Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Smile for the Paparazzi

Tonight was family photo night. It started with a little of this:

From Family Photots

Then there was a bit of that:

From Family Photots

And some of this:

From Family Photots

Then there was this:

From Family Photots

And it ended with a little of this:

From Family Photots

Shhhhhh,

From Family Photots

don’t tell Jeanette ;). “Or Jesus.” All right then, Eden. So that was how we spent the night. Lots of fun. Here are the rest of the lovely photos.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

The Dangerous Disaster that is My Cooking

I’m sure many Americans have heard Sydnie’s favorite story to tell about my cooking. And if you haven’t, then you clearly employ the art of not listening to Syd whilst she is in her rant mood. (A good choice. It’s what I do) “I just insult her. It’s much more fun.” “That’s because you have a black hole where your heart should be. (With love).” Anyway, if you haven’t learned to tune out her rants and you have heard the story, you can just skip the next paragraph because I’m going to summarize it. “And if you don’t know the story, skip the next paragraph because it will bore you to death.”

So, once upon a time, Sydnie and I were cooking scones. I accidently put a tablespoon of salt in rather than a teaspoon and effectively ruined them. Why? I don’t know, maybe it was because we were making the worse pastry in the world and I wanted to make cookies instead (But I was a pushover back then and always did what Syd wanted) so I subconsciously ruined them on purpose. Or maybe it was because Syd handed me a tablespoon and told me to but a teaspoon of salt in. Or maybe it truly was because I didn’t know the difference between a tablespoon and a teaspoon and didn’t care enough to ask. Or maybe Syd ruined them later and simply blamed poor younger me. I guess we’ll never know. The point is, me+cooking=disaster.

Now, you might be wondering what cooking with Syd so many years ago has to do with me, right now, in Australia. Or you might have stopped reading because NOBODY CARES.” Well, I will tell you, right after this commercial break.

Commercial: *Strangely attractive washed up Australian actor on screen* Do you have a particularly annoying pest you could do without?

Me: “Why yes, I do. *Looks pointedly at Eden*

Commercial: Yes? Well just call the Handy Dandy Aussie Pest Exterminator. We’ll get rid of your pests the- er- humane was *screaming animated cockroaches being thrown live into a meat grinder churning out hotdogs in the background* at a fair price. No Credit? No Problem. We’ll set an “easy” long-term payment plan in which we’ll be hounding you via debt collectors until you crack. Just call our service number:

0456773822, That’s 0456773822. Terms and conditions apply. Company not responsible for return pests.

Me: Hmm, getting rid of pests in a humane way. What was that number again? Excuse me while I go make a quick phone call.

So, now that our little pest problem is taken care of. *Eden being dragged off by gorilla men* “Noooo, you can’t do this to me, I’m a ninja.” “Rule number 27 of being a ninja, Eden, never admit to being a ninja.” We can continue with our tale.

Exhibit one:

The Pizza.

From Other in May

Now we all know what a wonderful food pizza is. We eat it, we make it, we pay doctor’s bills because of it. But you know what makes pizza even better then the grease laden, calorie filled, heart stopper that it is? Add a little vampire (and I mean real vampires not the oversized sparkling fairies Stephanie Myers writes about) food. Yes, that’s right. Pizza is great; why not add a couple drops of human blood? Heck, for all we know, they could do it in restaurants. The sauce is red. And pizza hut changed their fifty-year-old recipe right in the middle of a “vampire” (oversized sparkling fairy) craze. Very suspicious. So these were my thoughts on pizza night. This thought (and the fact I was watching Glee while opening a package of cabanossi with a freshly sharpened steak knife) was just the incentive I needed to cut open my finger and bring our pizza making up to the twenty-first century. For those of you who don’t know, I’m a bleeder. So, this simple little no big deal cut, got me out of cooking that night. Instead, I had to elevate my finger while applying pressure. I’m not going to say that this wasn’t part of my brilliant plan.

From Other in May

Exhibit Two:

The Green Chili

From Other in May

Ok, so this accident has nothing to do with taste. How could it? Glass doesn’t taste good. Plus, it would give an unnecessary crunch to the green chili. Ick. So maybe I was a little upset because the amount of chilies I was allowed to put in the chili wouldn’t make a two-year-old’s tongue burn. But hey, that doesn’t mean I smashed the glass on purpose. We’ll just say it was in the wrong place at the wrong time. It could have happened to anything; Eden’s face, a priceless china statue, my history book, Eden’s face. You just can’t control my elbows when you tell me to shake something. Especially when the thing I was shaking was stubborn and the meat wouldn’t get coated with flour. And maybe my subconscious was making a statement about the lack of chili in the green chili. (My subconscious is very vengeful.) But you can’t blame me for that. My subconscious forced my arm to hit that stupid glass glass, which by the way, what is glass doing by me anyway? Looking at my track record, i.e. the shower door, and my cooking failures, the table should have been clear of anything precious. From now on, when I am cooking, only plastic glasses should be allowed anywhere near me. Problem solved. Anyway, when I knocked the glass over, everything slowed down. I’m surprised I didn’t dive for the glass shouting nooooooooooo. The sound came before the glass actually hit the ground. It was really weird. I stopped helping after that.

From Other in May

Exhibit Three:

The Chimichangas

From Other in May

This one wasn’t my fault. Really. I didn’t even knock over the plate. Yes, it was because of the ridiculous about of butter on the tortilla that the plate stuck to it and then shattered. And yes I was the one who buttered the tortilla in the first place, but still, I didn’t actually break the plate. You may be asking, why did you put so much butter on the tortillas. Well, this is very simple. The butter container I used to butter tortillas was the same butter container I used when scooping two large spoonfuls out for sopapillas. This means that the butter has two ice cream scoop size holes in it. This really, really bothered me. For the past two weeks, I’ve been over buttering everything trying to single-handedly even the butter. This was my chance. Each tortilla had about triple the necessary butter on it. This was both good and bad. It was good because the butter was now even. It was good because who doesn’t love butter and it makes the chimis extra crispy. It was bad because we now all have clogged arteries and I’m going to dye when I try to play rugby again. It was bad because the butter caused all the tortillas to stick to each other and to the plate. Indirectly causing the plate to break. (Opps)

From Other in May

In Conclusion:

Cooking with me is dangerous. I am easily distracted and my subconscious takes control. Glass is never safe around me. I over butter things because I like the butter to be evenly spread around the container. But, everything I’ve made tastes really good. I promise. (And you have to admit it does look appetizing.) There is one other downside to cooking with me. I leave a really big mess.

From Other in May

Oh, I almost forgot. The questions posed at the end of last entry. Is there really a moon? I will answer this with another question. Is there really anything? How can we prove that anything does exist? This could all be a figment of my imagination for all we know. Maybe the world will stop turning as soon as I die. Maybe I’m making all of this up as I go along. But my answer is, we cannot actually prove that anything does exist nor can we prove that anything doesn’t exist. And when we cannot prove that something doesn’t exist, there is always a chance that is might. And life’s ultimate question? That is quite simple. What is 6X7?

Thus ends another tale in the most excellent adventures of Hannah and Eden. Well, now that Eden has been humanely disposed of… “I’m back. Ha. I win. Everyone, Hannah is a man.” “Wow, not even exterminating you teaches you a better insult. How sad. I think I’ll get you a book of insults for your birthday. Now I should go call that company. Oh wait, not responsible for returned pests. Damn. Looks like I’m going to have to keep you around anyway.”

Bye, bye now. Show’s over folks. Next up, Uluru. Unless nothing interesting happens. Then it will just be pictures.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Dinner Discussions Two: Fallacious Reasoning

Despite the obvious evidence that us eating as an entire family is dangerous, as proved in the previous dinner discussions, we were planning on doing it again. Maybe it’s just the idea of us all sitting down to dinner that gets us in a strange mood, because tonight, even after Blake left for guitar lessons, we all had a feeling that a strange discussion would begin.

It started with the chips (we had nachos for dinner). Eden was in a whiney mood (like he had been all day). “Well if you hadn’t woken me up this morning I would be in a better mood.” “It was eleven. Don’t be such a baby, and you woke me up at 7 yesterday.” “That was different. This was my only day to sleep in.” “Oh, and I suppose that last Thursday and Friday never happened.” “This is different.” “How?” “This is this week.” “Plus, most of your exams were in the afternoon; you could have gone in later. And you have tomorrow to sleep in.” “Not all of my exams were in the afternoon. Name one.” “Chemistry.” “I had to go in to study.” “Well it’s not my fault you’re stupid and can’t balance equations.” So anyway, Eden was whiney mood and demanded to know why we didn’t have gross flavored nacho chips. I replied with the obvious answer, because flavored chips are icky. “Baby” “Don’t interrupt, I’m getting to that part.” Eden announced that calling things icky was very baby like of me and decided to call me a baby for the rest of dinner. (Because, again, he can’t come up with any good insults.)

So, after this, we talked about our plans for the weekend. Eden and I are going to DFO (Direct Factory Outlit) with Jackson, Sinead, and Shirley. Eden decided to ask his parents for money for shoes. When he was explaining that he had his converse for his jeans but he needed other shoes because his converse didn’t match, I couldn’t help but point out how girly he sounded. “You’re so sexist. This is the twenty-first century, girls can’t expect not to be discriminated against and discriminate at the same time. This is just like in gym…” “Ok, I’m going to go ahead and cut you off, I’m telling the story.” So anyway, Eden went ahead and told me pretty much that. Then he went on to rant about how girls could use the excuse “I’m having lady problems” to get out of gym, as an excuse to eat chocolate, and as an excuse to let their emotions run rampage. But he can never say “I’m having man problems” to do anything. (Like I said, he was being very whiney today. Maybe he’s pmsing. That would follow my theory that he is a girl.) “More sexism. Guys can be whiney to. And I am a man. A M-A-N. Man, man, man!!!” I take it back. He is clearly overcompensating. “Am not.” All the evidence leads to it. Unfortunately, until he is willing to admit it, I have no concrete proof. “Ha” But hey, it’s a theory, and so is evolution and seeing as most people believe that. “I am not overcompensating.” “Sure you aren’t. Just keep telling yourself that.” So, the conversation went on. First, we discussed how it shouldn’t be sexism, it should be genderism. Eden explained this with some complex society and culture crap that nobody cares about. “Hey, that’s not true. Everyone, Hannah is a man.” “Seriously, you’ve called me that every blog entry, get some new insults.” “I just call you that because your reaction is so funny every time. I don’t see why you freak out so much.” “Hold on a minute, can we backtrack a few lines. You’re saying that I freak out, take a look in the mirror.” While Eden explained it with his fancy words and logic, I refuted his statement using IDictionary. You see, IDictionary defines –ism as denoting a belief and sex as reproductive intercourse. Sexism should logically mean the belief that people should reproduce. And sexist, -ist meaning an adherent (thank you studies of religion) should mean someone who believes in reproductive intercourse. In short, someone who believes that people have sex to reproduce, which makes everyone sexist. However, genderism won’t work either. Gender means the state of being either male or female. Genderism is therefore the belief that people are either male or female. And genderists are clearly people who believe that there are male and females. And with that statement, I blew away Eden’s stupid argument. “What fallacious reasoning.” “Look at the title of this blog.”

That wasn’t the only supposed fallacious reasoning we encountered. I decided to explain why Eden sounded so much like a girl in his begging for shoes. First, my sister got to make custom converses for her birthday. She was so excited that she ran off and I didn’t see her again until I was about to get off skype. The second, several of my friends (Syd comes to mind in particular) have gigantic shoe collections. Therefore, whilst Eden is jabbering on about how his darn converses just don’t match his shorts, he reminded me so strongly of Haeli and Syd. He announced that this was fallacious reasoning, stating that it was like saying “A chair has four legs and a table has four legs so a table is a dog.” And he didn’t understand why we were cracking up until Heath said, “yeah, and a dog has eyes, and I have eyes so I must be a whale.” Eden attempted to explain that I knew what he meant but it was to late. We spent the rest of dinner making ridiculous deductions with fallacious reasoning. The best:

“A chair has four legs and a table has four legs so a table is a dog” (of course)

“A planet is round, and you’re round, so you must be a planet”

“All girls pms and Eden is pmsing so he must be a girl” “Hey, we didn’t even say that one.” “But we all know it’s the truth” “I AM A MAN! Do I need to prove it to you?” “No, you’ll just embarrass yourself. After all, that will probably prove my over-compensating theory.”

“I have one!” “I’m going to regret this, ok, what is it?” “Babies say things like icky, Hannah says things like icky, so Hannah must be a baby.” “Wow, brilliant. You want a cookie. Here you go, steady, steady, good boy. *pats Eden on the head*” “I’m not a dog.” “Dogs are overly spastic, you’re overly spastic, and so you must be a dog.”

And with that logical fallacy, and my complete control over the keyboard, I bid you ado with two questions left in your mind. The first, does the moon really exist? And the second, what is the ultimate question to the ultimate answer? Find out next time at Hannah and Eden’s Most Excellent Adventure. (Haha, I’ve always wanted to say that.)

Friday, May 14, 2010

Nostalgia

Last week was a welcome dessert dinner for the liasees. (Yes that is a word. I added it to the dictionary.) This night of welcoming made me incredibly nostalgic. Then, Paradise by the Dashboard Lights came on and I took it as a sign. So, I’m going to spend this entry reflecting on the last year and all that has happened in it.

First things, first: The pairing potluck. It was the day I’d looked forward to since the minute I got accepted to the exchange. The anticipation of finding out which of the girls I was paired with (we ignored Eden’s picture at first) was killing me. I have to admit, I was almost disappointed when I found out I was paired with a boy. In fact, after Brandon read out Steph’s name, I was crossing my fingers that Aleah got the boy. The first thoughts through my head when I found out I had a boy partner was “Crap”. I don’t have a lot of boy friends for a reason. And I must admit, I was truly worried that Eden was going to be one of those “I’m the best thing that ever walked the earth, all girls go weak in front of me” type of guy. And it turns out, I was exactly right. (Just kidding, he’s not that up himself). Then, after looking through his application and having a two-hour phone conversation with him, I realized the exchange paired people up for a reason. In fact, I was excited for a boy partner. No petty girl squabbles. (Little did I know, Eden was a girl) “Oi!” *pretends to check* “I’m a man.” “Go away, you’re still suspended.” “Make me. Everyone, this is the point when Hannah punches me with a little girly punch because she thinks she’s tough. Now, I run away with her computer cackling like a madman. And now she’s pounding on the door I’m sitting behind and trying to force herself in (but not to hard because I have her computer)” So anyway, our pairing potluck. I was dreading getting the boy partner because I was worried he would try to be the alpha male. “And we all know how sensitive Eden is about his manliness. NOW LET ME IN!!” “Shut up. The first phone call was so nerve-wracking. I can’t even remember what we said. Now I guess I should let Hannah in before she hurts herself.” Thank you. Now, to continue with the nostalgicness. (Which is now a word. Gotta love the add word option on spell-check.)

To commemorate the rest of the exchange, I’m “We’re” "I’M" going to list several phrases or topics that will always be associated with inside jokes:

Eden lost his pants in L.A.

Paradise by the Dashboard Lights

Cannibalism (I think we talked the subject to death. Haha) “Not funny” “Shut up.”

The Kaleidoscope Kow

One story spread out fat Asian whores

Just urban dictionary in general

Taking a walk

Oh, and one more thing. A special shout out of the day goes to Sinead. Cause she’s just awesome.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Dinner Discussions: The Finger

Warning, the following blog post contains information on a certain rude gesture commonly known as the middle finger, the bird, or the Trudeau salute (in Canada). For this reason, the following entry has been rated PG-13. Please take this into account before continuing.


Today we had a lovely dinner where the entire family was present. So, of course, chaos ensued. After a few minutes of pleasant conversation, it happened. The conversation took a horrible turn. We learned about the middle finger, the bird, the Trudeau salute, whatever you wish to call it. It started out innocently enough. With a discussion of why it was insulting. A little history lesson “Nobody cares” “Oh there you are Eden, I was wondering when you were going to speak up because now I can show you this in honor of our theme today. *makes hand gesture that is blurred out by God’s editing team*” So anyway, the origins of the so called evil finger (Eden is to shocked to comment).

Well, once upon a time, in a far away land “are you all tucked in with a glass of warm milk?” there was a war. This was before the time of guns and nuclear weapons. In fact, the people still used bows and arrows. “How medieval of them” “My point exactly, thank you Eden.” Anyway, the archers would use their middle finger to draw back the bow. “Causing it to become a bad omen to see a middle finger right before battle.” “Not exactly. And I’m telling the story here.” When the enemy caught archers, they didn’t kill them or send them to prison back in the day. They disgraced them and sent them packing to be a burden on their own country and family. This meaning, they cut off the middle finger so that the archer could never handle a bow again. Now, people back then were into gloating. So, when a country won a battle, they would show their enemies the middle finger in order to mock them. As if to say, “I have a middle finger. You fail.” Well, the insult developed, and soon became the obscene gesture it is today. Coincidently, this is also the origin of the f word. The archers would shout out to their retreating enemy, “I can still pluck yew” meaning they can still shoot their bow. “Wow, riveting stuff here. They were so creative then.” “Oh yes, because you are so much better.” “Shut up. Hannah is a man everyone.” “My point exactly.” “What? Oh, damn, stupid American.” “And Eden gets the reward for proving my point twice in a row.”

So, after our little history lesson about flipping someone the bird, we shared the best ways to do it. The top six were:

Applying makeup

Pop goes the weasel

Fireworks

The telephone

Finger Linger (Finger Linger sat on a wall, Finger Linger had a great fall, all the kings horses and all the kings men had to put Finger together again)

And, the typing fingers.

Sadly, archer fingers didn’t make it into the equation. This little dinner extravaganza proves that we should never all eat dinner together. Dangerous things happen.

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Mother's Day

Today’s blog entry is dedicated to the mothers of the world. I hope you all are enjoying this lovely Mother’s Day. To commemorate this day, I have written a lovely acrostic poem of the word mother.

Marvelous

Occasionally irritating (but we love them)

Totally awesome (with the A Very Potter Musical hand motion)

Hip and Happening

Easygoing

Really great people

After I wrote this poem, I decided to practice my Spanish and I wrote another one for the word madre.

Mujer

Amable

Divertida

Regañón a veces pero nos encantan todos modos

Elogioso

When I was little, I used to hate Mother’s Day. I used to think that it wasn’t fair. Parents got their own day, but what about the kids? I used to think, where’s Kid’s Day. When do we get presents and get to do whatever we want for one day? Your birthday people would say. After I explained to them that on Mother’s Day and on her birthday, Mom got what they wanted, they told me that everyday in the rest of the year was kid’s day. I always thought this was a crappy answer. Now, I realize why parents get their own days. It’s because they’ve earned it. Cause they were crazy enough to repopulate the earth and therefore they deserve their own day. With that, I give every mother reading this blog a dozen of virtual flowers. I have also posted a slideshow of pictures of both my own mother and my nonbiological mother just to show them how much I care.

Much love and Happy Mother's Day everyone.

Mother Montage (I feel like I'm using that word wrong)

A dozen virtual flowers for all the mothers out there

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

From March to May: The catch up post

From Other in April

Dear Everyone, Eden called the blog boring on my facebook status. As a result, he is not allowed to make any comments on this entry. Now, let's begin.

Life in Australia has been so busy. I’ve followed behind in the blogging of my adventures. Unfortunately, the only way I will ever be able to catch up is to sum up the last two months. So here we go.

March:

On the 16th, we went to Cobra Starship, Owl City, and Amy Meredith. The concert was amazing and so much fun.

That weekend was the liaison weekend. We went up to Nelson’s Bay. While we were up there, we went on a dolphin cruise. Before the cruise, we saw penguins, real penguins, swimming in the ocean. THEY WERE SOOOO COOL!!! We also went sand boarding on the sand dunes (wow, that’s redundant). Sand boarding is like sledding except it’s on sand so it isn’t as cold. It’s also more tiring because sand is really hard to walk up. (For those of you who don’t know, when you try to climb up sand, it slides out from underneath you, tries to bury you, and it burns.) That being said, it is also a great workout. If you’re reading this Ed, I propose the entire rugby team flies to Australia. We can get a great workout by learning how to surf, running up sand hills, and immerse ourselves in a community that doesn’t think of rugby as “football without the pads.” Plus, it’s Australia, duh.

On the 23rd, we met up with the others on the exchange for the third time in two weeks (that’s a new record) to do the Sydney Bridge Climb. The climb was, of course, brilliant. The views from the top of the bridge are breathtaking. On the way down, we got to watch the sunset. This was amazing. There was just enough cloud to make the sunset glow. Unfortunately, cameras aren’t allowed on this amazing climb so I only have the pictures I bought for $50 (totally worth it). But, because I bought them, I am going to take credit for them. So there.

That weekend, we went to Ashley and Ashleigh's birthday parties as well as the pairing breakfast for next years group. My first Aussie parties were lots of fun. The new group's pairing breakfast was so exciting. It reminded me of this time last year when we did our pairings. I remember the excitement, the shock, the nerve-racking first phone call. So many memories I'll never forget started with that night. (Oh my goodness, that sounds cheesy. I'm going to stop now before I get reminiscent and you all have to suffer.)

The next week was uneventful. Term was ending so all of the large projects were due. (This is something that doesn’t change even if I am across the world. I don’t know why teachers insist on giving themselves things to grade over breaks.) On April 2nd, (good Friday) I went to the Easter Show with Tara, Nicole, Cairene, and Sylvia. We rode a rollercoaster, looked at the animals, ate (a lot), cheered on the United States in wood chopping (or at least I did, we got second, damn Canada) and watched the night show from the field with a better view then we would have gotten in the stadium. Somewhere during all of that, I managed to spend more money then I had, lost at a bubble gun war (in my defense, I didn’t have a gun and they ganged up on me), and got wacked in the head with a plastic light saber. On Easter Sunday, we went into the city. We did a ferry ride and went to the Rocks. I just cannot get over what a beautiful city this is. On Easter Monday, we went to Eden’s uncle’s for homemade pizza.

April:

From Other in April

Tuesday, we headed off to Campone. The entire experience was amazing. There were 200 kids there and they are all just from Eden’s church and in 9th to 12th grade. We spent six hours a day eating. During the rest of the day, we did various things, from writing Emily’s family history (long story) to making our own deck of cards. We found out ten minutes after we did this that one of the girls in the next room over had a deck. On the first day, Emily, Brittany, and I decided for no particular reason that our door was off limits. We made this clear to everyone by posting a simple warning that read: DANGER OF FALLING INTO THE FIFTH DIMENSION. For some reason, this made them want to go through our door even more. On the other side, a sign read OUT OF ORDER, PLEASE USE OTHER DOOR. We found that people respected an out of order sign more then they respected a warning sign. It may have had something to do with the fact that the door was locked from the inside. Camp went by quickly and before we knew it, it was Saturday. On Saturday, Alissa was baptized. It was very cool, she gave her testimony, we prayed for her, and we went down to the river, where Steve dunked her under the water.

The second week of the holidays, we went to Coffs Harbour. It is a cute fishing town. On the first day there, Eden, Heath, and I walked out to a rock island about 20 yards out into the ocean. (Ok, it wasn’t that far but it was pretty darn far and the waves are stronger than me). The next day, we went to the porpoise pool. This place was awesome. There is a dolphin kissing and a seal kissing. After that, you can feed this gigantic seal. It was huge and rather scary. After the seal feeding, there was a show. Heath got to feed a dolphin, IT WAS SO COOL!!!! We then got to pet the dolphins. After that, we went to look at the penguins. Then, we went to a skywalk over a rainforest. The view was stunning. After the skywalk, we went on a walk through the rainforest. The next day, we went to the Big Banana. It is really neat. We got to see the banana plantations. After that, we went to the candy shop and watched them make awesome hard candies. Not to mention the free samples. Then we went to an old jail. The jail was neat and historical looking. That night, because it was my birthday we decided to go out to dinner. I decided that I wanted pizza. Not just any pizza, good pizza. We spent an hour looking for pizza in the town we were staying at. Finally, we stopped at a gas station to ask for directions to the nearest pizza place. The people told us there wasn’t one in town. We settled for the cute looking Italian restaurant. Unfortunately, it was about $30 a plate. We didn’t go there. So then we tried the Mexican restaurant. But, it was about $30 a plate. (See a theme) So we spent another thirty minutes looking for a good restaurant. We finally found a little Italian restaurant with reasonable prices. Yum!!! After that, everyone surprised me with cake and some ice cream. The next day, we went to a Koala Hospital. The koalas were so cute. When we finished that, we headed home, tired from our trip.

The rest of April passed by quickly. Sylvia’s birthday was on the 18th and we had a McDonalds Happy Meal picnic. On the 25th, we had Alissa’s surprise party. It was a lot of fun, aside from the fact, that all the guys want to talk about politics with me. We went to the Crunulla sunrise Anzac Day service. It would have been amazing except the sun forgot to rise (it was really cloudy).

So lovely people, that is what happened to me all of March and April. Enjoy. Look at the amazing pictures I’ve taken (with the help of many others) and comment on this entry to make me happy.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Canberra


So today I googled Hannah and Eden. “This is because the bludger is doing barely any work.” This blog was the first thing that came up. It made me think, someone that I don’t know could be obsessively following the blog, hanging off my every word. It’s strange. If you are this random person, thank you for your interest but it is sort of creepy. Unless you are Taylor Lautner, Michael Weston, or a Weasley male, “or Jessica Alba, or the chick from Nancy Drew” I feel uncomfortable with you reading about my life. Please go stalk someone you know.

Anyway, last week was uneventful. On Thursday, I went home after first period. Once again, BLUDGERRRR” Not because I was sick, we went over this last week, I’m not sick. I went home because I had no seminars. The seminar program is finally putting itself to good use. This Thursday I’m done at noon and next Thursday I’m done after first. So anyway, after cleaning my room, Eden got home and I did some homework. Then we went and got Heath and went up to Sharon’s school. We walked around Cronulla for a while then we went this rotating sushi bar. It was the coolest place ever, except it was sushi. The food rotated then you just picked out what you wanted and gave the plates to the register to pay. It was soooooo cool. OMG no way girlfriend ;)” After we got some sushi to go, we went to a fish and chips place. I had my first fish and chips on the beach. They’re really good. For everyone in America who doesn’t know, the chips in fish and chips aren’t potato chips, they’re french fries. But fish and french fries sounds dumb. Friday’s chemistry class was interesting. We all brought in skittles and m&ms to eat… I mean, “learn” with. All that resulted from our “learning” was a bunch of sugar high teenagers, “Shirley and I walked around the school oblivious to Mrs Ekrub”, and angry Ms Ekrub (Burke spelled backwards, a fantastic codename, spelling names backwards works really well. You would never know that Mr. Thims is really Mr. Smith. Although, it doesn’t work for some names. A’s name, for example. It is too obvious). We didn’t learn anything. Not that we ever do in chemistry. I learned more in Mr. Thims math class then I do in chemistry. And I already had learned all of that math. Then that night, we went to Neon. We played this safari game at Neon, which was a lot of fun except everyone got soaked and it was a Friday night in a cold church “My eyes still hurt.” “And that is your own fault” The weekend was uneventful. Eden and I had homework, so that was all we did on Saturday. On Sunday, I went to a cricket game, where I met Glen McGrath. He is a really good Australian cricket player. His kids also go to Sharon’s school. I got a picture with him and under his sign. After that, I went home and did some more homework (lovely). Monday was boring. Although I did discover that I don’t like milk, I only use it as an excuse to eat excessive milo. Just so the world knows, Eden owes me a milo covered ice cream ball on my last day. “I think I could be the start of something amazing.” “I think that you scare small children.” On Tuesday, I didn’t have a class until fourth period. If you saw the timetable I put up so long ago, you would see that after dropping math, I have a really blank timetable. So anyway, I slept in until nine and spent two hours getting ready. Yay for me. In Chemistry, Ms Ekrub decided to give us molecule kits. She clearly has never taught 15 and 16 year olds because she didn’t realize that 1, when you give teenagers little balls that can be stuck together and some bendy connectors, we are doomed to play around with them and not listen to instructions, 2, we aren’t going to build molecules, we’re going to try to build things that actually have shape, like puppy dogs and flowers “that’s what you did, Shirley and I threw them across the room at each other,” and 3, we aren’t going to clean up our mess. “That happened when we had the skittles, they turned up in weird places that night” “Why were you putting them down your pants?” Chemistry was, as always, completely useless. After school, I made fun of all the American sophomores who have to take CSAP because I don’t. Of course, I know this is going to bite me in the butt someday but it is totally worth it now. Not much happened the rest of the week. This weekend we went to Canberra and stayed with Eden’s cousins. It was a lot of fun because the oldest is twelve and they’re all very cute. On Saturday, we went to old Parliament house, Parliament house, the art museum, the American Embassy, and the mint. At the art museum I decided I coud be an artist. Now I know you’re all laughing because I can’t draw and blah blah blah. But I’m not going to let that hold me back. Being artistic isn’t essencial to the job of an artist, silly people. And besides, if someone can sell Blue Polls on Canvas and Red Paint Over Blue Paint Over White Paint for millions, imagine what they would pay for Bored in Ekrub’s Chemistry Class. I could be a gazillionare by the time I get back to America. Anyway, between old Pariliment house and Parliament house, a once in a lifetime event happened. We saw these officially looking cars pulled up to the intersection we were waiting at. The license plate had some fancy numbering on it and two little Australian flags were attached to the hood. Ian suggested that it was the prime minister. This thought was mostly confirmed when the light changed and all four officially looking cars took off really fast in a formation that screamed “Look at me, I’m an important person.” After everyone in the car overruled Eden (who thought stalking the prime minister was an old person thing), we followed them. We pulled up right next to the prime minister of Australia, and there’s a picture somewhere if you don’t believe me. When the light changed again, the security car behind him did a very illegal move and changed lanes halfway through the intersection. He did this so we couldn’t pull up next to the car again. He very well could have caused an accident by doing this very illegal move, had we been turning. Luckily, we weren’t turning and there was no accident. Personally, I think if the security is going to be so cautious, they should figure out what car is the most popular one owned in the city, buy five of them, replace their windows with the special glass, and make the prime minister’s car look like thousands of others. That way, if a terrorist is looking for the prime minister, he has only a one in a thousand chance of finding the correct car, rather than the good chance of him finding the unique, painfully obvious cars of the prime minister and security. But what do I know, I’m just a high school student who manages to avoid getting called on in class by making herself look very busy and therefore blending in with the other twenty students who haven’t done their homework. Anyway, on Sunday, we went to Questacon. It is the most awesome museum ever. Its interactive and sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo cool. The only bad part of it was this giant free fall. It was this ride thingy Eden and Heath forced me to go on despite my fear of falling. So there’s this bar and you have to hold it then let go on the count of three to fall to your doom. I chickened out the first time. I just want to point out, I DON’T LIKE FALLLING. My worst nightmares, worst then the weasels killing everyone with banana guns and the ones where the tiger at Red Robin comes to life and eats everyone, are the ones when I’m falling. Anyway, clearly, a ride called Free Fall is not for me. Despite this, I did go on it the second time. I tried really hard not to but apparently, I’m fat and it was too hard for the guy working it to pull me back up. Considering he was holding me steady, that isn’t very comforting. So I let go. It is the second worst ride I’ve ever been on. The only one worst was the Tower of Doom. (Is there a pattern there? Falling, falling, I think I don’t like falling.) Anyway, after we did Questicon, we went to the war memorial. It is amazing. It has sections of every war Australia was in. And yes America, they were in most of the wars. It also has an interactive piece where you can see a helicopter from Vietnam, a trench from WWI, and a submarine from the cold war. After we finished here, we left for home. The ride home took 7 hours. It was supposed to take 3. What happened was a truck tipped over and tore up the entire road. They had to close the highway. We sat at complete standstill with nothing but chocolate chip cookies, which admittedly wouldn’t be bad except we only had eaten bread rolls for lunch. When we finally got out of the traffic mess, we had to take a back road that extended the travel time by another two hours. Yippie. At least we got out of the traffic jam when we did. After we got home and had some pancakes and bacon, umm, we all fell dead in our beds. On that note, I bid thee ado. Look at the beautiful pictures I posted. I am off to enjoy one of the world’s most beautiful cities. If you live here, I suggest you do the same (after looking at the pictures, of course). If you don’t live here, look at the pictures and wallow in self-pity. Not to much though, it’s not good for you.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Bendalong and the following Week



Dear Reader (I’m pretending I have readers because it makes me feel happy on the inside),

I have not updated in a while because I procrastinate naturally. I’m sorry to say that Sims 3 has taken a priority over you because I wanted to make a neighborhood and it’s hard. However, now I am angry with Sims because it’s being stupid and won’t upload neighborhoods right. So the options are the blog, cleaning my room, or doing homework. Just know, dear reader that if I’m up until midnight on the night before all of my projects are due, it is your fault.

So, seeing as the blog hasn’t been updated in a long time, I don’t remember everything that has happened and am going solely off of pictures. In short, if you look at the 208 photos, you can get a general idea of what happened and don’t have to read my edited online journal entries. Just a side note, the last sentence is a lie; you have to read this entry because I wrote it. Sadly, Eden will not be joining us with his “hilarious” commentary because he has to do homework. Hannah is invading my learning space” “am not. Do your homework.” “Oh Hannah. LEAVE THE COUNTRY” Sadly it looks like Eden has finished his homework and will be joining us. Anyway, on February 11, we went to the movies to see Valentines Day. The movie was sadly lacking in the half-naked Taylor Lautner. :’( Anyhow, after the movie, we met Kristina and her friends waiting for their movie to start. Eden took Kristina’s skirt and put it on. There is a picture of this hilarious spectacle somewhere is the 208 photos. So ha, now you have to look at all of the pictures so you can find the single funny picture. Friday was Valentines Day. I got a lovely chocolate rose from Sinead. I also got a plastic rose from Eden. That weekend, we went to Bendalong. It rained all weekend. That is not an exaggeration. We sucked it up and made the best of it. “Well some of us did” On Saturday, because it was raining and we were already wet, we attempted to surf. Brandon got up on his first try. I couldn’t even catch a wave on the first try. Finally, I became very good at catching the waves. I still was unable to stand up. Just so everyone knows, and it is now on the web, I got up twice, and I have video to prove it. After that, we walked to the beach and saw a stingray. It had a baby with it, which would have been really cute, except it was territorial and scary. After the weekend, I developed a cough and some hay fever allergies. Mind you, I am not sick. I just have a cough, and a stuffy nose, and a blocked up ear. But I’m not sick enough for medicine. I will take medicine when I am really sick. “When she says really sick she means dead on the ground.” “I don’t like medicine. It tastes bad.” Anyway, no, meaning, when I am too sick to get up and get it myself (that way I can’t take it anyway. Muwhaha.) Speaking of evil laughter, what is the correct spelling of muwhaha? I think I spell it differently every time I spell it. Anyway, on Tuesday of the next week, it was the school swimming carnival. All of us year 11 girls and most of the year 11 guys covered ourselves with zinc designs and didn’t wear any other sunscreen. As a result, I ended up with LEWIS written on my arm and Eden ended up with drawn on abs. On Thursday, we went to the op shops to go shopping for Friday’s disco night. In the process, I tried on four-inch stiletto heels and almost killed myself. “Ashley nearly disallowed me to have children with some scissors.” “I forgot about that. Maybe I’ll keep you around, Eden.” Friday was chaos. Of course, that is probably because I chose to watch Summer Heights High with Eden instead of showering. As a result, I had to rush and take a quick shower whilst Sinead and Ashley headed over. As I finished, they arrived. I had to dry my hair quickly, which, as anyone who has seen me fix my hair knows, it not possible. It also looks really bad. After dealing with my stupid stubborn hair, we were off. When we arrived at church, just late enough to make a fashionably late entrance, we discovered that almost nobody else felt the need to dress up. The losers. Still, we stuck out and had lots of fun. In their faces. “Anyway we looked pretty spesh” “For all of you Americans, that means special.” On Saturday, we went to Centerpoint Tower. As always, I forgot that I don’t like heights until I was on the skywalk, looking down, and thinking WARNING SHARING MY THOUGHTS AND MY THOUGHTS USE SWEAR WORDS AT TIMES LIKE THIS. THE FOLLOWING CONTENT MAY NOT BE APPROPRIATE FOR CHILDREN WHO HAVE NEVER SET FOOT IN A MIDDLE SCHOOL OR SEEN A MOVIE RATED PG OR ABOVE. Anyway, I was thinking, “holy shit, this is really high.” However, I got through this by thinking about Brandon. This sounds weird but I imagined him on the skywalk. It made me laugh. For everyone who doesn’t know him, Brandon is the American boy on the exchange and he is afraid of heights. Seeing other people either scared to death or in pain always helps me get through things. After that, the skywalk was fun until everyone was jumping. At one point, I stopped and everyone else jumped again. Mind you, the platform under us was glass. It shook. My first reaction was to grab the bar so tight I left an imprint. All of the strangers on the walk laughed at me and I suggested they frame the print. Unfortunately, that costs extra. Just know, if anyone ever goes on the skywalk, the white-knuckled imprint is mine. Anyway, after this, Heath decided that it would be funny to push me when I had finally ventured back to the edge after my jumping scare. This time, I actually screamed. Then I hit him so hard on the back of the head that there is still an imprint. This one we did frame. On Saturday night and Sunday, I put my I.B. skillage to use and read an entire book. Now any I.B. student will ask, how is this I.B. skillage. The answer to that is I got the book in the first week of school and had five weeks to read it. I was supposed to have it read by Monday. Well loyal readers, and readers who are reading this for the first time, and readers who are reading this for the last time, this blog entry is finished. But just so you know, if you are reading this blog for the last time, it better be for a good reason. The only good reasons are if you just figured out that you are A and you aren’t welcome on this blog, or if you just realized that Mr. Thims is a codename and you aren’t welcome either, or if you don’t like my writing style. Please note, if you are part of option two, ewwwwwwww, why are you reading this blog, please leave. It you are part of options one or three, I clearly didn’t make myself clear two entries ago, YOU ARE NOT WELCOME ON THIS SITE. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. HIT THE HOME BUTTON, CLEAR YOUR HISTORY, AND NEVER DARKEN THE DOORSTEP OF THIS BLOG AGAIN. “In the nice way that only I can do, get out of our site, we really don’t want you here, and I know your laughing now thinking “oh eden” Im not Joking I don’t like you, and when I say it I mean it, im not laughing with you, im laughing at you, at your face, and at your ignorance. SO leave, because you are an unwanted lovechild.” Ok, that is really it. Everyone, new, loyal, or leaving, it’s over. You can go now, unless you haven’t looked at the pictures. But once you do that, please leave. It really isn’t hard. Just hit the home button. That’s it. Just move your mouse up to the little button shaped like a house and click. Seriously. Don’t you people have lives? This entry is over. Please leave the site immediately. Do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dollars. Just go. House and click. There we go. Bye bye now. See you next week. “Seriously, refreshing the page isn’t going to make us write our blogs quicker. Go back to facebook.”