Red Dress Mentality

Maybe, it's the ocean air, maybe it's the new environment, but something about this side of the world makes me think about my life in a much broader, brighter way. I have a fair amount of Uni work but I think about it in a very relaxed, realistic manner. I know I will finish it, I know I will study hard when the time calls for it, but I also know that the amount of effort I put into it will dictate it's successfulness. So if I really want something to happen, then it's entirely up to me. I always knew that, but it seems much more apparent to me here.

Actually, I think that's what it is about this place - clarity and independence. That's what I have here. So I can't complain about not having a huge group of friends because I haven't joined a million clubs or gone out every night trying to meet new people. And I'm okay with that because I'm still happy and exerting myself as much as I can. Well that's not exactly true, Charlotte and I made a pact that from now on we would be a little bit more adventurous. And that's not to say I haven't been adventurous (as my other posts show - I have been!) but personally, I know that I could be doing more. Not that there isn't a rush from new experiences any more but I have noticed myself become a little more timid compared to when the plane just landed and I was running around like crazy. But maybe that's just how things are, I'm settled in, I know my role a little more, and I've gotten comfortable.

But I'm ready to get uncomfortable. That might sound wrong, but I think you know what I mean. I'm ready to live up to the plaque I once had in my room at Conn that said, "Life begins at the end of your comfort zone." I've noticed a lot of people around me not quite doing that, still not taking advantage of everything around them. And I don't like that, and that's not me, so I have to make a change. I'm going to be more proactive because it's already mid-semester break, about half way done!

This realization seems to have come at the perfect timing. Tomorrow I leave for the Great Barrier Reef and my crazy club hostel. I can only hope that I don't take what I'm saying TOO seriously because I just have this horrible image of myself up on a stage, covered in foam, yelling something obnoxious into the crowd - or worse, singing! But no, I will control myself with the utmost dignity! With maybe just a little fun...

But in any event, I must get back to researching doping in Australian cycling (surprisingly interesting!)...and then there's a mid-semester party for the whole campus later tonight which should be a good time. So ta ta for now, I miss you all from home - sending my wishes, xoxo as the summer comes to an end and my summer begins ...hehe.

Cheers!

"I got my red dress on tonight
Dancing in the dark in the pale moonlight
Got my hair up real big beauty queen style
High heels off, I'm feeling alive

Oh, my God, I feel it in the air
Telephone wires above all sizzling like your stare
Honey I'm on fire I feel it everywhere
Nothing scares me anymore" 

Quick updates!

After more than 10 trips to the Apple store, most of my computer problems are over. Some quick updates on life down under in the past two weeks: 1. I made a new friend in my Psychology class. She's from Hong Kong and moved to Australia for high school. She is a triplet and very sweet. She was so curious about me and my life once I told her I was adopted. She said, "Wait, so you have white parents? You're so lucky!!" This made me laugh. She told me about her very traditional Chinese parents who make her come home before 12 every night. We chatted for a while and she invited me to her house for dinner! She asked if I ever tried very traditional chinese food and I said..."kind of?," and then she said she already told her mom about me and she wanted to meet me! So maybe I will be heading over to their house for dinner soon...! 2. I LOVE ROCK CLIMBING! The outdoors club goes to Sydney Uni every Thursday night and for the last three weeks I have been going. I'm addicted! It's great, such a thrill. And then there's lots of socializing at the pub afterwards. I surprised myself last night when I tried the "Red" route up, which some of the other beginners attempted (with no success), but after a lot of perseverance (and knowing this new friend was watching me from below) I made it to the top! What a great feeling. Definitely impressed some people. Never have my forearms felt so ripped. Yeeeha! Can't wait for a new challenge next week. Also, Charlotte and I finally made much better friends with the girl who is in charge of the club. Turns out we actually have a lot in common - psych major, interest in climbing, cycling, surfing, etc. She wasn't nearly as intimidating as we first thought - and she even said that most of the Americans that join the club are pretty cool...and we weren't an exception! Awwww 3. As for school work, I've been swamped lately! Just gave a presentation a couple days ago about the World Series Cricket (WSC) in Australia and the related court cases. Just for those of you out there who like history (especially Mom and Andrew), I'll give you some information on the topic: The World Series Cricket was created by a very wealthy businessman, Kerry Packer. It started as a result of many cricket players who felt upset with the previous administration. The players thought that their well-being was cared about by the current cricket associations. So when Packer offered them large sums of money and better contracts, about 35 players joined on. There were a lot of court cases around the WSC due to contract restrictions and around the fact that Packer wanted the exclusive broadcasting rights for Cricket for his TV channel. He inherited channel 9 network from his father and after finally gaining the cricket rights, sports on television became a sensation. Cricket appealed to a broader audience and revenue was good. There's the WSC in a nutshell! 4. I've been cooking a lot lately. My roommate even called me "quite the little chef" (Thanks Dana)! I made stuffed peppers the other night, butternut squash risotto (good ol' Julie Michaels recipe from epicurious.com), homemade BBQ chicken pizza (guilty pleasure), and tonight I made Eggplant rollups stuffed with a mix of veggies! Delicious! I'm having lots of fun playing housewife - minus the husband part... 5. GETTING EXCITED FOR SPRING BREAK NEXT WEEK!!! CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S ALREADY HERE, HELLLLOOO SUN AND SUNSCREEN! No ozone here! 6. Guilty news update: treated myself to a movie at the largest IMAX in the world (supposedly China is working on a bigger one though, and if it's completed then will the one here have to add a "2nd" to all of their signs???) and saw The Dark Knight Rises. Must say, a pretty epic movie to see on the big screen. Also, treated myself to a certain book, mostly written for women, bestseller right now, for spring break beach time...and Hey - if you know what book I"m talking about then just shhhh..... xxoxoxo from down under!

Just another inspired day

"The skyline is etched in my veins You can never put that out, no matter how hard it rains... Now looking over the city, it's the only thing that keeps me calm/ Scattered thoughts jotted down by this pen in my palm/ It's like my city stands still, the world looks on. If I could only capture its beauty and put it in a song."

A little slow...sorry!

After some more computer trouble, I am back on the wagon! And more so than ever, as I am spending more time in the library because midterms are approaching. I can't believe I've already been here over a month! It's challenging to balance experiences with Uni work but I'm managing pretty well. My friend Charlotte and I are making a bucket list because we are worried time is escaping us! Last week after Mt. Bogong, I was invited to go rock climbing at this indoor gym at Sydney University on Thursday nights. The outdoors club goes there every week and when the president invited me I told him that I would bring pretty girls with me. He laughed. Little did he know that I don't mess around. That Thursday I showed up with three pretty girls ready to climb! He was impressed. The head guy working at "The Ledge" helped us with gear and showing us the ropes (literally). It was packed in there by 7:30! We weren't as bad as we expected! Everyone was having a lot of fun (whew! I was a little worried my friends weren't going to have a good time and then blame me for dragging them along). The president then invited us out to a nearby pub that they go to every night after climbing. We stayed to climb some more and ended up staying until close! By the end of it I was sweating a lot and could barely feel my forearms - I also spontaneously climbed to the ceiling from a rope ladder! We headed over to the pub and found a lively group of guys waiting for us! We had drinks and chatted all night. Going to the ledge again this week and Charlotte and I are going to try to go on the surfing trip coming up! Yippee!!!!

Mt. Bogong Photos!

After 4 hrs of labor this is what the igloo looked like!

Here's what the view from one of our campsites would have looked like without all the fog!

Here's me in all my glory!

No pain, no gain - a risk worth taking.

Finally!! My computer is fixed so I am back on the map! It's horrible how dependent I've become...

Let me start by saying: Fantastic weekend.
So last weekend on my hike through Royal National Park, I met a guy who invited me on a trip up Mt. Bogong the following week. It was kind of up in the air whether he would be going or not since his friend got pretty sick last time when they tried to make it up a few weeks ago. But as the week passed, he emailed me to say that they were in fact going. I debated not going because I just met him, I didn't have all the equipment, etc...Also Mt. Bogong is in Victoria - about a 7 hour drive from Sydney.

...We left on Thursday afternoon. I thought it was going to be just me, and three guys but it turned out that three more guys came- the president of the Outdoors Club, his friend, and another guy. Man was I happy to finally have some male friends! There's that tomboy side of me coming out again...

The drive was pretty long but enjoyable with my two new friends. Stopped for dinner along the way and got to the campsite at about midnight on Thursday. Two of the guys were already there and had started a fire for us. We set up camp and this really sweet guy let me stay in his tent with him. He even made me coffee in the morning! Again, I can't believe how nice everyone is here...lucky me!

Since I didn't come here with the intention of going hiking through snow, I was slightly unprepared equipment wise. But thanks to this guy I met the previous week, he supplied me with everything I needed - super warm sleeping bag, state-of-the-art sleeping pad (some of the guys actually tried to bribe me for the mat on the third night it was so nice), an expensive down jacket, a beanie, gloves, hiking poles, dinner for two nights, waterproof pants, snowshoes, ice axe, and crampons. Need I say again how nice people are!?!

Here's a picture of me at the campsite before the start of our trek!
We started our trek up to 20,000m early on Friday morning. After some coffee and delicious oatmeal I was ready to go! It actually took us about 6 or 7 hours to get to the top because a couple of the guys were cramping up. Surprisingly enough I was in much better shape than I thought, and I ended up leading for most of the way! (Pretty impressive, I must say...)

It was getting dark so we decided not to go all the way to the summit that day. We made camp at the treeline. It was a pretty gray day and so by the time we got to camp it was so foggy I couldn't see anything. There was however plenty of snow. I wasn't quite sure where we were sleeping, but everyone started shoveling snow on the side of this vertical slope so I quickly learned that I was gonna be very, very cold that night. My tentmate and I shoveled a flat platform for our tent and threw our stuff in. We picked the best spot of course - sheltered from the wind!
Here's our tent- a little small but good for cold weather, cozy! (That's my ice axe...I learned how to self arrest too in case of a glacier...)

Saturday morning I woke up to more snow and sleet. All of our stuff was covered in icicles. Needless to say that one glance out of the tent and it took me a long time to get out of my sleeping bag...
But my tentmate made coffee for me again so I was a happy camper. Some of the guys went ice climbing that day, but I opted to hike to the summit and then build an igloo instead. Thought the ice climbing might be a tad intense...but now I kinda wish I had tried! Oh well, next time.

Getting to the summit was crazy - so foggy I couldn't see 5m in front of me. We had our crampons on and were walking on a pretty vertical slope. In retrospect it was probably good it was so foggy because I couldn't see just how steep it was. Following the barely visible pole markers along the way, we finally made it to the summit.

Here are two images, one of what the summit would have looked like on a clear day, another what it kind of looked like - except add tons and tons of fog...

It truly was up there in the clouds...

After deciding that building an igloo up there with winds whipping by burning my cheeks wasn't such a good idea - we headed down following our tracks and built an igloo in a slightly less open area. My friend actually carried an igloo maker all the way up the mountain! After a few mishaps, and four hours later, the igloo was half built and we were wrecked... but it looked awesome!! No photos yet :( but 10x10 igloo was pretty impressive looking!  Three of the guys slept there that night but I wasn't really feeling like bivvying it ... (mountaineering term for no tent, just a tarp-like thing that goes over you, hardcore). I slept in my nice tent again, very warm and dry. Played cards with some of the guys in our tent - whipped their butts of course (thanks mom for all those years of practice).

Smashed it down the mountain the next day in a mere 1 1/2 hrs, falling a few times. Here's a picture of me and Mike right before he caught me as I slipped down the path! (Did I mention he carried 2 packs up because one of the guys was having trouble??! Beast...)

Smelly, dirty, and a few chocolate bars later I was down the mountain and packing up the car. I was sad to leave my new found Aussie friends. But they invited me rockclimbing this Thursday actually!

All in all, great experience. Couldn't believe I was driving through the beautiful countryside with people I barely knew, about to have a completely refreshing experience. It's also remarkable how good food tastes in the wilderness...hello peanut butter and jelly in the same container! Took a risk and it paid off. That's what I came to do anyways, right?! No pain, no gain.

P.S. Shout out to Alice Wislocki- the guys think that your Arcteryx pack is awesome. Thanks a million <3

-"I was enchanted to meet you..."

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDREW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I MISS YOU