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You know people say it's impossible to touch your elbow with your tongue?
And then they say that 70 % of people who read the above statement will go off and try it?
I have been sitting here for hours pretending to study for my micro final which is now in... 2 hours, extremely unmotivated to study.
But guess what? I can touch my tongue to my elbow!
Pretty legit, right?
But only on my left side.
How could he know?
I look at him with my head lowered, lips parted,
through my eyelashes caked with blue glitter.
My heart thunders while his stops.
How could he know?
I remember.
I can feel his skin pressed against mine, moist where we've been lying entwined for too long.
I can feel his breath playing over the skin at the base of my neck,
his hand thrown carelessly over the curve in my spine.
He always sleeps, after.
My hair drapes over my face,
and I move slowly to tuck a lock behind my ear.
The movement disturbs him ever so slightly, and he opens his eyes.
Until next time.
Dream: Ron, Sean, Andie, Jesse, myself. Walking along a fairly secluded river, very green and kinda soggy. We pass a group of people that are dismantling a car, salvaging parts. Carry on walking, get to a bend in the river, find something that looks like a giant dumpster. This is apparently what we were looking for. Mike is already there, and he and Ron start going through the stuff in this container, pulling out what we want. Most of the stuff seems to be old, but pre-packaged, food. Lots of bread. They pull out loaf after loaf of pre-packaged bread, discard some loaves that are yucky, and throw the good ones to myself and Sean. Jesse and Andie have scrabbled around finding wooden planks and something we can use for wheels, and have erected a rudimentary transport system for the bread. Sean and I stack the loaves on this wheely thing, and we all start to walk the bread back up the river until we get into town. Scene change: Ron has short hair, but a rat tail thing in the back that's up like a ponytail. We are in the city, trying to get into a bar to get a drink, but we spent too much time with the bread and all the bars are closed. Our last option is to go to a bar where Ron works, he thinks he may be able to get us in tha back. We go there with the bread, but the lady is just finishing cleaning up the place and won't let us in. End.
Tasmania: Alyssa is going to Tasmania!! Jesse and I have our last final on December 1, and we are flying from Sydney to Hobart, Tasmania on December 2. We'll be there for a week, and are going to rent a car and just travel around and see all there is to see! Plane back is December 9. Round trip ticket = $150. Not too shabby, eh?
Party: Went to a party! I don't do this often, as everyone knows. Kinda lame that way. But last night was a pirate themed goodbye party for all the international students. Tickets were $10, and you get two 'free' drinks. Manuel, Jesse, Silke and myself wandered around Sydney for a while, had a pizza and a bottle of wine, nice views of Darling Harbour and the opera house. Showed up at the party place a couple of hours late, in time for the real party to start. We were there from about 10 til about 2, when the last bus left for home. Soooo much fun! Blaring music and dancing til your feet hurt. And lots of guys and girls that don't really know each other practically getting it on on the dance floor. I still do not favor beer, so happily occupied myself with vodka and cranberry and vodka and lime. I wore a tie to the party (I was a well dressed pirate), and it was used as a hook for people to grab me with an pull me around. I had lots of different dancing partners, and names weren't needed because I had a string around my neck! Convenient, question mark? Our group generally consisted of the original 4 of us, the Mexican boys, Bonnie, a couple girls that remain nameless, and Patrick and Steve, the two guys from the bushwalk a couple weeks ago. It was good to see them again. Pat danced with us most of the night, and I greatly enjoyed his company. Steve, I think, enjoys being hot and takes advantage of that to go find all the ladies. I saw him a few times, and we were dancing in the general vicinity of one another. I got a thumbs up a couple times and some winks. (Guys, what does this mean??) Caught the bus home, in bed by 4 this morning. Woohoo!
Canyon: Oh man. Jealousy would ensue if I actually had pictures of this canyon. Luckily for you guys, it was a wet canyon, and I don't have dry bag, so I couldn't take my camera. Michael, Al, Martina and I went to Rocky Creek canyon last week. It was a 6 hour slog through a sandstone canyon filled with freezing water. No rope work, but the water was deep enough that we were swimming in some parts. A couple of places the only way down was to stand on some rocks and hurl yourself off the rocks into the pool below (hoping it's deep enough...) The sides of the slot canyon part were overgrown with ferns and greenery of all sorts, and the light filtered down from the top... it was one of the funnest things I've ever done. The girls had a good time, I think. They were a little unprepared for the physically demanding aspects of the trip. Martina fell through some deadwood at one stage, and got all scraped up. She later did a faceplant into the dirt and wore a mask the rest of the journey. Al had bad luck with her shins, and managed to find all of the fallen logs in the water when we were swimming by running into them. We stopped for lunch a the end of the canyon proper, and paused for a bite to eat before commencing with the climb out of the canyon. The first bit of the climb out was about 1 km long patch of steep as hell ground, so overgrown you really couldn't see anything. Michael told us the start for this climb was over this 5 foot boulder, cause everything else was too crowded. So the girls and I moved over to this boulder and were trying to figure out how to get up it, cause there's no handholds or footholds, and the start is actually from about a foot of water. Al and Martina give half-hearted attempts, and then stand back, intimidated. Not to be undone, I actually manage to get my foot on the top of this boulder. My leg is about on the same level with my neck, now. But there is nothing to grab onto to pull myself over the top, so I lean over and try use my busom as a point of contact for hauling my rear onto this rock. (Sorry, minimally graphic for the uninitiated.) It actually works. Yay for being extremely flexible an having the chest to perform this amazing acrobatic feat! By this point, the girls are laughing ridiculously in the tone of laughter that says 'like hell I'm gonna be able to do that!'. Michael is standing back laughing in general because he lied! After watching me spend 10 minutes doing this, and getting stuck, and making progress an inch at a time, he leads the girls around the bend where they manage to scrabble up a bank under some trees. It was during this episode that I pulled a hamstring. Soreness ensued for several days. I am ok now. Thanks for asking.
Love!
Don't you love it when you are so busy that you don't have time to check your email? Especially when being that busy does not include homework? I just had my first weekend like that. Yay!
Friday night we went to a Black Seeds concert. These guys are a reggae band, which normally I wouldn't be into enough to go to a concert, but Jesse said they were awesome, so 7 of us ended up going all on her word. It was Jesse and myself, Wiebke, Bonnie, Silke, Manuel and Alex. Germany, the States, Korea, Mexico, and Spain all represented in a group of 7. The best part of the evening, though, was trying to understand everyone else's English. For example, Bonnie, from Korea, had difficulty understanding Alex's Mexican-Spanish accent. Lots of fun trying to understand one another. The concert was at 8 at the Metro Theatre in downtown Sydney, and didn't get out til like 2 am. There were 8 guys in the band, and their instruments included things like a trombone, trumpet, sax, and xylophone. Pretty awesome.
That next morning I got up by 6 to go catch a train to Katoomba, in the Blue Mountains, to do the Echo Point to Ruined Castle bushwalk. We arrived about 10.30 at our destination and began a 14 km bushwalk through the valley under the Three Sisters. The views on this hike were some of the most amazing sights I've ever seen. It was stunning. The terrain varied, from rocky outcroppings we had to hop over, to completely encompassing jungle-type ferns with aerial roots we could swing on. Who is we?? Again, we ended up with a group of 7. Matt, the only one from Sydney, and the leader of the bushwalk club on campus. Audrey, from Switzerland, only other girl on the bushwalk, code name: Kookaburra. Alain, the born-in-Germany-of-Welsh-decent-raised-in-the-UK-now-lives-in-Sydney guy, who has circus training and can unicycle and juggle and all that cool stuff. Code name: Mr. Itchy Beard. Andrew, from Colorado(!!!), lives in my apartment complex, code name: Mountain Sheep. Patrick, also from Colorado (!!!), who was really really awesome and has the unfortunate code name of Toilet Guy. Steve, from Pittsburgh, who has amazing taste in clothes and is possessed of a pair of the most blue eyes I've ever seen. And me, from Colorado, good ice-breaker for groups of people who have never met one another before. Code name: mother, due to a misunderstanding during initial conversations on the train. I apparently have 60 kids.
So, that was us. We got on really well, and stopped for lunch atop a spot in the middle of the park called Ruined Castle. Relatively difficult to get to, but once you're at the top...
You can see everything, going every direction. You can see for miles, off to the end of the valley. Pics on fb, again. It was an amazing spot, and one I would like to take certain people to if they ever make it out here to visit...
We all fell asleep on the train ride back, and it was nearly 8 by the time we rolled back into town.
That night was a party at a friend's house just across the street. Rather than a shower and sleep, which I really wanted, I headed off to this party to go say hello and hang out with people and see about a drink. Also, perhaps, because Steve and Patrick were supposed to be stopping by...
Anyway, while I was there with Hayley and Liz and Jaz, I actually drank a beer! The whole thing! Anyone who knows me realizes what a feat this is for me.
Went to sleep relatively sober. The others went downtown to a bar, I think, but I was exhausted and wimped out.
Woke up Sunday morning only to head out again, this time to Lane Cove for a birthday party for one Diesel James. Got to see Annette and Les, and all the James's. AJ found a bike for me, which is super exciting, cause now I can transport myself around Sydney without having to rely solely on the bus transportation system.
Stayed in Lane Cove Sunday night cause I worked for Helen all day Monday, from 8-6. Let's just say I have a newfound respect for people who watch babies all day, every day. I was shattered after a 10 hour shift! Stayed the night again with Les and Annette, and had the most amazing food thing called Fisherman's Pie. Wow.
Anyway, kinda short tale of Alyssa's fun-ness over the last few days, but honestly, my inspiration is kinda lacking tonight. Back to classes today, already have more work. I just wanted to record this stuff before I got too distracted with class again.
Only 4 weeks left in the semester! Woohoo!
Yay for Spring Break!!
Today, Monday, is technically the first day day of my two week mid-semester break. Unfortunately, I do not really get a semester break because I am in two online courses, which means I have to study and go to class and have tests over the next two weeks. This does not, however, deter me from having fun where I can.
Enter one Jessica Kobbe. I met Jessica (Jesse) in my bioethics course. We have the same sounding last name, and that was a great conversation starter. She is from Germany. Recently, we had an assignment due for bioethics, and she was discussing with the professor the possibility of an extension because she was having difficulty with the language in the technical papers. Me, being the kind-hearted soul that I am, stuck around after class and offered to help her with her paper and the articles she had to read for it. We set up to meet the following day, Saturday, at her flat in North Strathfield. Saturday morning found me ventruting forth into the unknown... this was my first train ride in Australia. Got a little lost trying to find the place, but with the help of our trusty mobile phones, we got me there with minimal difficulty. Saturday afternoon we spent working on her paper and bonding. You know how sometimes you meet people and the personalities click? You just bond instantaneously and suddenly find yourself richer in good friends? That is Jesse and me. So besides finishing the content of her essay, we spent a fair amount of the afternoon and evening discussing girlie things, and generally getting to know each other better. Siblings, food, plans, hot boys... you know. Girlie things. It eventually got very late, and Jesse and her flatmate, Shirley, invited me to stay the evening. So I happily threw myself onto the ground and slept with great contentment until about 5 in the morning.
It had come to our attention during the previous evening that we had an opportunity to go to Canberra, the nation's capital. So, at 5 in the morning on Sunday, Jesse and I got ourselves out of bed and began the long drive south. Enter now a new member of our journey, Andy. Andy is a friend of Jesse's that she lived with for a brief period of time. Things did not work out for her to live there, so she moved to a new place with Shirley. Anyway, Andy is driving, Jesse's in the passenger seat, I am in the back. We drive for approximately 4 hours, and arrive in Canberra.
Our first stop in Canberra is at the Floriade. The Floriade is a a festival of flowers, only found in Canberra, and only on for about a month in the spring when the tulips are blooming. It took us several hours to walk around this park, and there were flowers everyewhere. Mostly tulips, but also poppies, iris, and some other pretty, nice smelling, colorful flowers. (Anyone interested, there are pictures on fb.)
After the Floriade, we were hungry, so we drove around until we found Canberra's main shopping center and stopped for a bite to eat (fish and chips!!). We went past the parliment building, but it was not even worthy of a picture. Good to see, but just to be able to say 'I've been there'. Not really very exciting at all. The national museum was kinda crowded, so we skipped that, but we saw a very nice fountain in central park.
Our next main stop was at a place called Black Mountain. The area was designed as a scenic tourist-y spot, so it's not really a proper mountain, but the area affords a nice view of Canberra and the surrounding country. At the top of the 'mountain', there is a tower steeple thing that you can pay to go inside and have even better views, but we decided that was kind of silly and decided to take a hike around the 'mountain' instead. (Again, see associated pictures of Black Mountain hike on fb.) There were lots of trees, lots of lizards, and lots of very pretty parrots. Most of them were red/purple or red/green. And they came in pairs. The parrots down here either mate for the season or mate for life, I'm not sure which, but the point is whenever we saw a single parrot, there was always a second one to be found in the bush.
At the end of the hike we were sweaty and grubby and very tired, so we opted to go home. Andy dropped us off at Jesse's flat around 6, and she and I ate some more and finished her paper, which I just needed to proof read for spelling and those annoying English-isms that I don't know how English-as-a-second-language people ever learn. We finished with that at a reasonable hour, but Shirley and Jesse again invited me to stay the night, so I did. We slept for like 9 hours last night, and it was wonderful.
This was a bit more narrative than I originally intended; mostly I just wanted you guys to know that I am branching out! I have a wonderful new friend, and have visited Canberra. Yay!
So I just watched a movie. It was good, but it made me think.
It used to be that we all watched movies together, piled into someone's apartment. It used to be an afternoon of homework, with a little bit of play time sprinkled through it. Rock-climbing, frisbee, tubing. The movie nights. Then dinner would happen, and back to the grind. That was the schedule. For years, that was the way it was, night after long night. Sometimes, there was less playing (junior year classes...). Sometimes we lost a member for a bit (after school activities or anti-social-ness...).
But we were all always there, you know?
It was us. We were the the Night Crew, the Meyer Crew, the Physics Crew.
The pomegranate juice. The chair races. The light-up frisbees. The all-nighters. The tears. The homework assignments with 18 names on them. The runs to Safeway and King Soopers in the small hours of the night. Charlie and Candy Mountain, The End of the World, Ultimate Showdown, 4 Men 8 Treadmills.
So many memories, wrapped up in few years.
And now we're moving on.
I suppose that was bound to happen, but I rarely thought of it before graduation. With Mines, it's usually one day at a time.
But now we're here. We've graduated (most of us!). We made it through Mines. Even if your GPA wasn't a 3.5, we made it through Mines. That is something in and of itself.
So now what happens? We have the rest of our lives waiting for us, but I'm not sure I'm ready for the rest of my life. I got so used to having you guys there with me, to help me through the long nights and the assignments, and the tests we all thought we failed, the emotional drama that comes with life.
Being halfway around the world kinda puts things into perspective.
Truthfully, I was terrified to move to Australia. Granted, I've moved around a lot in my life; Mines was the longest time I've ever spent in one place, at one school. I've learned how to adapt, and meet new people. But leaving never bothered me so much before I met you guys. There was a big part of me that didn't want to move, that wanted to stay in CO with you guys, find a job, settle down. Travel a bit, just for fun, but stay close to home.
Because home is where you guys are, for me. It's not about where I can find a job, where I find a house. Home is where I have people that I love, and that I know love me back.
So why did I decide to leave? Partly because I've wanted this program since I was in high school. Partly because, come on, it's in Sydney! Partly because I was worried that if I stayed, I would never have the guts to move again. If I was going to move, it needed to be then. When I didn't have a house or a significant other. If I waited for a while, I might be in a relationship or have some responsibility that kept me from moving. Partly, I left to prove to myself I could. And partly, I left for you guys. That big part of me that didn't want to move, that wanted to stay with you guys? If I stayed, someone else would have been in the same position in a few years' time. One of us needed to go. I decided I had the opportunity, so I would be the first one to boot myself out the door.
So it was scary to move down here. It's still scary, and I've been here for almost two months. Don't get me wrong, Australia is pretty much amazing. I'm not in hurry to leave, there's way too much to do.
I guess I just wanted to let you guys know that I love you. Life moves on, and we're all going to go our ways and do our own things. And they'll be great, and we'll meet new people and have a myriad of new experiences. But you guys will always be there. And I'll always be there for you.
A toast! (We're not together, so use your imagination, here... the next time you have a drink, whether together or individually, raise your glasses!)
To the many years behind us, and the many more ahead of us!
