DAY 24: Vegemite

This is for you Andrew Wong! 

Thanks for telling me to try the most disgusting bread spread EVER!

Knew I should've listened to Kyra.

So for the past couple of weeks, whenever I go grocery shopping, I've had this tiny voice in the back of my head urging me to go get some vegemite. So a couple days ago, I finnnally bought a tiny jar and I was super excited to to try it out since apparently I had to try it at my earliest convenience (said Andrew). I was super excited to try it as soon as I got home..except the stupid jar was reallllly hard to open and while I was secretly hoping I had Sarah's jar opener..the jar completely slipped out of my hand, hit the floor and shattered into pieces. There goes my vegemite. Thinking back, that might've been a sign NOT to try vegemite. But of course I was determined to try it, so I went out yesterday and bought a SECOND jar.

Vegemite sandwich...

I've been told that vegemite has an..acquired taste...but being asian... I was like..you know what..I've tasted some pretty weird things in my life AND liked them..so might as well give it a go. Boy I totally didn't see this coming lol. It tasted like really REALLY salty..spreadable..beer gone wrong lol. I had to down a whole cup of milk before I can get the taste out of my mouth.

Well there you go... If you're ever in Australia, and people tell you you HAVE to try this infamous Australian spread. DON'T DO IT. Consider yourself warned.

UPDATE:

Its official..Vegemite and I DO NOT GET ALONG!!!!!!!! ...freaken dropped the whole jar onto my laptop and dented my my track pad.

DAY 23: oh the irony..

A seasick marine biologist. ironic.

Perhaps I need to reconsider my future...

DAY 19: JABBAWOCKEEEEEZ

Obviously from the title..I went to watch jaaabbbaawockeezz today!!! When I first arrived in Australia, I saw posters of Jabba like evvverrrywhere and I was like huh!? and never thought twice about going to seem them. But Jessica and Tung (2 girls from HK working at the same building as me) suddenly went up to me like a day before and was like..ohhh wanna watch "those guys with white masks on"?? lol and I'm like..what?! who? OH..jabbawockeez!..SURE! at first I was being cheap and didn't want to spend that $70 bucks...buttt I did anyways haha and it turned out to be pretty awesome!

But before I even get to Jabba...the trip there is a whole story on its own...

Buses here are usually pretty empty, but for some reason, the one bus that we took to the casino for the show was just completely packed. I mean thats totally fine...its not like I've never stood on a bus before...BUT....

I just wanted to point out that whoever designed the stupid buses in Australia is clearly height-ist and evidently designed the busses with only tall people in mind. The god damn handle is like a whole foot and a half above my head. As if being squashed between people's armpits isn't bad enough..I can't even stabilize myself because I can barely reach the handle with my fully outstretched arms!!

THEN, on top of that, when I FINALLY got a seat..some punk with bright pink CK boxers (yes close enough that I can see the brand..not that I was looking really hard..) and too-low hung pants stood right in front of me so his freaken crotch was literally in my face. Then he turned around and I got a face full of his ass. I honestly don't know what is worse.

ANYWAY, Jabbawockeez.

So the ticket actually includes the show AND a dinner. 

Jabbawockeez serving us fooooooood!! I wish. They were just on the menu.

Pumpkin soup 

The main dish...which looked quite..interesting lol. They're supposed to be pork sausages..but I made a mistake of letting my imagination go wild..and ended up just eating the mashed potatoes because I was so disgusted just thinking about biting into one of them haha.

Annnnd the Jabba stage! We weren't allowed to take videos or photos during the show. So this is the only photo I managed to take BEFORE the show.

The show was pretty darn awesome. Jabbawockeez was hilarious. I was expecting a dance show, but it turned out to be a dance/comedy show. In a way, it was good because I had a good laugh, but I think it took away from the awesomeness of their dance skills. It was good nevertheless.

I can totally be one of them =)

DAY 18: Eventless humpday

Today really doesn't deserve its own entry as it was rather eventless. HOWEVER, I feel it necessary to share that I did go out to the mall today and purchase an item that will make a HUUGGE improvement to my stay here:

TA-DAA...a space heater!! Every night..while my body is warm and snug under my duvet..my head is left out in the cold and I wake up to bloody frozen hair (if my hair is still wet from shower) and a frozen nose. That will never have to happen again with this lovely device. If I said hugging a koala is the best $20 spent, I take it back. THIS is the best 20 bucks I've ever spent.

In other news, as a result of my boredom, I baked some pretty bad ass cookies today. I haven't baked in sooo long. It feels good to bake again. I wonder why I quit..oh right..because I didn't NEED to bake with a self-proclaimed master baker in my life...also didn't want to steal his limelight with my wonderful baked goods har har.

Yums

Also, I will never take my electric mixer at home for granted lol. Its true..you never know how useful something is until you don't have it. 

so much for "not deserving an entry"...I talk too much lol

DAY 16: ACTUAL sick day

WARNING: the following material contains nothing but rants and whines. Read at your own discretion.

Of course I'll get sick. I always get sick. Its not a trip without visiting the local clinic. -_-

The day actually started out alright. Went out for whale survey early in the morning and it was a realllly good day. Had a pod of pretty active whales..a couple of breaches and a couple of waves here and there. It was a shame because I left my camera at home this time. Learning from past experiences (ie: drowning electronics in a desert)..electronics and I are not very good friends and I didn't want to risk dropping it into the ocean...

So after the survey, I felt kind of feverish so I went to the school clinic and apparently they don't take walk-in's, but the receptionist said she can get the nurse to see me so I waited a freaken hour. But I had to leave to give my friend something and decided to go to another clinic 20mins bus ride away. SO I finally got to see the doctor and man I had no idea what he said. I know I have hearing problems...usually I need people to repeat what they say a couple times before the sentence gets registered into my mind even back at home..but it is just brutal here. I basically sat there and nodded my head when the doctor said "oh it looks like you might have blahblahblah...or maybe blahblahblah..so I'll just get you started on some blahblahblabh". Awesome.

Turns out he prescribed some penicillin. What he thinks I have..is still a mystery to me. So anyway, I got my meds and was like oh alright, I'm good to go. I was supposed to take 2 tablets immediately when I get home...but when I opened the damn box of meds, 5 packs of 10 pills stared back at me..and then I looked at the instructions and saw that I need to finish the whole bloody box, which means I have a month's worth of medication to take...and those pills are MASSIVE (to me..). so I just left it on my desk and went to take a shower.

Shower...is apparently a BAD idea when you're running a temperature. Because my face was literally burning afterward.

WARNING #2: Blog got hijacked. skip to the next dash line if you're not up to reading 15 minutes of BS.

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So, when my wonderful and noble housemate returned, he discovered to his absolute horror, that I was being a complete knob head (as always but would not want to admit it). I defied logic and beyond all human comprehension by using a bag of frozen vege's wrapped in my stinky unwashed tee-shirt and rubbing it on my LARGE forehead. Being the more logical person, my housemate proceeded to set my mind straight. Several cubes of ACTUAL ICE (yes, made from water) was used (instead of frozen vege's). Ice cubes were subsequently set in a plastic sandwich bag, which by the way, gives good transmission to area of interest --> MY inflated forehead.

Ok, the ice was juuuusssttttt the beginning of the drama that would unfold. I did everything right EXCEPT I had the propensity to make a mistake of the doctor's prescription. Helloooo! Why did I not read the instructions carefully first. This is so embarrassing. Anyway, back the main point. Apparently, I have this HUGE phobia of taking meds. HUGE PILLS I mean. I proceeded to shoo out my housemate and take the pills in his divine absence. But before taking the pills, I had first opened up by curtain blinds, looked towards the starry night sky, clasped my stringy fingers together and prayed to God this would not be the end of my life. I do not wanna die eating pills GOD dammit! I do not want to spend the last remnants of my life dead with HUGE pills with my mouth. (wtf Preston!??!!?)

What follows later, was probably the BIGGEST mistake of the day (not that I didn't make enough already. Oh silly you!). I showed and told my housemate I was in the midst of writing my blog and asked him if he would be interested in continuing my life' story. Of course, he took up on my offer without a hint of a doubt and proceeded to do so,full of enthusiasm and literature vigor. But of course, all this writing would go down the drain anyway and would not be approved since I am such a sweet innocent girl-next-door (DUH???!?!?!!??!???) <---- PPPPfffftftttttttttttt!

     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ THE END ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Unbelievable...lol. Anyway, what REALLY happened was..I didn't have ice and obviously didn't have the time nor energy to make ice..so I just grabbed my frozen veggies and put it in my t-shirt (ya didn't have a towel either..). I HONESTLY don't see anything wrong with that....but apparently doing that was "completely illogical". And after getting scolded at by Preston (like seriously..who the heck yells at a sick person)..he traded my frozen veggies for an ice bag. End result would have been exactly the same...but sure..whatever floats his boat lol.

See, told you they're big...=(

I apologize for the EXTRA long post..but in my defense..I did warn you lol..I'm going to bed now and hopefully the meds will kick in and I won't have to use preston's stupid ice bag...

DAY 15: "sick" day

My surfing plan has once again been..postponed. This time I can't blame mother nature... I woke up this morning feeling like I got ran over by a big honkin truck. My shoulders were sore, my back was sore, my legs were sore, my neck especially was sore...on top of that my lymph nodes on my neck feels a little bit swollen and hurts like crap when I poke at it. I should stop whining haha my point is..I felt like crap this morning.

While I was trying to decide whether I should pop a couple of advil and just pass out on bed for the rest of the day, Mr. Pushy-pants came into my room and guilt tripped me to get out on this beaaautiful Sunday afternoon DESPITE feeling like crap. So after 15 minutes of hardcore persuasion from Mr. Pushy-pants, off I go to Tallebudgera Creek (with unbrushed hair and a slight fever..no big deal). 

I needed to take a picture of the sign because I know I won't remember what that stupid creek is called and I won't know how to spell it here lol.

Behold..Tallebudgera Creek. When I say "stupid creek" just now..I really don't mean it. because Tallebudgera creek is so verrry gorgeous. I can just sit here all day and soak in all the gorgeousness.

 Here is the creek again. The tide was pretty low and we saw little kids standing in the middle of the creek..so we thought we could just wade from one side to the other...and boy were we so wrong lol. A couple steps into the creek, the water was already to my thighs. How those kids managed to stand in the middle of the creek is beyond me lol it must be shallower in the middle?? who knows. 

 On the other side of the creek is the beach. A very movie-esque beach with couples walking along and dogs playing fetch

 Ahh just so breathtaking. Can even see Surfers Paradise waay in the back there.

 Even though I sounded really cranky and was complaining about being "dragged out" of my nest, I AM very glad you did drag me out today =) Tallebudgera creek is amazing and I had a blast. Thanks Preston!! ^^

I love this picture ^^ But what you guys don't know is what I was thinking when that photo was taken.  I was cursing under my breath because my underwear just got soaked by a giant wave.

 Doggies! There was this one dog who would just come up randomly and drop a ball at our feet and wait for us to throw it. haha so cute. 

After Tallebudgera Creek, we went to Main Beach and played a game of...patong?! pathong? badong?! yeah somewhere along those lines lol Needless to say, I'm a natural at everything and owned it even though I can't even pronounce the damn name of the game hhaha. I wish I had taken photos of this, but was too busy throwing balls and frisbee.

I'm completely exhausted now. This blog entry feels like its super long...so I'm gonna wrap it up.

What was supposed to be a stay-at-home day turned out to be an amazing day. Not too shabby for a "sick day"!

DAY 14: Surfers Paradise

Wooohooo now THIS is more like it. Bikini weather in the winter =)

Had plans to go surfing with the professor today, but I think the waves are still a tiny bit crazy, so we moved it to tomorrow. Instead, I headed down to Surfers Paradise and enjoyed a full day of sunshine. 

The Surfers Paradise arch thingy. Apparently very tacky to the locals, but being the tourist that I am, I enjoyed it =)

I was expecting tons of surfers and swimmers at "SURFERS paradise"..but I guess the waves really weren't that great..probably saw less than 5 surfers out there today from where we were sitting.

With no one photobombing in the background..I obviously jumped at that photo opt and took some shots with the lovely ocean.

My co-worker and her boyfriend . Such a cute couple =).  

For lunch, we had a "picnic" on the beach. I say "picnic" because I was too lazy to pack lunch and just got myself some Mos burger. yumm yumm.

MOS BURGER

 As soon as I opened my burger, this little guy flopped down from nowhere and stared me down for my burger. I wanted to shoo it away, but that poor guy had one limpy leg and I just didn't have the heart to scream at him.

I think this one super warm and sunny day made up for the crappy weather we had last weekend. I'm quite easily satisfied =) 

Random thought of the day: I will now have to admit that I am just bilingual and not trilingual as I have come to terms with my inability to speak French. =(

DAY 12: The SPIT

The weather was super nice today...it was the first day that I didn't have to wear my jacket out since I got here. So after work, my wonderful housemate Preston drove me down to THE SPIT and spat into the ocean (just kidding..but in retrospect..I really should've lol). I would've found "The Spit" an amusing name for a place if only I didn't have Mr. Allan's voice explaining what a spit is in the back of my mind...Thank you Allan for ingraining the properties of geological landforms in my brain.

Looking down the spit.

 The swell was still pretty big and waves were just out of control. The waves were hitting the rocks and stuff and we were sprayed all over with salty ocean water. If we stayed on the spit any longer, the waves would've washed us out to the ocean.

A very mystic-looking view of the Gold Coast from the Spit

Crazy waves hitting the beach beside the Spit

We planned to watch the sunset out on the spit and we were there just a tad early..so took some pictures on the lovely beach. 

Before heading out to the spit, I insisted on wearing a flowing skirt JUST for the purpose of this picture =). Nah, just too lazy to change, but i do love the way the skirt flows in the air like that! I shall wear long flowy skirts whenever I plan on taking jumping pictures on the beach hehe ^^. 

Just in time to catch a man trying to fish the setting sun. 

The sunset was beaautiful.

Couple hours later.... 

Went for a night stroll along Surfers Paradise.

It was really peaceful looking out and hearing the waves, but at the same time, it was also a little eerie looking out into complete darkness and emptiness of the Pacific Ocean.
(note the random seagull..what a poser)

Day 8: Koalas and kangaroooooos

Long overdue post..haha..been busy (lazy..shh) the past couple days =P

Don't really know why I put off this post for this long..considering this day was AMAAAZZING!!

Today was animal day =) Went to the sanctuary to meet some native Australian creatures

The Currubin Wildlife Sanctuary:

Right off the bat.. Koala! They were so cute! They curl up into a ball on the very tip of the branch haha. At first from afar, I saw little grey balls on the branches and I was like...what the heck are those fluff balls?!! They were sooo adorable!! so adorable that I cracked and paid $20 bucks to hug one and take a picture with it. =)

 And of course..the infamous kangaroo. Look at that little brat ...its freaken so big that it doesn't even fit in his mommy's pouch and he still got his mommy to carry him around everywhere. That poor mama.

 So apparently kangaroos are super friendly! They weren't caged in or anything, we can just walk right into the area and get close and personal with them! These kangaroos just can't wait to gimme some loooovin. (no..of course they wanted me and not the food I was holding..)

 I just thought this is a funny scene. =P

 So the thing with this wildlife "sanctuary"is that..most animals aren't caged...they just wander around the area...and I just happened to run into this gigantic bird thing on my way to the crocs. I wish I got close enough to really see what that was and maybe check a sign to identify this big thing....buut..it started to make funny noises when I got closer..and obviously my first instinct when some giant bird caws at me...is to turn around and run the other way haha
(special shout out to my bestie: All the while I was looking at pretty (and ugly) birds..I thought of you hahha. I'm pretty sure you will flip out here haha birds just fly everywhere)

Quite a productive day.

Hug a koala: check
Get mobbed by a group of kangaroos: check
Have my path blocked by a random massive ostrich looking bird: check

Well there's 3 things off my bucket list!

DAY 7: Vomit-fest

First humpback whale survey!

Arrived at Mariner's Cove nice and early. and of course, the one day I wanted the sun out the most, it went MIA. But at least it wasn't raining!

The nice big vessel which later became a puke city. I typically don't get really bad seasickness, but between the waves, the gloomy sky and people vomiting here and there, I got a little queasy myself. Now seeing that I was getting a little sick, my wonderful co-worker suggested (I'm sure with good intentions) that I should go down to the main level of the boat. "It'll be less rocky" he said, "You'll feel much better right in the middle of the boat" he said. LIES. As soon as I walked down from the top, I was hit with a wave of vomit stench and then saw about half of the boat's passenger throwing up their breakfasts into white paper bags. I swear I've never seen so many puking people my whole life....

Despite the seasickness, it was definitely cool to see the gentle giants of the sea!! They were coming up and slashing their tails and stuff! This was the best picture that I managed to take. It was not an easy task taking a decent photo while trying keep my breakfast down AND doing a whale survey.


Lunch after the whales at Max Brenner Chocolate Bar at the Marina Mirage:

 Milk and dark chocolate fondue

Best belgium waffles EVER.

From vomit-fest to sugary heaven...what a day. =)

DAY 3: human popsicle

...not my favourite day.

Managed to hop on the wrong bus. Got lost in the middle of nowhere. Couldn't understand the bus driver for the life of me (apparently I don't understand english..). Waited at the train/bus stop for the right bus in -345098384590 degree weather. And apparently it gets completely dark by 5:30pm.

Home now. STILL frozen in my fuzzy socks, flannel pants and fleece jacket.

You're supposed to be sunshine and blue skies Australia...Y u no warm?!

DAY 2: PELICAN!

Day 1.5-ish

My first glimpse at the australian coastline. Was raining when I arrived, so it was a little gloomy...hope I didn't bring the rain with me from back home ><.

ACTUAL day 2

Its a PELICAN! ..i dunno about you..but I've never seen a REAL pelican SO FREAKEN CLOSE UP! it was...like..just swimming on the beach?! in the wild! not in a zoo! Awestruck =) It reminded me of finding nemo. Well one thing I learned...it can definitely swim faster than I can run on sand....I looked like a crazy woman hopping along the beach trying to take this picture..but SO worth it.

Me and my giant geckoes send our greetings to you all from down south =)

DAY 1: Pre-departure jitters

After emotional breakdowns and the departure fiasco, I'm finally at YVR waiting to board my 16 hour flight to AUSTRALIA!

Still terrified beyond belief, still feel like peeing my pants whenever I think about the coming 10 weeks in an unknown land. Who would've thought that living away from home for 4 years still can't cure me of paranoia, nervous breakdowns and all that jazz. But really, there is SO much to worry about...killer bees, black widow spiders, weather too cold..too hot..too wet., what if I can't understand english??! what if I get lost?? what if I fall into the ocean?! what happens if I swim into a shark?! what if my landlord is crazy?? what if my roommates are druggies?? and as always, what if I passout in the middle of nowhere?! Okay seriously I need to stop...

Anyways, Im going to miss my baby Lexie =(. Poor baby, she looked so sad. I wanted to pack her with me so bad!! Don't worry! I'll see you in 2 months!