footless tan tights on, to give the illusion that i had sock tan!! (When, in reality, i have no tan anywhere...) Anna brought over the cupcakes and we all drank and ate Eggs :P We went to the common room, where lots of other people were sitting down, and so we just plugged in the music and started celebrating :)

The highlights for me were going outside and taking photos of all of us in the snow; Jordi, Marcin and Roger running through the snow in their underwear; making snow angels; and having Happy Birthday sung to me five times- three in English, once in German, and once in Norwegian!

BARCELONAAAAA!!!!!

My favourite location thus far, even more so than the wonder and splendor of Paris!!

This might have been thanks to Oriol, who was the best tour guide we could have asked for :) He picked us up from the airport (in Girona, 45 minutes away from the city) showed us around his city, took us to meet his friends and out for dinner, and he organised for us to celebrated New Years with him at his friend Tashu's home...

We caught up with Jordi and Sarah outside our hostel; I was so happy to see Jordi, it was like a lovers reunion (I was told)... I screamed, dropped my suitcase and ran towards his open arms :P I think it was just the joy of seeing my best friend... Shit, imagine how the reunion will go after a few years, let alone a few days!!

We had a really great late lunch at the Harbour (all floating, they made like, 55ha of commercial space and stuff- even a Marina and an iMax!!) Anyway, this was an all you can eat, and it was FRESH!! I had this whole plate-load of salad- YUMMMM considering we'd had Pizza, Pasta, Pasta, Panini, etc etc for such a long time!

After eating all we could, we went for a lovely walk around the Old City, saw some cool break-dancing street performers, beautiful lights, got excited by all the shops, and the Market down La Rambla, the main street in Barcelona. There were even pet shops set up, selling all sorts of animals- Iguanas, ducklings, tortoises & turtles, gerbals-- the list goes on!!


(3:30pm, like i said, we worked on Spanish time!)

Real Madrid!!

Welcome to Spain, Kiwi Three!!

Well, we arrived late in the day, and somehow managed the three metro trains to get to Magdalena, the street from which we would find our hostel... After a brief moment of disorientation, we found our way to this quaint little hostel, which really was more like a hotel. We had our own room, with four beds, and it was really nice to have our own space.

By this stage it was about 11pm, and we were HUNNNNNGRYYYYYY!!! We had yet to orientate ourselves with Spanish time, and so we went in search of food. Thankfully, we had wandered past a little cafe at the bottom of the road, and decided to go there. This place smelt good, and even though they didnt speak one word of English, we managed to order "potatas bravas" (baked potatoes with a spicy tomato sauce) Kylea had a Spanish Tortilla (looked goooood!) and Anna and I ordered this amazing tapas-style plate, with 5 typical Spanish dishes- Croquettas, Ruska salata, some type of chicken nibbles, etc etc...


It was in our little Spanish restaurant that we met some very cool Americans- Kaare (pronounced Corey) and Steve. They are engineers from Orlando, Florida, and it was actually because of their divine intervention that we even ate anything from the restaurant, because Kaare came over and helped us order. We invited them to sit at our table and we spent the next hour and a half chatting and laughing and learning how much life in America is like living in a bubble...!! We wandered round Madrid with them for a little after dinner, but it was cold so we parted ways. But it was lovely to meet them, and perhaps one day we will meet again :)

After a really good sleep in (till 2pm!) we organised ourselves and went for a wander around Madrid. It wasnt particularly beautiful, or clean (there is so much graffiti!) but we enjoyed ourselves. However, as we meandered through this cute park with a big lake in the middle (with paddle boats that we wanted to go on, but it was shut) it started raining! We sought shelter in this really beautiful little church which was entirely decorated by mosaic tile! I was very impressed. We also found this fantastic little chocolate shop and got a hot chocolate, which was like the ones at Chocolate Boutique in Parnell: Entirely melted chocolate!! So amazing, but it was so rich, I couldnt finish it!! (Yes, believe it or not, Zoe threw out chocolate...!)



This city, I swear, comes alive at night time! We had the best time as soon as it got dark (and we got our chocolate hit) it was SO beautiful! Kylea and I suddenly became complete loonies with our camera's and snap-snap-snapped away for so long, I swear Anna got bored standing round :P It was really the lights, it brought all the buildings to life, gave them these fantastic personalities that were so different to the 'ordinary' buildings which looked just like the ones in Paris and Rome...

This said also, the greatest thing we did in Madrid was the €12 Pub Crawl!! (€12, or €10? I dont remember, it was cheap either way!) It got us into three bars and a nightclub at the end of it all, with a drink at each bar! It was fantastic, and so pumping, with GREAT music, and all the people we met-- more Americans (brothers), some guys from Singapore, three brothers from France who-- DANCED LIKE ROBERT!!! Hahahah :P There were also two cute Brazilians (that country is amazing, i have to go there...) The best guys though were this gay couple from America, they were so friendly and lovely and danced with us and it was a right riot!! The other thing we noticed (after we got home!) was the fact that there was a complete imbalance in the men to women ratio, so that was nice :P ha ha ha




Oh well!! At the end of it all, we got home at (a very responsible time of) 4am, even though we had to back-track because we had no idea where we were, and couldnt find Magdalena... Oh well :P The sleep in was great, and we had a 'late' check out of 11am so packed all our stuff, showered, and made our way back to the airport, a little hungover but nothing a coffee and greasy food couldnt fix!! (this is our breakfast-- never rely on airport food for a good and healthy recovery...)


PS look at the people sleeping behind Anna- HAHAHA the guys sleeping with his hand in his pants!!

Gay Paris!

This is the story of Anna's birthday, full of trains, planes and alcohol from bottles.

We rose that morning, packed our bags and checked out of St Sebastians... As it was Anna's 20th birthday, and we were in France, home of the most amazing patisseries in the world, we walked to the end of the street to see what we could find... BINGO!!!




We each got quiche and a sweet, took it back to the lovely hostel and chilled on these crazy round couches, which was so nice, especially after two intenso days of sightseeing!!

We left St Sebastians with ample time to get the bus to Beauvais, as we had to metro through Paris on two different lines, then find & walk to the bus. It took about 90 minutes, not that we saw much of the trip; I woke up as we pulled into the airport...


Anna and I had to check in our cases, which weighed a lot but we figured we could sweet talk to check-in clerk, considering it was Anna's birthday and all.... Noooooo way! We had this lady with so much make up on she could literally BE the Clinique counter... It might not have mattered how nice she was anyway, because somehow our bags had gained 4kg worth of weight... each.... So, at 19 kilos i dont think sweet talking would have worked. We opened our cases at the front of the line- out came my electronics, hair straightener, toiletries, books, magazines, ANYTHING that could weigh it down... I was one moment away from putting on extra layers, when we realised the reason for our heavy bags....

The bottles of wine we hadn't drunk!!

So, out they came. With a bottle each, we had two options. To throw, or to drink... We went with the latter, obvioulsy! Clinique Clerk liked our style, and let us get away with 16kg (Ryanair would have charged us €15 for that, under normal circumstances!)

Thus, Anna and I approached the bar, asking (ever so cooly) "Now, this might be the weirdest request you hear today, but... [place two bottles of wine on the counter] Could you please open these?" How could he say no...! He obliged (however I dont think this was the first request of this nature!) and Anna and I sat in the waiting seats across from the check in lines, drinking our FANTASTIC €2 French wine, as Kylea donned an extra pair of pants, to make her bag look smaller/fit in the overhead locker :P



We managed to get through half the bottle each, before going through the security check, which we figured wouldnt let us through with our half-empty bottles... Sigh!

Thunderbirds are GO!

So im really really excited, because Ive just booked all my flights to and from and during my time in London!! TRAVEL PLANS FOR FEB ARE NOW FINALISED, BOOKED AND SORTED!!

I arrive at London Stansted on Feb 5th. I will hopefully be staying with Charley May and her Wife Debs- they live in Central London and want to take me out for cocktails and do the cool chic London thing :P From there, I hope to get up to Manchester for a few days to see Charleys mom and potentially the coolest craziest lady to ever come out of Manchester- Annie... Cant wait! They have lots of hounds, so that will be cool! :)

On Feb 10th i travel to Eindhoven, catch up with Kylea and from there we train to-- AMSTERDAM!!!! THAT WILL BE SO GREAT!!!!

On the 13th I fly to Stockholm to see Freddie- and hopefully Jordi will meet me there too :) Will be back in London on the 16th, and fly back to Salzburg on the 18th.... YAAAAAY!

I know it sounds like lots of flying and moving about, but in order to see the places I am dying to go, these things must happen! Hehe.

IM SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!