where you going man? you know the world is headed for hell.

I used to hate watching the news. Ignorance was bliss. All it ever did was upset and scare me. That certainly hasn't changed, but I've realized the importance of knowing. Awareness is the first step to change. And we truly need it. Being abroad the past year and meeting people from all over the world has made me so much more concious about what is going on in my own country and it's depressing to realize I hate what I see.

Sorry, Mom. :(

Not only did the Republican governor of Wisconsin cut all collective bargaining rights for public workers, but now the American government is facing a shutdown if an agreement on spending can't be reached.

Good to know the Republicans would rather see our nation at a standstill to prove a point rather than seek compromise.

I am honestly moving to Europe.

Although everywhere has their problems. And not just politically.

Earthquake turned tsunami. WARNING. All the way from New Zealand to America.

And to think that's just the start of the problems...

Just wanted to give a little shout out to the people in Japan and all of the workers affected in Wisconsin. Hoping for the best.

no sleep, no sleep--i am always on a mission.

well, i should definitely be sleeping right now.
guess i'm just trying to make these good hours last to make up for the not so great ones.

the last few days have been an ultimate hassle in every sense.

computer kaput. theif notary office. nido nonsense.

can someone please tell me if i inflict this shit on myself?

or do i just have some stupid fucking luck sometimes?

awareness.
i need to get some.

but on a positive note, what was a seemingly emotional-heart-tugging-no-good-day actually shaped up to be an artsy-dancey-spontaneous-fun type day/evening/early morning hours.

things turned around when i...
made an awesome collage to finally spruce up these mental institution white walls.
made it a green day.
had good chats with good friends :)
rocked out the zubaz.
heard the red bull speakers and became the second part of a double flat party.
gurgled some a dat vodkat.
saw pete break dance for the first time (CHAMPION).
got my groove on in glow in the dark sunglasses.
consumed an epic feast prepared by the munch master himself.

& let it go and accepted it for what it was. things happen for a reason.

ps; happy birthday wade. love you best friend. x

chocolat.

We sat in a circle, drumming in time with the music--waiting for the effects to take over.

She started smiling and sinking her head into her knees to keep from laughing.

Drum and bass pounded through the speakers.

All I wanted to do was crawl on the floor and sit next to her, eager to experience the feeling that was slowly sinking in.

My head started to feel heavy. My reactions were slowed. The music was no longer thumping around me, but rather pulsating through me.


I was nervous to see him. Afraid of his judgement. With shaky hands, my fingers fumbled with the keys.

But the judgement never came. Just lovely wine, sensual kisses and bursts of the giggles. A little bit of provoked paranoia as well, but that quickly dissolved into another fit of laughter.

Kisses were shivers down my spine.
Drinks became candy.

Not quite as good as that chocolate though.

discover.

safe.

As a self-acclaimed writer, I am very discouraged with myself for the lack of writing that I have been doing. I didn't even get through half of Australia before I gave up! Now I'm already a month into England and going back to bring everything up to speed would be near impossible.

Basically, all you really need to know is that I am still continuing to have the time of my life.

My England life mostly consists of:

WORK. I am now an intern at this awesome international film magazine, Screen International.

My job has consisted of helping out with Screenbase, Screen's film database, and writing stories for the ScreenDaily website. Unfortunately you have to be a member to read my articles, but I've had 3 published so far and hope to continue writing more as the weeks progress.

The office is pretty dead right now because everyone is away at the Berlin Film Festival. My co-workers are all fabulous and laid-back and are always asking me to go out for drinks with them. Took them up on the offer once, but had to leave early to make it in time for the Nero/Skream show. I felt so sophisticated heading for after-work drinks and having adult conversations with all of the 30-something year-olds. Big girl now?

SCHOOL. Well not really. I had my first big presentation last week and now it seems like I have no school work to do whatsoever. Not complaining on that front though. I wish I enjoyed my classes a bit more so there would be more motivation to go...although, I suppose the chance of being deported is pretty motivating in and of itself.

BOYS. But of course. I wouldn't be myself if they weren't. And did anyone REALLY expect me to come to England of all places and NOT become enamored by these incredibly sexy accents? I'm thinking not. However, it seems that British boys and their lovely accents are not the only ones (one?) to be holding my attention...

NIDO. My second home. Most DePaulians reside at this student housing on the East End. The majority of my nights are spent crashing here after nights out to our Liverpool hot spots: Dragon, Dirty Dick's, Corner Bar (Korner, if you will), etc. Pretty much anytime we party in the city, Nido (or certain residents) provide my safety and shelter for the night.

HARROW. My real home. Actually, I would refer to it more as my little haven. Located about 20 minutes out of central London, Harrow actually has green surrounding it! (In more ways than one...) I've been meeting so many great people out here, including my flat mates who I adore. The campus is mainly made up of arts students so the vibe is very eclectic and creative. Everyone has these amazing talents to share and its inspiring to see people's work whether it be in the form of music, drawing, fashion, etc. After working or going out in the city all week/weekend, it is nice to have a quieter place to escape and chill out.



THE TUBE. To be honest, most of my time in England will probably be spent on the tube. I am constantly on this damn thing rushing to work, dance, Nido or home. Luckily for me, the line I usually take to get home closes pretty much every weekend so I've had some wonderful 2 hour treks home with multiple tube and bus changes. I may bitch about the commute now and then, but it is really my time to relax, read or catch a little half hour cat nap. I've already got most of the lines down and I always feel pretty badass when I figure out some new route. Now if I only I could figure out the night bus...

I am HONESTLY going to try to keep up with this a little better this time. Not be so detailed and meticulous and just WRITE. I'm sure all my adoring fans are ecstatic to hear the news...

Until next time, xxx.

red fish, blue fish PART TWO (days 4-7)

DAY FOUR Sunday, September 26: After contorting my body in a thousand different positions throughout the night in attempts to make my box of a seat comfortable, we were abruptly awoken by "Dynamite" and Doggie pouring goon into his mouth and slapping the bag. Of course, I threw my hands up in the air and got ready for the drunkest day of the entire vacation. We were extremely disappointed to see that the weather had no plans of clearing up as it drizzled all over us while we packed our 3 day packs for our stay on the Whitsunday Islands. We loaded up the banana boats and thrashed and crashed our way to the island. After dropping everything off at our awesome hostel, we jumped back on the boats and swerved and jumped off waves made by the other boat. Thought I may lose my life a couple times, but it was super fun! THAT'S WHEN WE SPOTTED THE SUN! It came out to play and the rest of the day was gorgeous. Arriving in the middle of the ocean, we anchored up and people went snorkeling and sunbathing while we consumed more goon. After a short time at this spot, we went to the most beautiful beach I have ever seen in my life. All we could see was cloudless blue skies for miles and the clear water rippling next to the white-sand beach. Seriously, out of a postcard. Things got a bit messy as goon races, chicken fights, nudity and girl on girl making out action broke out. The trip back to the hostel is a bit cloudy for me as well as bringing our belongings to our room and resting up for the party that night. Apparently I missed the memo on the "Jungle Fever" theme of the party and continued to run around in my bikini from the day for the rest of the night. At least I was a bit more clothed than most of the Loyola boys who were sporting their animal-print thongs. Speaking of thongs (Australia's word for flippy-flops), I lost my shoes and walked around bare-foot for the next few days. Liberating. Also painful. After a while of dancing on stage, running around in my bikini and probably making a giant fool of myself, I found myself with Dom, Tom and Sheehan and had a rendezvous on the massive golf course with a view of the mountains in the distance against the wide-open sky. We had some green on the green and the boys tried to kill toads. I can't remember if this is when I went and had a crying heart t0 heart with Mackenzie or when I went out to the dock and chatted with Mallory and Ant for a good 45 minutes. Either way, I wound up wandering home at some odd hour of the morning and had a chuckle at the state of my roommates passed out in crazy outfits with paint all over their faces and clothes, bags and alcohol cluttered on the floor. Fabulous night one, Whitsundays.

DAY FIVE Monday, September 27: This was one of those days that you wake up still out of it for most of the day until around the time you start drinking again. Wow, my liver hates me after this vacation. We were given a free day around the hostel so we lounged around the pool most of the day. The freezing cold water felt fabulous against my hungover head and we got some great sun-soaking time. The tour theme song was born and annoyingly, we were singing "ONE FISH TWO FISH EVERYWHERE WE GO! ONE FISH TWO FISH EVERYBODY KNOWS! WE ARE EXTREME AND WE'RE LIVING THE DREAM!" for the rest of the day. Or the remainder of the trip I should say. It was nice to have a break from waking up super early and putting massive amounts of alcohol into my body. Of course that couldn't last for too long and before I knew it, we were showering and getting ready for the "Plastic Fantastic" theme party that night. My outfit was pretty banging, if I do say so myself, although being stuck wearing plastic bags in the middle of tropical Australia is quite sweaty and uncomfortable. Daisy: "I'M WEARING ALL MY FAVORITE BRANDS, BRANDS, BRANDS, BRANDS!" Annaelle: "No you are not, you are wearing plastic bags..." (another classic Frenchie one-liner).

We pre-gamed for a lifetime, went and had some dinner and craziness ensued. Highlights: 1. Drinking games galore and epic pee stories 2. Meeting a dude from Namibia in South Africa who owned a farm with rhinos 3. Not losing my camera after a random hooligan took millions of pictures of everyone's bodies without their heads 4. More green. Two days in a row may be the record in Oz -- how disappointing. 5. Hanging out with complete randoms in a completely random room while wandering around on my own after an accident down by the beach. 6. Creepily taking sleep pictures of Jackie and being forced to sit on Adam's face. Which I might add, I would not do. Way to go again Whitsundays.

DAY SIX Tuesday, September 28: Disoriented wake up, I've grown quite accustomed to you after this trip. Had to say goodbyes to our amazing hostel that kept our disgusting secrets, a few pairs of shoes and my Ray-Bans. Hopefully someone else will now find my found Ray-Bans and enjoy them the way I did. It's all I can hope. We embarked to a large sailboat and more gooning began. At this point, I'm sure anyone reading this thinks we are all a bunch of alcoholics and would be repulsed by the amount of drinking. You should be. I can't believe I'm alive. Especially seeing as how me, deep water and proper breathing techniques with snorkel masks just don't go well together. I always forget how to breathe while snorkeling and have to

shoot out of the water when my mouth and mask fill with water. Put me out there with that while under the influence, OH! and horrible weather conditions, yeah...probably not my best idea. At least I had a noodle to keep me a float and Mary to desperately cling on to.After this life-threatening adventure, we enjoyed a delicious lunch and I played DJ while we danced away and people had a cold-cut ham fight. We docked off in a little town and while I should have purchased new shoes to wear (still running around barefoot at this point), I instead went with Molly and Sherm to the piercing place. Deciding I have already mutilated my body enough, I just offered moral support as Moll got her belly button pierced and Sam got her nose. Harry and Big Mike then decided to show up to get their nipples pierced. Good times. I ran around wasted for a bit (never actually getting shoes), spoke some gibberish, got some ice cream and passed out on the bus as we made our way to Mission Beach.

DAY SEVEN Wednesday, September 29: My favorite day of the entire trip! :) Although we had to wake up super early to head to the Tully River, it was totally worth it because we got to go white water rafting on Grade 4/5 rapids. Absolutely incredible! Our tour guide was a bit of a creep, but I think the entire company was just a little overly sexual because all of the rapids had sexual names like Double D Cup (where a girl lost her top once), The Climax and The Two Inch

(where the water gets really cold). Pretty funny though. We lost a few members in our boats as we crashed down the rapids, but luckily I stayed in. I was a bit nervous for Kelsey's life as she fell out in one of the worst rapids, but we came back with all members and we were already

battered and bruised from the days before, so overall it was a success. We flipped our boat, jumped off a cliff-like rock into the water, saw beautiful scenery and waterfalls and flashed some construction workers along the way. At one point the boys had to climb into our boat because they were stuck and clearly our boat of all girls were better navigators. There were a couple of points along the way where we could jump out and swim and float down the river and we stopped for a nice picnic lunch about mid-way through. The flies were a bit annoying and my arms were tired, but I would definitely give white water rafting another go.

Next, we got changed, cooled off with some ice cream and crammed back into the bus again to

head to Cairns. The drive was absolutely stunning and I didn't want to fall asleep to miss it. The plants and trees in Australia are so unique. I've never seen so many colors and shapes. We passed by a lot of sugar and banana farms and saw so many gorgeous flowers. When we arrived at our last hostel, Gilligan's, we showered up and got ready for BUNGEEEE JUMPING! On the way to Cairns I found a liquor store that actually sold normal spiced Captain Morgan (first bottle EVER in Australia) so I was ecstatic to get my drink with my real draaank. We had some liquid courage shots and boarded the double decker party bus to get to AJ Hackett. I felt like I was in a dream. We blasted loud music while dancing and taking in the hot air and cool breeze of the first night in Cairns and pumped each other up for what was sure to be one of the scariest experiences of our lives! We had a choice between bungee or the sky-swing first and it worked out I did the sky-swing first with Ali and Rhys. It wasn't really that scary at all, but still lots of

fun. By the time we were done with that, they were almost going to close down the Bungee. I would've liked one more tequila shot before taking it on, but there was no time for that and it came down to now or never. I ran up the millions of flights of stairs to the top and patiently waited my turn. Heights don't usually really scare me and I love thrill rides, but looking around at the pitch darkness and not even being able to see the water below was a bit disheartening. A ton of people had gone before me so I knew I would be fine, but jumping head first into nothingness still gets your heart racing a little bit. Luckily they don't even give you time to think when you're standing at the edge and the next thing I knew I was flinging through the air like Gumby with my boobs sliding out of my jumper. Between my shrieks people heard me shouting, "MY TITS ARE COMPLETELY OUT!" By this point in the trip, my boobs being covered was more of a shock than not so I guess it made sense for them to fall out here as well. This had to be one of the most exhilarating things I've ever done. I felt like my body parts were made out of silly-putty being stretched and pulled every which way. When I stopped whipping around, a man grabbed my wrists and pulled me onto a little a boat where I was safely brought back to shore. WOOOOO! We then returned back to the hostel and quickly got more drunk and ready for the Woolshed. I participated in a wet t-shirt contest and lost to huge breasted ladies. They were all in our group though, so go them. Probably lost some dignity, but it was a great time. Only live once, why not be stupid and crazy while having a great time. Story of my lifeeee.

Ta-ta for now x

one fish, two fish PART ONE (days 1-3)

Well, it certainly has been a while.

I really thought I would be better at this, but seeing as how Weeds and hanging out with people have taken over my life, writing has kind of been on the back-burner.

Wish I could say school work has been evading as well, but let's be honest, I never really do much work. Finals are coming up soon though and Australia school is a bit harder for me than America school so I may have to put in some real effort here pretty soon.

Enough about school though. I do have quite a bit of back-tracking to do...I haven't written

about any experiences since Darwin which was nearly 2 months ago. I am awful. Rather than going back in chronological order, I'm skipping ahead to the good stuff: ONE FISH, TWO FISH. Broken Hill can wait.

Seeing as how this was the best vacation I've ever taken in my life, the adventure known as One Fish, Two Fish will probably require a few entries. For now, I will take you back to where it all began...

WARNING: The following material may not be suitable for family members (especially great-grandparents). Although I love you dearly. x

DAY ONE Thursday, September 23: Annaelle and I sleepily dialed each other around 4 am to make sure the other stopped pressing snooze and actually got out of bed to meet the magical taxi man who would take us away to our 10 day vacation of madness and insanity. Arriving in Brisbane at mid-morning, we decided to explore the city and see what it had to offer. We couldn't get over how touristy the city was and couldn't imagine going to uni where there would constantly be that many people. Would definitely do way less work then is already done. The weather wasn't great so our dreams of napping on the beach were pretty much diminished, but we had a good time getting lost and finding random landmarks like the government house

and this gorgeous courtyard. After a bit of shopping and a delicious lunch at the Rainbow cafe, we were able to check into our hostel and crashed out for a few hours--well a lot of hours. Way more than planned. Waking up, we realized our friends should've gotten there hours before so we were extremely confused and a bit worried. To distract us from our worries, we showered, got ready and decided it would probably be best to start in on the goon. Frenchie was missing in action for a few weeks before holiday so I had an amazing time catching up with her and having a little one-on-one time. We finally heard back from everyone and it turns out their flight had been delayed by a few hours. Listening to the overly repeated 10 songs on Annaelle's phone, we kept on the goon and awaited their arrival. Sammy and Dais joined us for a bit of gooning and we were off to the first club. By that time all of the Monash kids had arrived and met up with some of the Brits who were road-tripping from Brisbane up to Sydney and had some drinks. Louise had free drink cards that she kept passing out so that turned into a lot of drinks.

Pretty much the night progressed with me and Zahra entering some sort of musical chairs

contest up on stage. I'll let this excerpt from Kenzie's blog explain how that went down...

"...as the music stopped, they needed to complete a task ranging from finding something long and hard, finding something canadian, finding a condom and putting it on their hand, and best of all, finding a thong and holding it up in the air. This is where Amanda's flashing came to play... she was wearing a dress and of course we wanted to win, so we got her thong which ripped on the way off and left her somewhat exposed for the rest of the night."

Well, pretty much got kicked out of that place so Daisy and I found ourselves at another club. Didn't stay there long and wound up wandering down the street until we ran into some Loyolans at a nice outdoor bar called Joe's. The fresh air sobered us up a bit while a cider kept us feeling head hazy and we enjoyed some nice bantering and excited chattering over the warm weather.Daisy and I staggered back to the hostel where she got a nice show--"Do you like it? ;)--and it was time to hit the bunk-beds.

DAY TWO Friday, September 24: First actual day of the tour! Feeling a bit hung over, we rolled out of bed and maxi-ed over to where our tour guides were meeting us. Right away I knew this was going to be a fucking awesome trip. The tour guides, Dan, Doggie and Mike were cracking jokes the moment we walked on the bus and they kept repeating how they were going to make sure the next week and a half would be one of the best times of our lives. Oh how right they were... We also met our bus driver Johnny who I formed a very special bond with over the trip. Good bloke. After all the introductory stuff, the guys pulled out what would become

a source of complete and utter embarrassment to me for the duration of the trip, but in

a brilliant and hysterical way: THE SIN-TIN. The Sin-Tin goes a little something like this...Whenever one does anything particularly shameful, embarrassing, hilarious or downright stupid while wasted, that said person has to contribute a sum of money as a payment for their sin. Next, of course, the tour guides asked if anyone had done anything Sin-Tin worthy the night before and a chorus of nearly half the bus screamed my name. Already the trip was off to a great start. Although I had to pay for my sins, I was also introduced to what would instill great pride for me and my fellow shit-shows and I was asked to wear the Leader's Jersey.

Proudly I took the brightly colored yellow and green shirt and put it on in honor of everything despicable and schwasty. As if it were Christmas morning, the tour guides pulled out yet another surprise for us. This time it was a large, inflatable boxing kangaroo of our very own. After we all signed it, we decided on the name of Cuntaroo and Baby Cooter for his baby. While someone had drawn a big, black dick on him, many people thought his name should be Tyrone so I think our roo had a confused identity between Cuntaroo and Tyrone for most of the trip. Regardless of his name, we were told that we were to protect him with our lives and take him everywhere we went. The two other One Fish, Two Fish groups would be trying to capture him and behead him and we were meant to be doing the same to their kangaroo. This meant war.

Suited up in my leader's armor, we crossed over unknown territory into the Australia Zoo. Dedicated to Steve Irwin, the zoo invoked feelings of sadness that he is no longer with us. His wife and two kids put on quite a show with crocodiles and obnoxious singing, but it just

wasn't what it would have been if good ol' Steve could have been there. RIP Steve Irwin. This was definitely one of the major highlights of the trip. I got to hold a koala (although my photo would later get ruined due to something wet landing on top of it in my suitcase...lame) and spoon with kangaroos! I could have done this for hours. There were like 50 of them hopping all over the place and lounging around. You could walk right up to them and pet them or lay with them. So soft, cute and cuddly! Everyone kept trying to get me to hurry up so we could see other stuff, but I just never wanted to leave those roos.

Wrapping up at the zoo, we boarded the bus and stopped off at a pub to get the first drinks of the trip going. We grabbed a cider, hit the liquor store and loaded up on all sorts of goon, cider and boxed vodka-cranberry. Fabulous invention. That's when shit got crazy.

Slapping the goon, we got a bit silly. Dynamite by Taio Cruz was chosen as our trip song and the absolute shit-show was off to a start. Screw sleep, drinking was the name of the game for this vacation. As the drink set in, protests for a bathroom break were echoed throughout the bus.

You may think that only boys are allowed to pee outside, but this particular rest stop proved that idea to be very wrong.

Pulling over in the middle of Nowheresville, Australia, we all had quite the bonding experience pissing, squatting, and of course taking pictures of each other doing said activities. Back on the bus, we continued the rest of the way to Hervey Bay. Raging on, Rhys christened the bus with vomit and we stumbled to our rooms (or in Mary's case, she fell over in the middle of everyone, brought her stuff into one room and ended up sleeping somewhere completely different because she couldn't find her original room). Great times.

As if we hadn't already consumed enough alcohol, we had just enough time to set our stuff down, change and then it was off to the booze cruise. Rhys vomited yet again (in the exact same spot as before) and spent the night drinking water rather than the free beer and wine. However, the rest of us consumed disgusting amounts and a lot of the night blurred on from there.

A mandatory Daisy and Amanda photo shoot took place.

I was up in the Captain's area for a while pretending to drive the boat--probably not the safest idea. And I even made myself an 18

year old boyfriend who was working at the bar. We went back to the hostel and the party continued. I guess I jumped in the pool with the Leader's Jersey because I woke up with it soaking wet on the floor of

the Loyolan's room. This is also where I found myself passed out on a random bed by myself in my bathing suit and a sweatshirt around 6 am. Realizing I was very close to my own room, I staggered down the stairs and Daisy let me in. After recapping the night and giggling uncontrollably (waking everyone else up of course--ANNAELLE: "Shh, eeet's not time yet!"), I remembered the following: Ernie and Chris showering together, running around topless, going to the pool, being prank-called by my own cell phone and attempting to go to Sydney to retrieve it, making up and performing If You're from California, I Wanna Bone Ya, I'll Never Phone Ya with the tour guides, and actually semi-assaulting Hannah and Morgan. Morgan recounts the fabulous experience in her blog when she she states,

"Babygurl stormed in at some point and actually sexually assaulted me. She was nude and strattled me while I screamed rape. Oh BBG."

She liked it.

DAY THREE Saturday, September 25: After giggling the morning away, the tour guides came to wake us up and we departed for a ferry ride that would take us to Fraser Island. The weather wasn't looking to great so we were all feeling a bit discouraged. Day 3 and still no sun? What kind of vacation is this? It was even more disheartening when w

e got to the beautiful Lake McKenzie, which is meant to be one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, but the rain was really discouraging us. But being the troopers that we are, we obviously didn't let it bring us down for long. We still dove into the water and spent a few hours exploring the little island. Daisy, Annaelle, Dan and I even trekked through a jungle wilderness to get to another area and Annaelle revealed one of the most hilarious stories I've ever heard

in my life. Let's just say, I've got to keep that one buried... We had a nice buffet lunch at a hotel down the road and then went on a gorgeous off-road drive over a beach that they referred to as a highway. The ocean crashed along on the side and the bus expertly drove over the squishy, brown sand. The rain actually made the scenery more alluring and caused the water to be more violent, which was cool to see inside the warm, dry bus. Me and Dais had a pretty nice soundtrack on her pod that added to the whole experience. We stopped and saw a shipwreck, a fresh water creek, penis trees and the this adorable little girl who was kissing and hugging Cuntaroo. Luckily the family didn't speak very good English, so I don't think they understood the profane language and dirty things written all over it. After many photos, we headed back to the hostel where we showered, ate, loaded up on liquor and got ready for the dreaded 12 hour bus ride to Airlie Beach.

MORE TO COME LATER! :)