The Abandoned Suitcase Bomb Scare

Last night was a very amusing night at my apartment complex. A combination of boredom, over caution, and over empowerment of security guards, caused my complex to have a "bomb " scare. Now before I tell this story from my funny point of view realise that I think bombs are very serious and very scary, however, this situation was not serious or scary, even though the security guards sure seemed to think so. It is mid-semester in the land down under, and for my complex that means new students moving in, and moving out. Well obviously in a moving quest someone left their suitcase out in the courtyard, which triggered a "bomb" scare. Let me note that there is an anti-terrorism campaign here similar to the states, "If you see something, say something," and some people are obviously taking this a wee bit too serious.

I heard yelling last night from the security guards, saying "YOU CAN'T COME THROUGH HERE STAY AWAY." Of course having nosey neighbor syndrome I had to go snoop it out, (hey you can't blame me, I have fond memories of spying on our creepy neighbors down the road with my Dad and a pair of binoculars, does that make us creepy neighbors...?) Regardless, I went outside and found that the security guards had made a human barrier around the suitcase and were not letting anyone near it and they said they had called the bomb squad(let me also note that this was a very large suitcase and they were only standing about 20 feet away from it...if it indeed were a bomb, that would not have been a good idea, because it would have been a big one to fit in there.) This silly red suit case sat there inconspicuously, and no one could seem to understand why they could not go near it, but the security guards were SERIOUS. After several minutes laughing at the dramatics of the guards and wishing for the person to which the suitcase belonged to realise it was missing and come collect it in an embarrassed manner, the cops showed up. As the cops approached the threat I could tell from their body language they really couldn't believe they had been called to a "bomb" scare for a suitcase. The walked up to it, examined it with flashlights and then one shrugged at the other and opened it up. (Ohhhh the suspense was killing me, was it going to be a bomb, drugs, a puppy?!) Inside the suitcase the cops found a very threatening pillow and some shoes (I suppose the stilettos could have taken an eye out if hurled directly at the face, but they were going no where just sitting in the suitcase by the stairs.) At this point I was trying to control my hysterical laughter with one of my roommates. The "bomb" aka red suitcase was then escorted into the building as the security guards assured themselves they had done the right thing by patting each other on the back and saying, "we did the right thing, we did the right thing."

I guess the moral of the story is better safe than sorry and beware of red suitcases. If nothing else it surely made my night and I am sure their night much more exciting.

I Graduated Hogwarts

It has been a long and difficult journey, between my broomstick lessons, having Snape give me a hard time in potions, and constantly battling Aragog to keep his spider army men away from me at times I thought I would never make it. Well boo on you Harry Potter villains I did it!

Louise and I walked these hallowed halls for a year in hopes of completing our wizardry tests and becoming real witches. Who knew with all this muggle blood we would be able to do it. On this day of graduation we were finally able to show ourselves in our true attire and form, because on this day were were officially magical.

On graduation day Louise and I battled our academic attire to try and make the hoods stay on, we battled the flapping robes, and we battled the hordes of family members taking pictures of the grads. Thank goodness for Louise, we had each other to share the moment, so instead of having a little pity party for ourselves, we made light of the situation and started taking pictures of the picture takers. There was one crazed family member who kept running into the professional photographers shot just so she could get the right angle. Taking the one big photo of all the grads was similar to herding kittens.

After the photos, pastries and tea it was time for some real graduation fun. I mean come on those outfits were practically begging for play time. I was already pretending to be Harry Potter, (but I forgot my wand, broomstick, and lightening scar,) regardless I was still try pretending. But then as I am sure you can imagine the impressions continued first I was Dracula...

"I vant to suck your blooood."

And Louise was Superman!

And then I was Batman..."Dun nun nun nun nun nun BATMAN!"

And of course Louise made an appearance as her true self...LORD VOLDEMORT! (Oh no! I said the name that must not be said, I hope she doesn't come and find me.

On a more serious note than all of the playing around (even though that was super awesome,) Louise and I came, we saw, we concurred. I could not have done this without the support of my awesome family and friends and especially without Louise to read my essays, and go to class with me and always be there. No matter what people say Lord Voldemort is not bad, she is very very good and I hope she shakes that Slytherin house and comes and joins Gryffindor with me.

So HOOOORAYYYY!!!! (Or in the crazy spelling of Dutch sounds, in honour of Louise Hoooraiiiiii! or something like that.)

p.s.
Hats off to all of my supporters, without the love and support of family and friends achievements like this would mean nothing. I am very lucky to have you all.

The Taste of Independence

Did you know that a good 'ol PB&J is not well known, and in fact it often brings about a reaction to other cultures that would be similar to suggesting a typical American to eat fried cow brain (I don't even know if that is a dish, but hey I got the reaction out of you that I wanted didn't I?) I only recently found out that around the world peanut butter and jelly do not go together like, well as we would say peanut butter and jelly. I have discovered two reasons behind this.

1. This is simple, it is merely because no one has tried it, and the strange and new sound of sweet and savoury together does not appeal to most non-Americans.

2. Terminology. In Australia specifically when peanut butter and jelly is mentioned, they do not think of some nice soft bread with a layer of peanut butter and a layer of sweet smooth jelly or jam spread between. Nope, here jelly is what we call Jell-O. So when we say we want a PB&J they likely get the picture of a big lime green Jell-O mold filled with peanut butter, even I am grossed out by that.

Therefore, I have set out to right these two wrongs and bring PB&J's to the world over, one office at a time. Being the token American at my office (my bosses are American too, but as I am not the boss, I am an easier target,) I can catch a lot of flack about my accent, and curious questions. For the most part they are very innocent and curious and actually want to learn the ways of America. So upon educating them about the correct PB&J I was met with a curious fascination. In honour of the 4th of July, my office mates wanted to help me celebrate so they brought in American treats such as Oreos and bagels. I brought in the supplies for PB&J. After a little futile resistance I was able to talk a few people into trying my "strange" concoction. To their surprise, (not mine) they actually liked it! So go America and go PB&J, this sweet savoury phenomenon will be sweeping the world soon (don't even think about trying to ride on the coat tails of my success Vegemite...that is not the same thing at all.)

U.S.A. Day in Oz

HAPPY LATE 4TH!!!!!

Cassi and I had our home on our sleeves on the Fourth (well actually our shirts, but hey we tried.) As we were longing for some American BBQ and fireworks we decided to take matters into our own hands. Cassi's BF(not best friend, that is me, and the correct abbreviation would be BFF-Best Friends Forever, I did not actually get permission from her to call myself that in relation to her so shhhh, don't tell her I don't want to get my feelings hurt when I find out this is not true,) anyways, her boyfriend(for those of you her are not/do not have the mentality of a 14 year old texter,) was supposed to bring us USA t-shirts from Walmart. How much more American could we get, supporting Walmart and the USA (please no-one mention the fact that on the inside of these shirts the likely hood of a tag stating they were made in China, that would ruin the whole purpose of this post so forget I mentioned it.) However, to all of our misfortune, his domestic flight was delayed causing him to miss his flight to Sydney for the 4th...so as they say, "when times are tough the tough get going." Well we didn't exactly get going, it was more like I had a major headache and couldn't sleep so I got crafty, so in this case, "when times are inconvenienced the sleepless get crafty." We had to improvise a little makeshift American spirit, because we wanted to show this country how proud we were. So.....

Cassi painted her nails in honour of the U.S. of A! Red and blue with white stars, go America!

And I handcrafted us American flags from random scraps to pin to our most patriotic coloured clothing. (Take that Walmart, not made in China, this was made by an American.)

And we set out to have a good 'ol fashion American BBQ using the wonderful BBQ my Dad got me for Christmas. (Caution do not stare at food pictures for too long, salivation may occur...too bad I don't have a bell, then I could train you like Pavlov's dogs, and no that is not an insult, merely a science reference.)

We had yummy burgers mmmmmmmmm beef.

And potato salad yummmmm.

And the American-ness of the next treat is up for debate however, they usually make an appearance at BBQ's so I made some yummy deviled eggs just like my Mama makes 'em.

We had a wonderful 4th because we have spirit (yes we do! we have spirit how 'bout you?!) This was even in spite of the fact that were were missing our small towns, the summer air and our families, but at least we had each other, oh yeah and yummy food. I hope everyone of yesterday enjoyed their holiday weekend and I look forward to spending the next one with you.

Drive on the Left?

Well as I have told you I drove The Great Ocean Road, and yes I really drove. For all of you who are concerned about my ability to stay on the correct side of the road being a right hand side driver as well as my issues with remembering what country I am in, you need not worry. Australia took care of that problem for me by putting up signs all along the road reminding me "drive on left in Australia." See see, on the left:

This made me laugh because obviously there were enough incidents with foreigners driving on the wrong side of the road that the government deemed it necessary to re-orient people to where they were. My favourite part is that the sign actually says, "in Australia." As if they are afraid someone might go home and then sue them for driving on the wrong side of the road because the sign did not clearly explain that it was in Australia specifically. I also enjoyed this because it is helpful to those who have short term memory loss (or long term depending on how long you have been in Australia,) every time you read the sign you are reminded where you are. Who am I, where am I, why am I driving. Maybe the government should be more concerned with keeping such disoriented people off the roads rather than just posting up signs...

Hook Turns?

A little more on the subject of the Melbin (Melbourne) trip, but more in the ways of crazy Australian driving and street signs. Let me introduce you to the hook turn:

No this is not a driving maneuver executed by Captain Hook, however, I think that would almost make more sense than the real explanation. The streets of Melbourne seem to be more peaceful than Sydney: they are significantly wider, void of potholes, straight, and not to mention the drivers seem more at ease, or at least less aggressive. However, despite the lack of road rage, honking horns, and race car driving their streets are made complicated to navigate due to their tram system. Down the center of the streets in Melbin they have tram lines, which greatly complicates the simple driving task of completing a right hand turn(for the right hand side drivers this is the equivalent of a left hand turn.) These trams equal a lack of right hand turn lanes, because that is where they run. To avoid motorists from being squished from oncoming trams they have devised the hook turn. This requires you to pull the very outside left lane (or equivalent right lane,) to wait to make your turn, then you must execute the turn facing traffic and trams from both directions. If you are still confused, I recommend building a model, you can make it more realistic by adding nerves, unsure driving directions, and the pressure of turning traffic lights.

I hope you enjoy that driving food for thought and get ready for the next tidbit about driving on The Great Ocean Road, coming to a Blog near you soon (aka-this one and directly after this blog.)

The GRRRRRREAT Ocean Road

This weekend I went to The Great Ocean Road and it was A-mazing. Flew into Melbourne....everyone says Melbourne is great, it was a nice city, but just a city. The little towns along the way, the road, and the scenery were absolutely wonderful and fantastic, and, and, and, I wanna go back right now! (Whew let me catch my breath, I got a little too excited there.)

OK Melbourne first. For all you non-Aussies, allow me to clarify something about the pronunciation of this city. Yes, yes I know that it seems as if it would be pronounced mel-born, due to the spelling. But nooooooo silly Aussies make fun of you if you pronounce it as it is spelled. Plus they over exaggerate it so that the impersonation is as if I were from Texas (mel-bOURRRRN,) but I digress. So if you ever talk about this city don't pronounce all the letters just simply say Mel-bin. I think that originally they spelled the city as Melbin, and so they pronounce it that way, but some joker had a great idea, "hey guys you wanna know how we can mess with tourists, lets make the spellings of our cities more complicated and then make fun of the foreigners when they try to pronounce the names." Real funny jokester, reallll funny.

Here is Melbin, see it looks like pretty much any other city, big buildings, skylines, people....

OK enough about Melbin the city, lets move onto the Great Ocean Road, I now know why they called it the Great Ocean Road and not the Good Ocean Road. It is more than good it's GRRRREEAAAT, just like Frosted Flakes (an American cereal commercial reference for the non-yanks, YouTube Tony the Tiger if you are curious.) The road winds along the stunning coast for several hundred kilometers. The first leg was done mainly at night, so the coast was not visible besides the moon shining on the water.....BUT I DID SEE A KOALA! This little guy wandered across the road and then was confused when he couldn't get any further, sorry buddy no eucalyptus leaves for you. On a side note I have also after close observation of this creature decided that Disney stole the idea for Stitch from a Koala.

Along the road there were so many beaches, so of course I had to indulge my childish impulses and run along the beach and let the water chase me. This is Bells Beach, the beach featured in the motion picture Point Break(which I have not actually seen, because I never see movies, but this is what I have been told.)

After driving on the windy roads for several hours, vrooom vrooom vroom, finally there was victory!(And yes I actually did drive, it was fun, windy roads, beautiful scenery, however the pathetic part is that I have not driven in so long that my arms were sore for the next two days....) The 12 Apostles! Soooo beautiful.

By the way it was very windy......just in case you couldn't tell.

More Apostles, the water surrounding them is a breath taking colour. It was also so windy that as the waves would break mist would fly off the waves and create little rainbows...it was simply stunning. (Hey Granny I think you should paint this for me!)

The little towns along the way were adorable, with hotels that were actually houses, views of the water, and little cafes using ingredients grown and made locally. If you are ever in the Southern Hemisphere, the Great Ocean Road is a must for both windy road enthusiasts(p.s. expect more posts regarding driving), scenery enthusiasts, or quaint little town enthusiasts. I wanna go back right now! OK well I am off to pout about not being there anymore I hope you are having a wonderful yesterday or today!