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.