Off to the Bush, and Pictures

Before I get started I want to brief you on what I have learned about Australian conversational slang. Take any American who does not actually know spanish, but is trying to speak it, and you have ausssie abbrievs. They stick 'o' on to the end of almost every word that they shorten, avo means both avocado and afternoon, and doco means document; the exceptions to this I have found are brekki (for breakfast) and aircon, for airconditioning, but more on this topic later. Also my new favorite expressions are 'G'day' people actually say this and it makes me really happy, 'I reckon,' 'that's not cricket' (that's not gentlemanly) and 'thank you muchly' (that one's scottish, actually) so if I say any of them , you know who to blame.


Not much to report this week. We had a long weekend because of Australia's Labor Day, which Canberra has renamed Canberra Day. On sunday I had a barbeque in the park with my two scottish artist friends, and my one vegan friend from rowing. We cooked up a huge amount of meat and bananas with chocolate inside, yum. This was only some of the meat actually, but all of it made for good leftovers.

On monday we went to the actual Canberra day Carnival, which was moderately crowded, and none of my friends from Canberra knew about. We saw Rikki Lee, a singer who did not win Australian Idol, for reasons that became fairly obvious. (Actual quote from MC: I love it when she starts losing her voice, it sounds so sexy!) We also watched some mowtown from Australia's aging boyband Human Nature, they were very entertaining, you should definitely look them up. And at the end there was a firework show which was pretty good, and really, how can fireworks be bad?

Nothing much more has happened this week other than I got a new student ID because apparently i was given a defective one at first, and now I can get into and out of my studio whenever I want!

Speaking of my studio, i finally took a few pics of my two living spaces, although not my bedroom cause it was empty.

Entrance to the Canberra YHA: Those tables belong to the bar below the hostel, convenient but loud on karaoke night



My Living Room: If it looks sparse, that's because right now we have one poster + milkcrate tables. The chick that moved out owned EVERYTHING, even stuff like, toaster, tv, washing machine, fridge, kitchen chairs...all hers, and my roommates are less than quick at replcaing more than essentials. Michael actually glowed today when Mani brought in a new kettel (yes, tea is a big a deal as they say it is)


The School of Art: Isn't it Pretty? the top row of windows on the left are the painting studios


My Mobile Unit: Isn't it, ummm, a tribute to the modular living movement? The foremost wire covered window is mine, and the tan box by the door is the card reader, also known as the bane of my existence for a week and a half. We do have 'aircon' though, and as you can see from the box, it is right by my space, pretty choice.


My Studio: See, I get my own space heater and table, and you can't see it in this picture, but i have my very own Anarchy graffiti on the ceiling!


I hope to have some more pictures soon, both from my trip and from rowing practice. (I brought my camera to rowing today but I was saddled with the 'intense
team and coach, and i didn't think they would appreciate it)

Anyway, I am off to the bush to be inspired in the wilderness and camp with a crazy/awesome Scottswoman for a tentmate. If I survive, I'll let you know how it goes...