Things I am looking forward to

I decided to compile a list of all the things that I miss about California! I'll be home in exactly 2 months today, and these are all of the things I'm looking forward to seeing/eating/experiencin

1. Mommy and daddy
2. Having my own bathroom
3. In 'n' Out 
4. Starbucks
5. Olas and Bobbi's (Mexican food in general). I got so sick after eating the "Mexican" food here. Aussie's have not worked out how to use spices and seasonings yet. 
6. Mandarin house
7. Good sushi (Sushi Planet here I come)
8. Real ketchup all the time
9. Jamba juice (although boost juice is a close second) 
10. Malls being open past 7
11. Being free with my own car!
12. Being able to drive my friends around
13. Paige, Elena, and Joe Davis 
14. Alllllll of my friends! 
15. My dad yelling "hey BOOOOO" when he gets home from work Gryffin and Hoover
16. American denim: shopping spree 
17. CAPA
18. My mom's piano playing (although Kimmy's musical abilities are always filling the Becker home with sweet sounds)
19. My bed. I'm gonna sleep in it for a full 24 hours first day home
20. The glorious sound of Katie McDonald's laughter
21. Lauren Stevens's ability to know exactly what I'm thinking because we have the same brain 
22. Alison Cosgrove (nuff said!!)
23. Meeting Alison's boyfriend (I currently feel out of the loop completely not having met my best friend's boyfriend yet)
24. Shelby Tupac's ability to make any moment into an awkward one!
25. Katie Jo Ash's perkiness and perpetual willingness to gossip with me 
26. Driving on the right side of the road! 
27. Unlimited internet. Not having to pay for it by the megabyte or be concientious about loading too many Youtube videos. 
28. TEXTING ALL MY BFFIZZLES
29. Home-cooked meals in general
30. Toilets that only have one flush option! I hate how the toilets here have a half and a full flush. It's such a pain trying to analyse and choose which flush to use. 

The countdown begins today! I'll be home in exactly 2 months and I can't wait. I am looking forward to seeing you all very soon :) 

Word of the day-

Snag = sausage

XOXO Big hugs <3

Shannon

General update on the end of term!

Holy moly, it has been for-ev-er since the last time I blogged and I'm really sorry! A lot of cool stuff has happened since last time though, so let me fill you all in :)

I have been so bad about taking pictures since I've been here, but I have seen so much cool stuff that I have been saving up to tell you all about. First of all, the wildlife here is INCREDIBLE! The birds you see in the trees around school are those beautiful sulphur-crested cockatoos (yes, I did research that one!!) and rainbow lorikeets. Out here in Kapunda, we see tons of kangaroos also, which are hard to photograph even if I was good about keeping my camera on me at all times, because they move incredibly fast. The other day while driving on the dirt road to Andrew's house, he stopped suddenly and pointed out a snake on the road! Apparently it was a brown snake, and they're really poisonous and deadly. I'll make sure to wear my boots when I'm out on long walks through tall grass!

I can't believe the semester is already halfway over. That blows my mind that in eight weeks I'll be done with my "freshman year" (I cheater because I started halfway through) and heading back to the States soon after. So far everything is going really amazing with school; I'm enjoying it, making great friends, and the weather is starting to warm up nicely.

Speaking of school, I have been doing really well too. I'm dreading this term a little, just because I feel like I barely scraped through last quarter and the assignments are gonna be bigger and badder this time around and plus: we've got exams coming up :(

Fortunately, I've got some friends in my classes now who I can study with for exams and I only have 2: psych and English. I'll have to admit though that I haven't been keeping up with my psych reading so I'll have my work cut out for me this term.

SO MUCH has happened since the last time I blogged!!

Firstly, Andrew and I went on an amazing trip to Perisher in NSW at the beginning of September. It was absolutely amazing. We flew in on Friday and left Sunday, but those two days of snowboarding were some of the best I ever had. We didn't do much on the day we arrived; we checked out the resort and had a nice dinner then watched a movie and went to bed pretty early. The next morning we had to get up and go rent all my gear (since a, I don't own any and b, I wouldn't have brought it all the way down here if I did!!) We got out onto the mountain around 9am and went hard until noon, at which point we stopped to eat. The weather was absolutely beautiful, not a cloud in the sky and just a touch of wind to keep one from sweltering under waterproof clothing (nothing worse than snow in your pants). Then we went back out in the afternoon but called it quits when we both could barely stand up anymore. We had an early dinner at 6:00 and shared a bottle of wine... And due to that, we fell straight asleep at like 7:30 and slept through the whole night until around 8 the next morning. Talk about tired; that night was about the most physically exhausted I have ever been in my life. I was dreading the next day a little as I think Andrew was too, but once we got out there and started warming up, we weren't hurting much at all. We were feeling pretty proud of ourselves for toughing things out and around 10:00 we took... WAIT FOR IT... The "SKITUBE" to another mountain and boarded there for a while! The skitube was this super-cool mountain subway type of thing because (Andrew and I didn't realize how huge the resort was) but there are 3 mountains altogether and it's impossible to walk between them! We hung out there for about an hour. We didn't stay warm for long though; the second day it poured rain and by 2:00 when we had to pack up and leave, I was soaked all the way through to my socks and somewhat glad to be leaving the mountain for the day. I wish that trip had lasted longer because with snowboarding (and I'd imagine skiing as well), 2 days is just long enough to really get into the groove and having to leave just after that really bummed us both out. I think we want to plan on going again next year on a longer break because it was such a blast and it felt good to be relaxed and ready for another tough week at school. :)

A few other cool things that happened since last time I blogged are the toga party I attended and now a week of holidays to report on! I won't go into much detail about the toga party... Those who matter already know how that night went. :) All I can say is that the worst part of a toga party are the togas because they don't stay on very well and safety pins are SHARP as.

Now Andrew and I are up in Kapunda for mid-semester holidays and it has been really nice.

We kidnapped his little sister from school on Thursday because it was like 25 degrees (80 F) so we took Kimmy to the beach! It turns out that when it's stinking hot inland that means wind on the beach... Mind you all, it was still a gorgeous day off the sand so we just walked around and looked in shops after about an hour of getting blasted with sand. Kim and I agreed that alhough it was probably good exfoliation ;), it didn't feel so great to have sand blasted into every bit of your face, arms, and legs. We're all looking forward to the days where the water is beautiful and you can spend all day in the sun (as long as you wear good sunscreen and a hat!).

Then, Andrew's roommate, Evan (who is Canadian), came up north to see us for the past few days, which was really fun. Evan is a motorbike person, so he had fun riding with Andrew and I. I've never been so adventurous on the quad and I'm pretty sure I nearly died a few times, but all-in-all yesterday was a really fun day. At one point, I was driving the quad with Andrew holding onto me and we were going fast through what we thought was a nice smooth paddock, when the next thing we know we were like 4 feet in the air! We looked back and there was a massive bump camouflaged by nice smooth grass. Andrew was pissed at first ("WHY weren't you looking, stop driving recklessly") until we both started cracking up when we realized how unavoidable and FUN it actually was to go off of jumps like that. We did it like 6 more times on our way out. :) At another bit, Andrew and I were stopped and watching Evan come towards us on the bike. He was about 100 feet away when the bike just started revving. Andrew and I were both thinking "Oh, he'll stop just in time, he's justk idding around but he knows what he's doing..." Until he hit the kill switch about 20 feet away and gently ran right into the quad as he jumped/fell off the bike and over the quad. It was a bit scary after the fact when he told us that the exhaust got pinned and he couldn't stop, but luckily he DID know what he was doing and knew to hit the kill switch. If that had been me, I probably would have died... Whew.

Last night, Andrew had a few of his mates over for tea and a fire and we ended up getting a bit reckless with the branches... We discovered that we could take SWEET pictures, with the combination of branches lit on fire and the slow shutter setting on Evan's camera. We had fun spelling out funny words and making cool shapes in the night sky, and enjoying a delicious meal cooked by the fabulous Becker girls, Susan and Kim.

Today, Evan left just 10 minutes too soon! We got to see James, an old neighbor of the Beckers', herd his sheep. It was probably one of the most amazing things I have seen since I have been in Australia. James and his dog, Sid, could have done it alone I'm sure, but today there were about ten of us just driving behind this huge herd of sheep and forcing them down the road. The coolest part was getting the sheep out of the Beckers' paddock and onto the road though. This dog, Sid, is the most amazing dog I have ever seen. He is so well trained that it's almost as if he could talk to the sheep just like Babe did! This dog is the smartest dog ever. I mean James can  tell him "from behind!" and this dog will go straight to the back of the pack and get those sheep to go exactly where James wants them. It was so... Synchronised and amazing and incredible and dirty and everything.

Next week we are going to watch James's sheep be shorn (that's when they shear off all the wool)!! I'm pretty excited because I like the farm life, minus how many bugs there are everywhere because it's starting to warm up.

All-in-all, I am really enjoying everything down here :) I miss everyone and everything back at home so much but I'll be seeing everyone sooner than it seems!

I've got a few exciting things on my horizon, including my eighteenth birthday. I'll be having Andrew drive me straight to the Bottle-O on October 5th so that I can LEGALLY BUY ALCOHOL. What. A. Novelty. ***DISCLAIMER: I am not an alcoholic, I just think it's so cool that I'll be able to order a glass of wine at dinner legally in less than 2 weeks (instead of in 3 years like I'd have to at home)!!

After that, I'm going with Andrew to see the Wombats (thanks Mom and Dad) on October 16. After that, it's the home stretch to the end of the year and I'll be back in California seven weeks later :)

My Aussie word of this post is... Powerpoint. The electrical outlets here are called powerpoints.

XOXO I love you all :)
Shannon

Mommy and Daddy

This one is for my parents.

I haven't written an entire post about them since I got here. I don't know why; probably because I've had too many emotions inside me that I couldn't even fathom trying to get the words out. But here they are. And mom, if this makes you cry, I'm sorry... ;) But dad, if this makes you cry, it's payback for the socks!

Okay well where should I start? I used to think when I was little that my parents should love me more than they loved each other. Why? Well I was their little princess of course! I used to always ask mom "do you love me or dad more?" and dad "do you love me or mom more?" These were silly questions to ask, of course, and they always answered: "I can't choose between you two, I love you both so much!"

I get that now. And I respect them both so much. Each time I see their faces on my computer screen, I miss them so much more. They're so amazing. I used to wonder how, after twenty-five years of marriage, they still keep that flame alive. It's so clear that they are still madly in love with each other, how I always see them holding hands, come home from a late night out with friends and see them cuddling on the couch together, play chauffeur and drive home from dinners out and look in the rear-view mirror and see them kissing...

They both have such big hearts, and I think that shows in me. I have the most functional, loving, adult relationship of anyone my age, without a doubt, and it's all because I have had an amazing example of what a model relationship should be like set for me in the past 18 years. I want to be a teacher because I have always been treated with dignity by the adults in my life, especially my mom and dad. I have been given so much love throughout my (almost) 18 years... Actually over 18 years because they loved me before I was even born. Growing up, they were always my best friends, without a doubt. I have so many goofy pictures of me as a little girl, making silly faces with my daddy, playing tug-of-war with my dad as he gave me a bath, baking with mommy, my face covered in flour. The best memories of my childhood involved the two of them.

Every time I see them on my computer screen, I can't help feeling a little bit guilty for them. I imagine being in their position, thinking "Wow, we poured 18 years of our lives into that kid, work hard to raise her, spend a large percentage of our money just to fulfill her needs, and what to we get? She desserts us for a boy! Harrumph!" But right after that, I smack myself in the head and say "Get a grip: that's exactly why they did all of that for you! So that you could grow up to be a whole person, have a level head, know what you want to do, and go for your dreams!" And I love them for giving this to me. They have done so much for me to be able to be where I am right now, and as much as I'm sure it kills them to have me living so far away (I know it kills me! I miss them like crazy!) I know at the same time they are so proud of me because they somehow, even from thousands of miles away, still manage to remind me of that every single day.

Today I recieved a package in the mail from them! How cool is that? Inside were more things from home to make me feel more comforted over here. DVDs, my bathrobe, instant Ramen noodles (they really aren't kidding when they say this is college kid food), some new clothes. But the socks, those are really what kills me.

Every year, for either Fathers' Day, his birthday, or Christmas, I get my dad a package of socks. I always choose the thickest and softest ones I can find, because that's what I like best. And unfortunately for my dad, I always end up stealing the poor guy's socks. Half my sock drawer is filled with my parents' socks because they're just so dang comfy. So, tucked in with some crew socks that my mom and I fight over constantly, was that one pair of greenish-gray socks that I always stole on Saturday morning before dance class (they are the best for turning!). As I sat on the edge of my bed with my back to Andrew (who was sprawled out relaxing after a long day of dealing with my stress), I held the socks in my hands and just began to weep. Not out of sadness, necessarily, but just because I love them so much. They are so thoughtful; they have given me so much throughout the past 18 years.

Tonight, as I fall asleep, I'll look at their pictures that are taped up on my wall next to my bed. A picture of me hugging my mom tight just before leaving for senior prom, she so happy to see her little girl turn into a young woman, a picture of dad and I at graduation with me giving him a big smooch on the cheek and him grinning with joy at the success of his little girl. And I will miss them sooo much, as I always do, but I'll know that I'm the person I am today because of them, and that I couldn't be here without their guidance in my life.

I love you, mommy and daddy, and even if there's some days that I don't get to talk to you guys, know that I think about you every night before I go to sleep. Only 3 more months till the Three Musketeers reunite :) miss you guys. xoxoxo Love, Bug <3

Address!

Hi everybody!!

I just wanted to say hi quickly and let everyone know that I have worked out how to get my mail here! I'm slowly but surely turning into a real Hallie... ANYWHO. If you wanna send me anything (letters, care packages, pictures, checks with 6 figure sums... etc.) then you should write on the envelope/box/oddly misshapen package this address:

Shannon Goulding
Flinders University Hall
Sturt Road
Bedford Park, SA 5042
Australia

I love you all oodles! <3

Hair in the drain. :/

Hi everyone!

I feel like I've been starting off every post like this but... I'm sorry I haven't blogged in forever! I've been getting fairly busy with homework, and also haven't had tons of exciting stuff to talk about... But here I am. AND GET READY TO READ A LONG POST!!!

Okay I'll start by answering the question that EVERYONE has been asking: How are classes going??

My favorite class is English. It's a creative writing class and I'm learning... well, how to write creatively. In under two weeks, I have read more than I have since AP testing. To those who will understand this reference, it's harder than the last month of Berman's class. Yeah, seriously. Although it's rough and heavy, I've already learned so much and since I'm a primary education major, it's gonna help me teach young ones how to write. :) Drawback: I have a paper due in two weeks about which I have no idea what to write. This quarter is a research report, but what I'm really drooling for is the short story assignment that will be due next quarter. I've already started writing it... Gah.

Next is psychology. Slightly less heavy of a workload, but still a lot of stuff to learn. The lectures consist mostly of taking notes, and we have only had one tutorial as they are fortnightly and it's only week 3. I'm enjoying it and it's interesting to hear how learning happens and all that jazz. BUT there's a very similar drawback to this class: the research report. I've started doing some research already but I have to read psychology journals and that kind of thing and they are so dense and tedious to read...

Third is linguistics. A little bit on the boring side, just in the way that it's taught, but otherwise the material is pretty interesting. I've always been interested in languages and how accents happen and why American speak differently from English people and that type of thing, and that's exactly what I'm learning about!

Lastly is maths... If you read my last blog, you know all about this class already :| the topic material is getting a little bit tougher... This week we learned about basic geometry and the concept behind logs (how when you multiply two numbers you add the exponents) and that kind of thing. Getting tougher, but still very much on the easy side for me.

OKAY. Now that all that is out of the way, here's the exciting news: I'm finally making some friends and getting totally settled into my dorm room. Andrew and I finally went to Big W (Australia Target/Walmart) and got my pictures printed so every one of my friends is up on my wall smiling at me. I feel a little closer to home :) I've also worked out the laundry in my building (huge pain in my butt).

One thing that sucks about being here right now though: Not being 18! October fifth couldn't come faster. I can't go to any events here that are in clubs or bars or anything. :( for example, my hall has a beer pong tournament, and tonight was the championships and they had them at a nightclub and even though (for mom and dad!) I probably wouldn't drink anyways, it'd be fun to be able to go and hang out with my new friends and try and socialize a little bit more. People keep saying that I need to just get a fake ID but I don't want one because I want to wait and let the excitement build up for a few months before I go out and enjoy the Adelaide nightlife. Plus, it'd suck to get caught and risk losing my visa or anything like that.

I'm learning little tricks to save time, space, and money:
1) An apple and a glass of water DOES count for breakfast.
2) Tap water is just as good and usually better than bottled water.
3) When you oversleep and don't have time to wash, blowdry, and style your hair in the morning, put baby powder in your hair! It soaks up all the oil and gets rid of those icky greasy roots.
4) Save all ggrocery bags and cardboard boxes! They make great storage space and trash bags!
5) Buy hooks for your dorm room (thank you Katie McDonald!!) because there is never enough space! And if you don't, you just end up throwing your jacket and purse in the corner when you get home from somewhere. And let me tell you: your dorm room will probably be half the size of your current room, so a purse and a jacket can quickly turn into a chaotic pile that seems larger than Mt. Everest. You won't have any floor space to spare, so utilize the walls!!! Plus, not having a rack to hang your towels on can quickly turn into a big, stinky problem.
6) Bring a power strip if you aren't sure if your dorm room will already have one. I only have 2 outlets in my room and with a laptop charger, a phone charger, a heater, a heating blanket, and hair stuff to plug in, 2 just is not enough.
7) BRING A BATHROBE. My mother tried to tell me this one, but did I listen? Nooo I did not. I regret that. The bathrooms here are just a stall with part of it curtained off, but the whole floor gets wet. So it sucks having to put on any sort of shorts or pants with nasty wet shower feet, thus, a bathrobe is optimal.

Shoutout to the best friend Katie McDonald! She had surgery this week and is making a swift recovery and I'm so proud of her for being such a toughie! I love you Banaters and I'm sending you lots of hugs from down here :) xoxo

BATHROOM UPDATE: All is well in the Hall bathrooms. This will conclude my weekly updates on the lavatory. The only thing there is that's worth telling is the grossest thing ever is HAIR IN THE DRAIN!!! It literally makes me want to barf a little, especially because it gets all matted up and it looks like a big hairy bug or something. I'm even scared to stand near the drain because it's so horrifying and I feel like I'm going to get eaten alive. SOOO I have started wearing flip flops in the shower.

Not much else to tell! Shoutout to all my friends who move out/start school next week :) exciting and nerve-racking and heart-wrenching all in one!

I love and miss you all :) xoxo

QUICKLY: you don't have to have a profile to comment! Just comment as 'anonymous' but sign your name!

Word of the day:
Salads. At Subway here, they don't ask you what types of vegetables you want on your sandwich/wrap. They ask you what kind of SALADS you want. Wtf?? Also, they call bell peppers capsicums and they pronounce the 'h' in herb. Also, continuing with my Subway rant, they were OUT OF MEATBALLS today... What?? Andrew was all excited about his double-meatball-sub until he found out he had to order turkey instead. Poor baby :(

Cheers and good morning to those just waking up :) I'm off to bed! As always, thank you for reading :)

Love,
Shannon <3

Mini thank you

I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who reads this and thanks for the feedback yesterday :) well today I guess since it's the evening for you guys and morning for me. PS it's like... hot today. WOOOO!

Catch ya later :)

Bathroom update

Now a week has gone by... And I still spend as little time in the Hall bathroom as possible. I don't know why... Maybe it's the fact that there's two bathrooms on my floor. I've used both and I'm still not sure if there are designated men's and women's bathrooms.

Here's my reasoning: Try to get a mental picture. Think of my wing as an H. I live in the bottom left part of the H. I know for a fact that girls live on the upper left part of the H. However, the upper half of the H share a bathroom and the lower half share a bathroom. BUT, I met a guy the other night who lives in room 3307 (I'm 3317 which means he lives in exactly the mirror image of my room. AKA the bottom RIGHT part of the H.) Theoretically, if I could control things, I'd make the whole bottom half girls and the whole top half guys, that way the girls could share the one bathroom and the guys could share the other. But it's not that simple.
1) I have seen girls enter and leave both bathrooms. I have even used both bathrooms.
2) I have never seen a guy in either bathroom.
3) I HAVE, however, seen a men's razor and men's shaving cream in the far bathroom.
4) I have also used the toilet in the far bathroom when I have had to put the seat down. And we all know which gender NEVER REMEMBERS TO PUT THE SEAT DOWN.
5) Neither bathroom is marked as guys' or girls'. I assume that this means it's sort of a free-for-all.

Now, not that I'm completely weirded out by guys and girls sharing the same bathroom. I could care less. It's just foreign to me... And I feel awkward since I'm not a hundred percent positive that's how it's actually working...

Either way, I'm going to keep using my detective skills and I'll keep you readers updated on the bathroom sitch.

In other news, I've started my tutorials today! In my math class, we've been learning how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide fractions. The first problem, I kid you not: (4 - 7). This is probably the most brain-numbing class ever. I would honestly rather be taking a near-impossible math class because I'd have something to actually engage my mind in. But no. In this class today, I did the "tutorial assignment" beforehand, because I assumed it would be collected in the tutorial. Oh, how wrong I was. My instructor spent 35 minutes going through every single problem on the whiteboard, in very inadequate English, might I add.

Let me translate a few words for you:
Number = lumber
Negative = nacteev
Denominator = delomulator


At one point, we, the students, had to explain to him how to do a problem because he didn't understand in English what a family of fractions was. He said "I don't know how to translate into Chinese so that I can understand this."

I'm not trying at all to be racist or stereotypical in any way, I'm just trying to convey the difficulty of getting one's attention to latch on to a person whose speech you can't understand while they try to explain to you how to add 1/2 plus 1/4.

Here's a little side story to take a pause from the school-related news.

     On Saturday, I spent the day mostly with Andrew's little sister Kim, who also happens to now be my adopted little sister. She's so cute and we get along so well :).
     ANYWAYS, we go into this really cute store called Live. I'm looking around at the jeans, wondering what size I'd be in Australian sizes. This really nice salesgirl comes up to me and starts helping me choose jeans to try on. I can't deny her the satisfaction of helping a foreigner find their size and favorite cut, so I let her do her job. Maybe I'll even but her a pair.
     So there I am in the dressing room, trying on tons of adorable jeans that fit me perfectly, until I look at the price tag. My stomach dropped to the floor. $280 AUSTRALIAN. That makes almost 300 bucks American. No way can I afford these jeans.
     "How ya goin' with the jeans??" I hear her call to me. I started to sweat. Oh God, how am I going to get out of this one? I ask myself. Just then, my brain thinks up the most brilliant plan. I grab the pair that I like best and leave the dressing room in my own reasonably-priced clothes.
     "Are those the ones??" The salesgirl asked.
     "Yep!" I said cheerfully. "I just need to run and find my boyfriend who has my credit card on him." Lie.
     "I can only hold the jeans for half an hour..." she said reluctantly. "Do you think you'll take longer than that?"
     Yeah right, I thought. Like you'd really sell those jeans in half an hour anyways.
     "Oh no, he's just a few shops over..." I told the girl.
     Then, I grabbed Kim, and made my swift escape, never to return to the store again. Whew.

Anywho. Saturday night, I spent a nice night at Andrew's sister's boyfriend's parents' house. That's a mouthful. And Sunday, Andrew and I spent a gorgeous, sunny day in Glenelg near the beach, where I managed to make it all day in a pair of shorts.

And that's my life story. Keep checking back for updates.

I miss everyone so much. Especially my mom and dad. And my friends. And my dogs. Okay, I guess I just miss everyone a lot. I can't wait til all you guys move into your dorms and start your classes so I can hear your stories too :) I also can't wait to see everyone. Exactly 4 months!

Talk to you all soon.

THIS WEEK'S WORDS:
Flat white = a latte. Basically coffee with cream and lots of foam on top. My personal coffee drink of choice, although I also add two sugar packets.
Also, their coffee sizes are TEENY here.  large coffee from the cafe here at school is smaller than the smallest size at Starbucks.

PS PLEASE if you read this regularly, I'd love to hear from you :) even if it's you just clicking follow at the top right of the page, or leaving a comment. Even an anonymous comment I'd appreciate. Just let me know that you're there, reading my posts :)