country road, take me home

i've been so loving my i-pod since being here. i think it's because it's like having a piece of home with me- a friend. it's a little bit of everybody. when i miss my family, like my brothers, i can listen to woodie gurthrie (chris) or spoon (noah). when i miss highschool and feel a little emo it's time for a little saves the day ("you make me feel so tall, i always want to be this tall") or bright eyes ("eyes that burn so bright they make me pure"-- ooo sigh!). bu people- it's all about easy E, rjd2, echo and the bunnyman, blackalicious, manu chao, so many songs bring me back to chain smoking late nite in sigz/gabbas apartment, etc. johnny cash just makes me flat out nostalgic, so does zeppelin ("yesterday i saw you kissing tiny flowers, all that lives is born to die"- that line get's me every god damn time). nostalgic for what im not sure, but they have that effect. radiohead makes me heady. lauryn hill makes me feel inspired. they all just bring me back home in different ways. and to different homes- which all kind of come together as one. ONE love, man. haha oook now.

feeling a bit under the weather today, doesn't help that the weather = grey/chilly.

should have a good few days...:
tomoro nite: bars at bondi beach..or maybe ecq bar to visit my friend troy
thurs: brooklin bar with ispc pple
fri: maybe salsa at darling harbor
sat: the beach bbq party for tashi's bday/gloria's bday

ok looove to all

a few pics i got from other pple

this is simon...sweetest french guy. i did what i usually do when intoxicated around frenchies..have a few too many and start singing La Marseillaise (french national anthem). needless to say he was impressed. ps- i look a LOT drunker than i am in this pic- my eyes were caught mid-blink.



ewww...weird canadian boy. this is very candid and has the appearance of intimicay and enjoyment. it was actually discomfort and disgust! but it made for a funny pic.




at a coogee beach bar last wednesday.



this is tashi....sweetest aussie girl, heart of gold. she's been showing me a good time.



this is at a club/bar on darling harbor. that's gloria..she's american from north carolina (very cool). and that guy is some dutch dude who at the time we thought resembled josh hartnett. all i got out of my brief convo with him was that likes limp bizkitand eminem. rock on.



ill get my own pictures up soon enough. for now the internet is too weak at my house, so i have to work on it.

allston reflections

i think this picture is the percise reason that i miss boston and that i had to leave boston. i was just getting too comfortable at Our House (the bar), and look- i dont have my eyes open..and where are my shoes?... oooooo sigh. i hate photos that document nights you dont really remember. it's been refreshing to sober up a bit here (i mean in relative terms). i guess the same behavior in different country/new scenery makes it seem more "cultural immersion" and less depraved debauchery. okok, im being too hard on us allston-ers. all in all though, i just think this pic is priceless. erika has her fingers in my toes for christ's sake. the one below here is lovely as well. i dont know what's better my hand on brendyn's beer or looking at annie and thnking of how she got home that night (in babs's loving arms).
i miss you guys- im certainly not comfortable enough with pple here to unleash that side of myself (the one that almost got kicked out of our house twice that night) xx

rockabilly aussies, who woulda thunk it?

i went out last night to a place called shark bar. actually it was called Shark Hotel (Most of you may not know that in australia "hotels" are actually just bars. but hotels can also be actual hotels- so it gets confusing). anyway- free champagne for ladies..not bad. this was right after work..so we had some dinner and drinks. and then around 10 we headed to a new bar. it was in the basement of the sydney hilton hotel...and im still confused as to weather it was part of it or not- but i think it was. it was called the marble room or something- and it was ALL marble and pillars and paintings of voluptuous nudes. i thoguht everything seemed normal enough..and then suddenly this live band starts jamming and about 50 rockabilly-ish pple come out of the woodworks and start dancing. im talking strait from Crybaby..what-decade-are-we-in style. short bangs, leather, saddle shoes, skirts spinning, ponytails, etc.. it was incredibly strange and kind of awesome. anyway time to do some work. im supposed to go to a place called pantoon in darling harbor tonight. definitly going to bondi beach tomorrow.
xx

some fun with google earth

ok that didnt turn out as well as i wanted, but i just wanted to show the lay out. click on it and i think it gets bigger. the far right is where i live. the north most point is where i work...and the center-ish thing is just main downtwn sydney. the thing is..this city is MUCH smalled than, say, manhattan..it takes 10 min by bus for me to get from my house to downtown center. and about 20 min from downtwn to my office. it's really quite a manageable size.

bird's eye of manly

This is manly beach- quite famous for backpackers, etc. i went there on saturday- as described below. twas lovely. it's all lined with cafes and shops.. great seafood. prob gunna be too crowded within a few weeks (as it is becoming summmmmer)

the internship

here is the intellectually stimulating pieces ive written. i was a little down about the fact that the job isnt really that stimulating when it comes to the journalism..but i am learning a lot about runnign the website and im onto a bigger project working with the head of marketing at L'Oreal on a promotion for our site. i am the sole contact for this project..so the responsibility has been good. my boss thinks im hard at work on it right now...little does he know..mwahaha


eyebrows!

dark circles :(

puffy puffy

aussie aussie

ok so here's how things have unfolded so far..
the plane ride was so much less terrible than i expected...mostly becuase i took an ambien an hour into it and woke up on the other side of the pacific ocean. i had a middle seat, whcih didnt seem promising...but it turned out fine. think i might have cuddled up next to the awkward boy next to me..but he had popped a sleeping pill too so he prob didnt care or notice. so i arrived at the ass crack of dawn...and it was just POURING. it was freezing and raining. it was coming down in sheets....sheets of rain that didnt let up for 4 fucking days. occasionally it would stop..only to start again minutes later with even more force. the lovely cab driver left me on my doorstep with my oversized luggage so i had to haul it in. soaking wet and freezing cold, i arrived into my cute apartment. i found the bedroom that seemed best for me and unpacked immediatly- as i always do when settling into a new place.that first day was strange because i was so hyped to be there..but i couldnt Do anything..even walk around..becuase of the god damn rain. i braved it to the main street by my hosue for a startbucks and then with even more courage i headed downtown. i was just too excited. what i discovered was that sydney was the trendiest city ever. every girl was clad in skinny jeans or leggings, brown leather boots, high waitsted belts, long tops, and messy hairstyles all around. going hand in hand with the trendyness of the people were the amazing shops that were on every street. shoppers paradise. anyway i spent sunday exploring in the same manner..running in and out of shops..getting lost looking for my bus. arriving home wet. my roommmate valerie was nice but quiet..she has since opened up.

ill cut to when the sun came out. About wednesday it reared it's goregous head...and i FINALLY got to see how incredible this city is. glittering water with countless sailboats, enormous bridges.. so pretty. my boss took me for a drive around on friday and took me to some beaches just so i could see and it just made me so excited. one minute we'd be on a winding road surrounded by rainforest...the next min we'd be driving along a cliff overlooking the ocean..and then we'd be passing shrubs and wasteland. the office is tiny...i work for a man and his wife comes in two days a week. jeremy is from south africa and he tells about 150 stories a day. he especially likes the subject of his days in the southafrican army (he showed me pics, he was really hot in his youth- im not kidding). he also has had about 100 friends die so he likes to tell me the unlikely and untimely circumstances of all of them "ken died of cancer. i mean he was diagnosed in may and dead by august. just remarkable." "john was driving with his sister and parents..got into an accident- all of them dead!" "steve got shot by a zooloo tribe- his head just blown right off." but by far the WORST was the fact thatthe american intern before me got into a car accident less than a month after arriving back in the states and just died. how comforting for me to tell me that.

it's been so liberating being here on my own. i feel SO far away from any stress i had back at home. it's amazing..when you travel so far you really can just escape your past life. i mean i think of everyone and miss them dearly..but i am so happy to just be here alone. i love my mornign and afternoon commutes to and from work. i drive over the bridge connecting sydney to north sydney..it passes the famous opera house. it's just gorgeous and i listen to my ipod and just let me thoughts flow. sometimes im thinking about a million things.other times just a peaceful feeling- barely a thought in my head. ive been only slightly frustrated by feeling a bit of cabin fever after work. i get home at around 6 and make dinner and watch ellen and friends and sometimes (oftentimes) gilmore girls. then i try to convince valerie that it's a GREAT idea to grab JuST ONE drink at our neighborhood pub... when she does indeed fall for this i can usually get her to stay for a few drinks. ineveitably our "exotic" accents attract a string of awkard bachelors..the upside of which is that it sometimes this leads to free drinks. i am totally bonded with the owner of the pub (The Exchange). i went there alone on the first monday i was there and ordered a glass of wine and just sort of read my book and smoked my cigarettes..by the end of the night i was out withy the owner, the girl bartender, and 2 guys that live on my street. aussie's are very very friendly. i have barely paid for a drink since arrivnig. ive seen them a few times since and they are good pple. i also went out with this swiss girl i met...went to coogee beach last night. it was so much fun and i made quite a few new friends. among them an adorable aussie named Tashi..we've been emailing this morning from our offices about the state of our respective hangovers. ill see them both again tonight.

made it to manly beach last weekend... it was so nice. valerie and i took the ferry there..great skyline views of sydney. the beach was crowded but beautiful. there was a great flea market around it..valerie had to drag me away before i bought every necklace and bracelet they had. had fish and chips for lunch- delicious. the ferry back was at dusk and the city was just sparkling..got some amazing pictures. this weekend ill head to bondi beach (quite famous) on saturday....and probably walk from coogee ebach to bondi with pple on sunday. supposed to be a far but amazing walk. ok ive rambled on long enough... now ill get bcak to "work."
cheers

official geek

ok now i am officially a journamism nerd, but hey, it's 2006 so i need to get with the times. actually this whole set up was done out of procratination from my internet job here in sydney. i will use my boredom and long hours in front of the computer to post my random thoughts and document my random travels and experiences. ok..one step at a time.....