CONTIKI REUNION

Saturday night- we were finally reunited with the rest our Contiki friends! As most of y'all know Kel and I did a Contiki tour all over Europe about 2 years ago and have stayed in touch with most of our friends on the trip. Well Saturday our good friend Wendy came in town from Canberra, and we met up with her and her sister Emma to grab some dinner. After traveling all the way to this "Mexican" food place in Newtown we discovered it was closed for the Easter holiday...feeling very sad about this (even though it probably sucked anyways)..Emma suggested we try this famous Thai place. It was great eating Thai again because everything there reminded us of being back in Thailand- they even had Tiger beer and Singha!! We had spring rolls, pad thai, cashew chicken..it was fabulous. Oh and we had lots of wine too. After that we met up with Kendall and Anna (2 of our really good friends here that we hang out with all the time..also fellow Contiki-ers). Grabbed some drinks with them at this hotel then headed to the Argyle. The Argyle is this massive indoor 2 story club that has bottle service and good loud music..my kind of place. After meeting some weird English guys and needing to ditch them immediately we went next door to the Lowenbrau. This place is by far one of our favorites. It looks like this innocent little beer house with schnitzel and German beer, but above it on the 2nd floor is a massive club with GREAT music and dancing. After belting our heart outs to "I've had the time of my life.." and dancing we barhopped to a couple of other places and ended up where other than...SCARY CANARY. gotta love this place because it is open until 4 in the morning. Everyone eventually went home and Wendy and I decided to stay out late just like old times in Europe. After dancing to some rap and going to 711 for some "cheeeps" and a Snickers bar, we headed back to Emma's apartment around 4 AM. I woke up on the couch to George Michael's "Faith" music video and to Adam and JD calling me saying "where have you been, KELLY is looking for you." What a great way to start the day.

"I'm with the Texas girls, wanna meet them?" - our lovable Englishman Ben

Man I can't believe how much time has actually passed since the last time we were in the states. Last time we were on American soil was over two and a half months ago. We miss Mexican food desperately. We have been googling place after place, and two so far have ended up blahhhh. I guess what is partly to blame is that we want specifically Tex-Mex and the demand just isn't high over here. Not sure if many people know this but Americans are few and far between here. Until December we weren't allowed to get year long work visa's so barely any Americans took time to work over here. Everyone asks if we are Canadian when we speak . . . apparently it's the polite thing to do bc the Canadians get really offended if someone thinks they are American. Anyways, so tonight was are going to a place called Cafe Pacifico. One of our Aussie friends that we met in Europe suggested it to us, so we will see how good it actually is!
Besides that we have been laying low on the homefront bc we desperately need jobs. The food is really expensive here . . . I was watching a TodayShow-ish program a few mornings ago and they compared all the local grocery's price of white break. Ok now some of you adults may die . . . every price was over $3.80. And I'm not talking about gourmet white bread from Whole Foods either, it's absurd.
Aussie Jobs: Our names our in a database for temp work right now with a company and we are sending our names to get in to other temp databases. Ryann constantly is picking up job magazines and we go through them religiously. I almost got a position as an au pair just out of sydney for 3 months but they wanted me to live in, and I said I couldn't.
American Jobs: Well Ryann had planned on going to law school this fall and after getting accepted many places has decided to rather work in Houston when return in June. She's going to be working at a law firm and plans to live in Midtown.
I have been debating what I want to do the next year for some time. And I think I have decided that I want to possibly write a book about my life and compile all my stories into a novel. But, I also think I want some more technical skill at writing so I'm planning on going to get my Master's in creative writing some time in the near future. In the mean time, I decided that I would possibly like to be an Au Pair for maybe a year while I apply to schools. I really want to go back to Austin and today interviewed over the phone with an Austin family. It seems like this family and I are a great fit and hopefully when I return I will be moving to Austin to be a live in nanny with them!
Man, life is so unpredictable. Never thought "writing a book" would ever come out of my mouth. I still remember when my mom harassed me in elementary school about what the difference btw a verb and an adverb were - and those of you who know donna, i'm sure can imagine how that went, ha.
All for now. Cheers!

Gold Coast SB '08

For all of you that thought nothing was better than a cruise round Mexico or maybe an all inclusive stay in Cabo for Spring Break - YOU would be WRONG! For the unaware, the Gold Coast is on the East coast of Australia, with fabulous beaches, insane hostels, and equally interesting people. We decided to go on this road trip of sorts because one of Ryann's friends from the states was coming in for his SB. A couple days before we flew to Brisbane, we met an English guy who we invited on the trip. So the four of us set off to Brisbane and ended up in one of the greatest hostels EVER. Brisbane City Backpackers is for the party savvy. So we show up about 1130am to the hostel to check in, immediately they inform us that happy hour begins at noon. . . obvi we all race to our rooms to get settled so we don't miss a minute of the cheap booze. Well Ry's friend Matt, me and her all are in one room and it looks pretty nice. We make our way down to Ben's room and he walks our looking fairly shocked. He said when he entered his room the room was completely dark bc someone had arranged towels that covered the window and some guy grunted "welcome to the orange prison" - yikes. (fyi - it was deemed the orange prison bc the walls were all orange in the hostel) Anyways, we all settled in to our $7 pitches of beer and soon 1pm came around - Texas Hold 'em tourney time. Ben and I bowed out early while Ryann and Matt both got down to the final four. They still are bitter that the Chinese girl won, who then entire time had her friend walking up to her telling her what to do in Chinese - so basically no one could call them out on cheating. Ugh. So at this hostel we met some interesting fellows. Two Scottish guys whom we named Shrek and Donkey (one was huge and the other little tiny). One of the guys in our hostel room's name was Rich, whom we now lovingly refer to as "Tricky Dickey". Tricky Dickey will hit on any girl that is breathing. . . honestly. We just thought at first that he was in to Ryann, but later on we met up with him after the road trip in Sydney and truly it is sad how this kids hits on every girl. Anyways, we had a wild night in Brisbane filled with allergic reactions to onions and breakdancers who didn't mind falling on their heads over and over and over.
Next day began the real road trip. We went to Avis to pick up the car, and although Ryann made the reservations it was me who had to put my license down bc of course she wasn't driving. Mind you, they drive on the other side of the road in this place, AND the steering wheel is on the other side. I can't tell u how many times i accidently hit the windshield wipers instead of the blinker, and how I accidently walked to the wrong side of the car and tried to nonchalantly play it off.

Alright my comp is about to die so I'm gonna end this blog post here. Next up, Surfer's Paradise, Byron Bay, Nimbin . . .

"Didn't you know, George Bush caused 9/11"

So lemme back up a bit to the beginning of last night.
I went to a Rugby game with this American guy that I met on our booze cruise from about a week ago. I love rugby, everyone is so freaking hardcore and butch. They literally beat each other to death on the field. Beer is god at this game! The bathroom line is absolutely non existent, whilst the line for beer is 30 minutes long! It was the season opener game, and our team (the one the guy sitting in the row ahead of us told us to root for) won. So the game ends and of COURSE it is pouring rain, and the anorak no longer does the job and everyone on the streets is looking for a cab with a light on - and there are none. After wandering the streets for half an hour, cold and in need of a beer - we finally find a cab and meet up with Ryann at the Scary Canary. BTW if i have said anything negative bf about the Scary Canary, I don't take it back, but I would like to say it is now our fav place. We have a few drinks at the Canary and then our new british friend ben, ryann's friend matt from NC (who flew in for the week of his spring break) and me and my rugby friend corey and ryann all go to KARAOKE. And if any of you are unaware RYANN LOVES KARAOKE more than almost anything in world. So we go to the place round 11, and have to come back at 1am for a room. when we get back we see some poor drunken idiot vomiting in the room that is supposed to be ours next . . . grrrrrrreat. Well the kid lasted long enough that another room opened so we didn't have to sing in the Vom Room. Ryann bought us all a few bottles of champagne and that girl sang her little heart out, ha - what a sight. So finally we leave around 3, and it ended up that it was just me and ryann at the front for a bit with the three bouncers. So one of the bouncers starts chatting with us about how we are from Texas, and it's all friendly until one said the most evil statements I have heard in a very, very, very long time.
"George Bush caused 9/11"
Well i basically lost it and was beside myself. Of course this guy was trying to get me riled up, but I just ran back in the karaoke place to compose myself. Unbelievable, UNBELIEVABLY inappropriate. Then our friend ben almost got taken down by the bouncer bc he was trying to leave with two bottles of champagne - that mind you, were unopened. Even the other two bouncers where like, hey dude what is ur problem - he hasn't opened the bottles, he can take them.
Sheesh.
Well that was last night. Everyone is feelin a little bit rough today, think we'll prob catch a movie or not . . .

Funny thing happened on the way to the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade

All apologies for taking this long to update.

Arrived back in Sydney last Wednesday. Went on a Mardi Gras boooooooooze cruise in Sydney Harbor friday night - $65 for all u can drink/eat. LOVIN THAT. Yesterday we got an apartment, much to the chagrin of our jealous American friends here who have been living in a hostel for the past month. Man hostels suckkk the big one over here. Last night we went to the Mardi Gras Parade, or as I like to call it - bizarro mardi gra. Somethin got mistranslated on the way over the oceans to Sydney concerning Mardi Gras. Instead of women flashers for beads - you get flamboyant gays on parade! What a goooood time! I have so many pics but i am currently typing from a convenience store and this comp doesn't have a memory card reader, grr. but get excited. Alright, gots to facebook!

Oh and this has only been a quick summary of the past few days. Don't worry I have a few funny stories for you listening pleasure and I am hoping to be able to get that all sorted out when we get to our APARTMENT TOMORROW!
Oh and concerning the apartment, we are living in a 3 bedroom furnished apt. Two twin beds are in our room and we are sharing a bathroom with two Irish girls that are our age. I have no idea who the fools in the other room are. I'm hopin these Irish girls can teach me and Ryann a little about Irish drinkin - ha, how hardcore this is going to be!