updates and thoughts
Meri inspired me to post. It's been too long. I've been posting in my own public blog a bit, and a friend actually commented that it's not what he expected it to be like--that there'd be more feelings involved, etc. I told him that's what LiveJournal is for! But he doesn't have an account and ergo can't read it. Anyway.
I am, at the moment, in Revelstoke at my parents', and enjoying it immensely. Joni liking living with her parents, what?! I'm so grown up and they realize this to the extent that we (basically) don't argue and don't get in each other's way. It's pretty nice. And above all else, I'm appreciating Revelstoke like never before--for once I'm not in a rush to leave this town, and I'm thinking rather longingly of coming back. Since being here, I've gone to a couple meeting and stuff for the official community plan, and have run into a couple people who were like, "Too bad you're leaving, we just had this job position open up..." which rather breaks my heart, since there are some pretty sweet jobs here, and the person had a lot to do with hiring. Oh well, gotta get on that plane on October 11!
My graduation from SFU has all been worked out, thank goodness. I waited a little too long to transfer my exchange credits and did it rather last minute this summer (really, would I have done it any other way?), and ran into a little problem of expecting to get 11 credits instead of 10--the class that Luke and I took together got bumped up to a 4 credit class just after I left, and he actually got 4 credits for it instead of 3, so I assumed that I could do the same--alas, no. So there I was, stuck at 119 credits, not going to walk across the stage, with my advisor telling me to take a 1 credit directed study to make up the last one. Thank goodness I remembered that I could transfer the French immersion program I did for 5 weeks back in 2004 for an extra 3 credits. And thank goodness I was at SFU for a day dropping Luke off to fly back to Australia to talk to the right people in person to find out what to do. The only remaining glitch (and this one's just ironic, I just don't care anymore) is that I'm graduating with a BA majoring in Communication and minoring in English; my extended minor didn't work out because my English class from exchange transfered as a 300-level instead of a 200-level, meaning I'm one 200-level class short, one 300-level over the requirements for an English extended minor from SFU. You've gotta be kidding me, right? At this point I don't care to argue, frankly.
Luke's in Australia and, I think, enjoying bumming around at his parents' place, too. I dropped him off on Sept. 12th for him to take the Greyhound to San Francisco (it was $88 instead of $350 to fly, even if it did take 27 hours). He then flew home, and is staying at his parents' new condo in Narrabeen, just a couple blocks away from where we once had sex on the beach. Hehe. We bought a truly stunning bed off of eBay Australia about a week ago, I guess--we were looking at some of the Ikea ones available (being able to see what we liked in Vancouver and then being able buy it in Sydney a bonus, as what we did with our mattress), but nothing was really catching on... they were all okay beds in terms of quality and price, but just nothing I was that excited about spending $400 on, you know? So, Luke sent me the eBay link for beds, and I found this beautiful piece, the bidding at $66.
Isn't it gorgeous?! So obviously we got it, though the bidding went up to $250 at the last minute, but that's still a pretty sweet deal, considering the bed is from a good quality Australian brand and probably cost $1200 new. And it was cheaper than anything we wanted from Ikea, so it ended up being win-win! Luke picked it up and has set it up in our place already.
I am so freakin' excited for our apartment in Australia. This is the first time that I'll be in my very own place, not in residence, and the three of us actually want to live together and do things like share groceries and make dinner for each other and stuff. We have a big fridge and no one else's food in it. The furniture is ours, we can keep what we want and get rid of what we want, decorate it how we want, and I'll actually be around long enough to maybe put some holes in a wall to put up shelves, or hang some pictures, or whatever. I got out a book from the library called Simple Home Solutions, and belatedly realized it's from Martha Stewart Living, but it's got some pretty fantastic and simple ideas for little solutions... like how to freeze a jar of tomato paste so you can cut off a tablespoon at a time instead of opening and having to chuck a whole can. Or how to make your own little envelope storage folders. Or whatever. Apparently I really get off on this stuff? Anyway, I'm pretty pumped. I did, however, realize the other day that my extreme excitement about this apartment is due to the fact that it's kinda the only definite, good thing that I know will happen--as for finding a job, making new friends, and totally rebuilding my life from scratch, that's pretty stressful and I'd rather not focus on it. So, yay, awesome apartment!
Okiedoke, there's more but I want a cup of coffee, and I've gotta save something for another post, right? :) Miss you guys!
I am, at the moment, in Revelstoke at my parents', and enjoying it immensely. Joni liking living with her parents, what?! I'm so grown up and they realize this to the extent that we (basically) don't argue and don't get in each other's way. It's pretty nice. And above all else, I'm appreciating Revelstoke like never before--for once I'm not in a rush to leave this town, and I'm thinking rather longingly of coming back. Since being here, I've gone to a couple meeting and stuff for the official community plan, and have run into a couple people who were like, "Too bad you're leaving, we just had this job position open up..." which rather breaks my heart, since there are some pretty sweet jobs here, and the person had a lot to do with hiring. Oh well, gotta get on that plane on October 11!
My graduation from SFU has all been worked out, thank goodness. I waited a little too long to transfer my exchange credits and did it rather last minute this summer (really, would I have done it any other way?), and ran into a little problem of expecting to get 11 credits instead of 10--the class that Luke and I took together got bumped up to a 4 credit class just after I left, and he actually got 4 credits for it instead of 3, so I assumed that I could do the same--alas, no. So there I was, stuck at 119 credits, not going to walk across the stage, with my advisor telling me to take a 1 credit directed study to make up the last one. Thank goodness I remembered that I could transfer the French immersion program I did for 5 weeks back in 2004 for an extra 3 credits. And thank goodness I was at SFU for a day dropping Luke off to fly back to Australia to talk to the right people in person to find out what to do. The only remaining glitch (and this one's just ironic, I just don't care anymore) is that I'm graduating with a BA majoring in Communication and minoring in English; my extended minor didn't work out because my English class from exchange transfered as a 300-level instead of a 200-level, meaning I'm one 200-level class short, one 300-level over the requirements for an English extended minor from SFU. You've gotta be kidding me, right? At this point I don't care to argue, frankly.
Luke's in Australia and, I think, enjoying bumming around at his parents' place, too. I dropped him off on Sept. 12th for him to take the Greyhound to San Francisco (it was $88 instead of $350 to fly, even if it did take 27 hours). He then flew home, and is staying at his parents' new condo in Narrabeen, just a couple blocks away from where we once had sex on the beach. Hehe. We bought a truly stunning bed off of eBay Australia about a week ago, I guess--we were looking at some of the Ikea ones available (being able to see what we liked in Vancouver and then being able buy it in Sydney a bonus, as what we did with our mattress), but nothing was really catching on... they were all okay beds in terms of quality and price, but just nothing I was that excited about spending $400 on, you know? So, Luke sent me the eBay link for beds, and I found this beautiful piece, the bidding at $66.
Isn't it gorgeous?! So obviously we got it, though the bidding went up to $250 at the last minute, but that's still a pretty sweet deal, considering the bed is from a good quality Australian brand and probably cost $1200 new. And it was cheaper than anything we wanted from Ikea, so it ended up being win-win! Luke picked it up and has set it up in our place already.
I am so freakin' excited for our apartment in Australia. This is the first time that I'll be in my very own place, not in residence, and the three of us actually want to live together and do things like share groceries and make dinner for each other and stuff. We have a big fridge and no one else's food in it. The furniture is ours, we can keep what we want and get rid of what we want, decorate it how we want, and I'll actually be around long enough to maybe put some holes in a wall to put up shelves, or hang some pictures, or whatever. I got out a book from the library called Simple Home Solutions, and belatedly realized it's from Martha Stewart Living, but it's got some pretty fantastic and simple ideas for little solutions... like how to freeze a jar of tomato paste so you can cut off a tablespoon at a time instead of opening and having to chuck a whole can. Or how to make your own little envelope storage folders. Or whatever. Apparently I really get off on this stuff? Anyway, I'm pretty pumped. I did, however, realize the other day that my extreme excitement about this apartment is due to the fact that it's kinda the only definite, good thing that I know will happen--as for finding a job, making new friends, and totally rebuilding my life from scratch, that's pretty stressful and I'd rather not focus on it. So, yay, awesome apartment!
Okiedoke, there's more but I want a cup of coffee, and I've gotta save something for another post, right? :) Miss you guys!