Miss Shivi

Internship [part 2]

2011-08-12T09:38:00.000+08:00

I was so nervous to begin my little interning experience at the local news station. I was greeted by the news anchor Arturo Santiago who showed me the broadcasting room where he said I would later use the teleprompter(you know, the little box the news anchors read their scripts off). I was quickly shown how to use this little dial that makes the words keep moving forward(or backwards if you go too fast!) and then told I wouldn't be needed until 5pm when the first evening news show started. I had organised with Arturo to come in every Thursday and Friday during summer at 4pm. I wondered what I would do until 5pm and wandered round til I found the main newsroom but I couldn't find Arturo at first and I just stood there super awkwardly whilst everyone else took phone calls, discussed news stories and worked at their computers. Luckily I found Arturo who said I could just sit at the assignment desk with this young guy, Tom. The assignment desk was a raised 'work station' at the back of the room and is where they had all these police radios. Tom was super friendly to me, even though he looked really stressed out. He received the breaking news first and was to assign new stories to different people at the studio. He took phone calls, listened to the radios(which were constantly rabbiting on; half the time I could barely understand what was said although I did catch an alert of a possible suicide attempt which was rather intriguing), alerted everyone else in the room of breaking news updates and wrote articles for KCOY's website. He was telling me you basically have to be A.D.D. to do his job which was very true. You have to be able to divide your focus between various tasks, something I didn't envy. I just sat next to him for most of the time whilst reading the latest articles on the website and he asked me various questions about my exchange in the US. He told me he was from Philadelphia and that the people over there are really friendly but he didn't want to move back there as vacationing there made it that much more special. I wanted to ask him more about why he moved to California but he was in the middle of writing articles and such. I mean I wanted to be more social but I didn't want to disturb him either. Then at 5pm, it was the first evening news show of the night and Arturo was like 'Are you ready, Shivi?' and told me to go back to the broadcasting room. I didn't really think I would be using the teleprompter as I was barely shown how to use it but that's exactly what they wanted me to do. My heart was beating so fast. I mean, it was live television and the teleprompter is what the anchors rely on. At the beginning it was really hard to control it but after a while I got used to each anchor's speed at which they speak. Each time it was a commercial break I had to stretch my hand and roll my eyes as I had to be so focused and still during the half hour which went by so quickly. Then in my break before the next show I went back up to the assignment desk and this blonde-haired girl came up to me and asked if I was interning. Turns out she's a foreign exchange student too but on a college program and she's from Germany. She even knew one of the German exchange student from my group too! She was so friendly and was telling me that she's interning 6 days a week during the summer and this was her second week at KCOY. I told her I was doing the teleprompting and I think she was a tad jealous as she said she'd never got to do it before so she came and watched me for the 6pm show. I found out I was to do 3 shows each day so I finished up at 7:30pm. I felt really empowered by the end of the day as I really had to come out of my shell and interact with all these adults. I was telling my host sister that during my last year of high school back in Australia I didn't have many opportunities for meeting new people or speaking to adults so I was really proud I was able to cope.

I'll let you know how the second and last day of my internship went in my next post; Internship [part 3].

Internship [part 1]

2011-08-02T05:46:00.001+08:00

Let me tell you about an event in my life recently that has passed much sooner than I had hoped.

I wanted to do something this summer that was some form of work, that would get me out of the house. Ideally I wanted to get a job to earn some extra cash but because of my visa I can't do any paid work. I can do 'cash-in-hand' jobs such as babysitting but it's pretty unlikely to find work in that area. Believe me I tried, I stuck up flyers all around where my old host family lived and nothing came of it.

I was reading online about how many ex-seniors do summer internships in their summer break before starting college to get some extra experience to help them with college and getting jobs later on in life. Usually with internships you work for free or sometimes you may get paid a very small wage. So I thought that would be perfect to do in my summer holidays as I needed some sort of work I could do because I didn't want to feel purposeless or bored. Plus I thought it would be great to experience a real work environment as when I got back to Australia I'm going to have to apply for a part-time job.

My previous host sister actually works as a news anchor on the local morning news show as part of the KCOY news station and my old host mom had suggested maybe I could do an internship there during the summer and although we talked to my host sister about it nothing ever came of it. Then after moving to my current host family and when I revisited the idea of interning I decided that just because I no longer had a contact within the company didn't mean I couldn't try to look into it myself. So I found the KCOY website and sent a message to one of the contact emails listed on the site. Honestly, I doubted I would get a response but I did. I had a reply from the evening news anchor! We arranged a meeting where he told me I would be job shadowing. Basically it's just a simpler version of an internship. Apparently I had missed the deadline to apply for internships so I was fortunate that they were still trying to accommodate me. I think perhaps with an internship there you would have been paid. The news anchor, Arturo told me that I would be helping with various things such as editing, writing news articles, working the cameras and the teleprompter.

I'll let you know how it all went down once I started working there in my next post- Internship [part 2].

The Den.

2011-07-24T10:32:00.000+08:00

One of the things I miss about being with my previous host family is my bedroom there. It was pretty close to my 'ideal' bedroom. I had a double bed, a beautiful wood chest of drawers with pastel-coloured knobs and a pale golden-yellow wall to die for. I would have liked more storage though as my room started to pile up with junk every now and then but when it was tidy, it was a gem and I'd decorated the walls with these butterfly decals and momentos I'd collected from my time in the US. It had so much warmth and character to it. Enjoy.

News article on school track team

My first pennant! I love it to death!

My wardrobe, rubbish bin, recycling bin, mickey hat and statue of liberty head accessory

Acquiring A Sister

2011-07-17T04:21:00.000+08:00

Several weeks back I said 'adios' to my dear friend and exchange sister, Hannah Mathis. She's from Austria(something that always confused people during introductions being that I'm from a very similarly named country) and was a fellow exchange student I lived with for 6 months with my old host family. She was honestly my rock. People always thought we were sisters. We are, just not biologically. Hannah was a very intelligent individual and her english was pretty good right from the start but it improved in leaps and bounds during the course of her half-year stay. Overall we were pretty different people. Hannah is sophisticated, trendy, polite and caring. I'm more....rough around the edges. She's a year younger than me but probably more mature. She put up with all my craziness(like listening to my numerous rants and watching me pose in front of all the mirrors in our house) and my lazy/messy-ness.

But we were very similar at the same time too- we loved all things girly like makeup and fashion. Shared a love of cooking and food and we both thoroughly enjoyed our Desperate Housewives & Keeping Up With The Kardashians marathons. Towards the end of the six months she spent in the US we started to finish each other's sentences and even laughed at the same time.

The sign I made Hannah for the airport

Finally the day came that Hannah was to go back to Austria and I wondered what school would be like without her by my side and what home life would be without someone in the same situation as me, to chat to. I felt really happy for Hannah as I knew she was ready to go home and excited for life back in Austria. I was kind of jealous to be honest as I, myself felt ready to go back too. I didn't cry when she walked out of the tiny little airport to hop on the plane. I'll admit I did get a tad teary the next day when I saw her room void of all her belongings and replaced with children's games and toys(as the room was previously intended for my hostmom's granddaughters).

Although we're no longer in the same country, we're still tied together. We're sisters now and forever. And I've told Hannah that she's coming to my wedding- there's no way she's getting rid of me!

Hannah's farewell card

4th of July Weekend

2011-07-08T02:53:00.000+08:00

Saturday:

Myself, my host sister, host mother and her boyfriend went to a wedding of a family friends'. I realised it was my first actual wedding(I once went to a vow renewal ceremony) that I've attended. My host mom was quite suprised when they get invited to at least two a year. It was a very traditional ceremony held in a catholic church with a very bold colour pallet of hot pink with the secondary colour being bright lime green. Not what I would choose but I was told it represented the bride perfectly- a very loud and out there woman, full of life. I was absolutely ravenous at the reception waiting for the food to arrive and dove right into the bread basket. Even though I'm not a dessert fan I was fond of the chocolate cake(not the icing or fillings though) and so my host sister, Tiffany and I went round and nabbed a couple more plates of cake from those who had vacated to the dance floor. Stuffed to the brim, Tiffany and I later went and danced off some of our calories and as per grad nite I really went crazy by the end of the night, most obvious when they put on the slow songs....I kid you not.

Sunday:

I didn't eat a single meal at home. We had breakfast at this award-winning American diner/cafe. The breakfast menu items such as 'biscuits and gravy' as well as 'pork ribs and eggs' scared me into ordering a lunch item- a chicken/pesto/sun-dried tomato wrap. We went to the beach later on in the day which was so so foggy!

Monday:

My older host brother, Edi likes to make weird faces

My hostmom, Diana and her boyfriend, Jesse

It really was a team effort to get all the food ready for 4th of July as there were eight of us all up that went. My host mom's boyfriend loaded up the esky, my host mom sliced up the salad items and everyone loaded stuff into the cards including tables and more than eight chairs(I think we had 11....). We went up to a little beach shopping strip where people hiring bikes that were all decked out in 4th of July gear. USA flags were everywhere. It was very different to Australia day. People are so proud of their country here. Even though we ended up being way too far away from the actual fireworks that night and the water at the beach was so cold is made my feet numb I think everyone could agree it was a brilliant day spent with close family and friends.

Those are some brave men, the water was so cold my feet were numb!

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Gone Hiking.

2011-07-07T07:31:00.001+08:00

Just before I changed host families I was invited to go on a hike by some friends from school. It's quite refreshing for a group of teenagers to suggest such a thing but then again I didn't go with your average group of teen gang-bangers. I went with my wonderful exchange buddies, Hannah(the Austrian) and Ngan(the Vietnam) plus four other students from my school who all got numerous cords, badges, awards,etc at senior honors night and were all valedictorians and whatnot.

If you're up in the Central Coast of CA, perhaps you've heard of Point Sal? Anyway, I hadn't- but we hiked it. I really had no idea what I was in for, especially since I'd never been hiking before. Nevertheless I equipped myself with aerosol sunscreen and sunnies and managed to barely get sunburnt. My ears and eyelids(?!) were a tad red but I was pleased since I was the palest kid and the others got redder.

The two guys in our group were seasoned hiking pros and led the way. Of course our first obstacle was a ginormous hill which left my legs aching(akin to the feeling one gets when doing lunges). Luckily that was the most difficult part. The walk itself was very fun. I can imagine the same hike with a group of typical adults would have been much less amusing. There was much laughter and silliness. Pranks, swordfights with sticks as well as harmonica playing distracted us all from the hours of walking we endured that day.

Unlike in Australia when you are fairly unlikely to spot animals on a walk, I actually saw many on this American hike: Eagles, crabs, snakes, insects, lizards, rabbits, mice, cows and seagulls. We headed for a secluded beach as our stopping point but had to go off-trail to get to it and my heart stopped when I caught a glimpse of a thick, fat snake in the grassy surroundings. I urged everyone to keep moving forward as quickly as possible. I could breathe again once we got towards the ocean but only momentarily as we then had to embark down a steep cliff-face in order to get to the actual beach. I could just imagine myself slipping down the crumbing cliff but somehow I made it(very slowly I might add).

" Where's the next step?! "

We were all ravenous by the time we got to the beach which was definitely not your average tourist beach as there were literally hundreds of thousands of white insects jumping about in the sand underneath our feet. You basically had to just block it out unless you wanted to faint from squirming. Lunch was lovely though; there were tomato/pesto/avacado sandwiches, parmesan-garlic puff pastry rounds, bananas, raisins, flaxseed chips, strawberries and mandarins.

Although the water was freezing, our friend Tommy decided to brave the waves. We kicked around a hacky sack(which had the Australian flag printed on it), threw my boomerang(with much more success than last time) and made bracelets out of seaweed with a unique braid that Ngan taught us all. And we buried the guys in the sand-obviously.

Trying to avoid the water as the tide came back in

The walk home was much harder(and definitely felt longer) than the initail hike to the beach and my heart was pounding as we walked past the 'snake territory' as well as climbing back up the beach cliff but much to my delight we were able to celebrate our hard efforts at a frozen yoghurt store afterwards.

The Point Sal hike was definitely a highlight from this year so far but I will never ever do it again.

Pearly Whites

2011-06-29T11:21:00.000+08:00

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Just walked to one of the nearby health food stores today to buy some hair dye. I was planning to get a new toothbrush from the pharmacy but actually saw some pretty nifty ones at the health food store, Lassens. I was flabbergasted(...well not exactly but isn't that just such a fabulous word?) when I saw a toothbrush made from old dollar bills! You can't get much more american than that- those green papery notes to represent a dollar coin are quite an oddity, especially since I'm used to $1 being in a gold coin form and plus aussie money is plastic. Americans here are amazed that you can't rip up Australian notes(we don't call them bills).

Dollar bills aside, the toothbrush is super eco-friendly as you can replace the head when it gets worn(one extra replacement head is included in the pack). Plus they're manufactured on low-energy machines in the US and the packaging uses vegetable inks and 100% recycled PET plastic.

The bristle heads looks really big too so I'm hoping it'll do a good job. Hopefully I'll also be getting a new tooth polish soon(from here). So I'll have to see whether they turn into a dynamic tooth-cleaning duo...

Check here for availability

What are your hobbies?

2011-06-28T07:19:00.000+08:00

I hate that question. I've had a lot of people ask me it here in the US and I know they mean well but the whole point of this year is for me to try and 'find' myself, as cliche as that may sound. I don't know exactly what I'm passionate about just yet and what if I'm just the kind of person who potters around, flitting between hobbies. For example, I take photographs every now and then but I wouldn't classify it as my hobby.

When people ask me this question I stutter and stumble. In my downtime I watch a lot of television and go on the internet but it's almost embarrassing to call that a hobby. But the thing is, watching tv itself isn't really the 'hobby'. Same thing with the internet- they are both so diverse that people of polar opposite personalities could say their hobbies were watching tv and surfing the internet yet you wouldn't be able to distinguish the individuals in the slightest.

I don't want to lie to people either. I don't want to say I craft because really I'm only putting my toes in the ocean of craft and definitely not on a regular basis.

I like to switch things up and would like to take up new hobbies such as gardening, crocheting, surfing, volunteering and sewing but those things are not always possible when you're on exchange. Maybe if I had opportunities to do those things I would have a more exciting answer to the question but just because I don't doesn't mean I'm boring or have no interest in creating a more well-rounded life for myself.

A question I prefer much more on the other hand is: What are your interests?
Here would be my answer: being environmentally friendly, alternative food lifestyles(ie. veganism, raw food & organic), fashion, eco-aware beauty, organising, business, crafting, self-empowerment, nutrition, fitness, meditation, collecting, travel, writing, blogging, books/magazines, board games, outdoor activities, gadgets, music, disney, jonas brothers, the kardashians, america, live shows/concerts, volunteering, shopping, hanging out with friends, philosophy, growing my own fruits/vegetables, skyping, making music, old children's tv shows, home decor, vintage finds, thrift stores, photography, foreign languages, guys, playing with pets, bike-riding, children, animals, mental fitness, puzzles, dancing......and the list is ever-expanding.

So to answer the other question. No, I don't have hobbies. I have things that interest me and my life is ever-changing and I don't have the desire to dedicate my time to only a handful of 'hobbies'.

Beach Bum

2011-06-22T08:34:00.001+08:00

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I'm quite fond of the beach now, I must admit. I don't see myself becoming a beach junkie any time soon but I definitely see myself frequenting it more often and just lazing around there. To kick off my summer holidays I spent a couple days down there with two of my foreign exchange student besties- Hannah from Austria(whom I live with) and Ngan from Vietnam as I really needed to spend some quality time with both of them before they'd leave for their home countries. We went to Pismo Beach- a popular tourist attraction as they have lots of little stores selling cute beachy souveneirs such as shells and me and Ngan both bought these $4 canvas drawstring backpacks as I told her we needed to go jogging. I wanted to burn off the pizza her hostmom had fed us and running in the sand means more resistance which means more calories burnt. Of course, we got tired of that very quickly. Our real mission however on that particular day was to send a message in a bottle. You see I have this little book called '101 to do before you're old and boring'. Whilst I have done many of the tasks I thought it would be a brilliant list to complete in America. I've run up an escalator the opposite way before but not in America. I've sang in front of an audience before but not in America. I've made a paper crane before but not in America. You get my point. So Ngan and I(on this particular day, Hannah was wandering around Hollywood- lucky thing!) ate frozen yogurt(my healthy weakness) at Pismo Yogurt which on my fro-yo scale is very, very close to Pinkberry. Whilst we munched(munched doesn't seem the right word for such a soft food....) on our healthy goodness we wrote our letters, slipped them in zip-lock bags and put them in plastic water bottles along with a shell. For someone whose second language is English, Ngan wrote hers really nicely- better than mine. I kept mine short and sweet but I'm sure if someone finds it they'd be quite pleased all the same:

Dear Stranger,

Congratz bro'! You found a message in a bottle! Please send an email stating who you are and where you found this to: shivi_the_sheep@live.com.au

I'm Shivi, I'm from Australia and I'm 17 years old but I'm sending this from Pismo Beach, California! I'm an exchange student doing high school over here and loving it! The American high schools are epic- the cafeterias, yellow school buses and all-over school spirit are so awesome! I take drama, marketing and US history plus I used to do track and field- although I always came last! I just finished school for the year now and even though I'm a junior they let me participate in the senior graduation and wear a cap/gown!

Just so you know, Australians don't ride to school on kangaroos and we don't all surf- me included! I guess I should take some lessons here at Pismo!

I'd love a reply, Shivi xx

Wow. It seemed so much longer when I had it written out. Anyways, Ngan and I went out to the very end of the pier to, well, 'dump' our bottles. We didn't want to get in trouble for littering so we tried to do it very conspicuously although on my first try the wind blew my bottle backwards and hit some woman. It didn't dawn on us til then that the bottles could very easily just drift straight to shore. Sure enough as we walked back down the pier they floated along with us. Eventually we lost sight of them but for all I know I could get an email from someone in Pismo. Fingers crossed it gets to Vietnam or Australia. I think then we just lazed around on the warm sand, went on the swings, watched the kite surfers do their thing and attempted to throw my boomerang although I didn't really know the proper technique. It sort of came back to us but I think that was just because of the strong wind.

I also spent a couple days down at the beach with Hannah too where we saw three guys in a line rubbing sunscreen into each other's backs-somewhat disturbing. I also attempted to throw my boomerang again as by then I had watched a tutorial on youtube but I embarrassed myself even more as it went straight down into the ground, meters from where I threw it. Ngan had a go herself and although I warned her about throwing it when there were beach-goers nearby she took her luck and almost clipped two groups of people. We also asked a couple to take a picture of the three of us and when they started talking I fell in love- they were British! Accents enthrall me nowadays, especially now that I realise how similar Britain is to Australia(the same cannot be said for the US and Britain though). Oh and we 'munched' on more fro-yo and some green beans and hummus we'd brought from home. Last but not least; it was a perfect windy day for kite-flying!

Ngan tried Vegemite on crackers for the first time

All in all it was quite wonderful and I am pleased to say I didn't get burnt(minus a small ring of red around my thighs where I obviously didn't put as much sunscreen) which was quiet an achievement considering I am so 'white'. I'm actually the palest exchange student in our group which is quite hilarious since I come from such a hot country and all the other students are from cold European nations. The Italian student, Tommy, told me that I was the whitest person he'd ever seen. I shall take that as a compliment.

Get Ready For Summer.

2011-06-16T23:56:00.000+08:00

I'm going to be staying in America for the summer holidays which are much longer than Australian summer holidays and I'm going to be moving host families in less than a week so the few plans I did have are kind of up in the air now and I have no idea what my new host family will do over the course of the next three months. I'm sure you're wondering why I'm moving host families. I really can't get into too much detail as I know my hostmom may be reading this but they really didn't think about the consequences of having an exchange student in terms of money/time/thought/heart/energy. It is a big commitment and not everyone is suited to being a host family. I must admit it does anger me that now I have to move because of their poor judgement so I am trying my best to accept it.

So now I just have to get through summer. All the foreign exchange students are leaving now and the next wave won't be arriving til August(who so far all seem to be 2 years younger than me..) so I can't hang out with them and I haven't really made a lot of close friends at the school I was attending.

But in saying that I am going to make the best of this situation and shall chronicle all the fun things I get up to in this blog. It's going to be a summer like no other- that's for sure.

Graduation 2.0

2011-06-14T08:32:00.001+08:00

It is now officially summer holidays in America which seems really weird as back in Australia it's winter and they're all still stuck in school. The last day of school went really well as I got to attend graduation with all the seniors along with the other two foreign exchange girls at the school. It felt much more like I was graduating(compared to my graduation in Australia) due to the whole cap and gown ensemble plus I got to wear a pin from doing choir for the semester and us three foriegn dudettes got to wear silver 'honors' cords for getting a good GPA which we were all very proud of. Before all the seniors gathered and got lined up in the gym we had time to spare to say farewell to our teachers.

Me, our drama teacher and Ngan

Our attempts at gang signs...

I took a drama class this year with the vietnamese foreign exchange student, Ngan so we went into the class and said our final goodbyes to our teacher, Ms Calvert and our class. It was so nice to get such a warm welcome from everyone- we could tell the class had really enjoyed having us that year and that really made my day more than anything. All the seniors then lined up in pairs, with all the girls being given roses to carry with them. All the foreign exchange students got to line up near the front of the queue(<--- apparently some americans don't know what this word means....), there was only four of us though; Ngan paired up with the guy from Finland and I went with my exchange sister, Hannah(who's from Austria). As we walked over to the outdoor stadium, I was paranoid my cap was going to fall off- even though I'd anchored it down with various bobby pins. Just my luck it blew off as everyone was walking in the big long line. After I'd put it back on some guy further back was yelling "Someone lost their tassle! Someone's not gonna graduate!". I soon realised it was my tassle and ran back to grab it, holding onto my cap to make sure it didn't fly off a second time. It was somewhat embarrassing as everyone was laughing as I was running back to try and find my place again in the line.

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The ceremony was amazing, people in the stands made signs to congratulate their kid and there were noise makers, confetti, streamers and even a condom someone had blown up. The seniors also snuck in beach balls and were hitting them around. Although whenever the wind carried one out of the seating area for the seniors the security guards would take them away but then 5 minutes later you'd see another one being hit around. My host mom said that when her daughter graduated there were all these blow up penises being bounced around and that the staff were madly trying to gather them all up- I would have killed to see that!

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Then at the end of the ceremony all the seniors swapped their tassle from the right to the left side of their cap and threw them in their air. It really is like the movies. Although my cap didn't go very high when I threw it so I tried a second time to no avail but gosh darn it was amazing all the same! After the ceremony, we walked out onto the baseball field where everyone was greeted by their families and heaps of balloons. Lots of photos were taken. We took lots of mid-air photos but it seemed my feet were always on the ground in all of them!

I must admit, my second high school graduation definitely topped my first- it was a lot more entertaining.

Now I just have to tackle summer....you'll see what I mean in my forthcoming posts.

Grad Nite

2011-06-06T13:17:00.000+08:00

One of the reasons I'm always jealous of Americans is that they have so many cool events, concerts, performances,etc that I wouldn't usually get access to in Australia. So finally I got a chance to participate in something exclusive to American seniors, Grad Nite. It is literally 'the night of all nights' and I say that because I honestly believe it beat out prom. Actually I can't really judge because I missed my American prom as I had booked to go on a cruise to mexico with my foreign exchange group but attending grad nite definitely made me feel like I hadn't missed out on anything. If you're a little confused about Grad Nite, let me explain. Basically Disneyland gets opened up after hours from midnight til 6am to graduating seniors from California and even from interstate! They do it over the course of several weeks because of the amount of schools attending but this didn't mean that a couple schools had the park to themselves for the night(or should I say morning?). There were approxiamately 30 000 teens jam-packed in there!

Our school was lucky enough to have the Blast Off! pre-party included on our night which meant from 9pm til 12pm the seniors could 'take over' California Adventure(Disneyland's adjoining themepark) and get a free meal. It was just amazing seeing so many different American teenagers, especially since the school I come from has a large majority of Latino students so seeing lots of white/black teens and listening to their stereotypical american accents was pretty darn cool! And I swear, none of these kids had been hit with the ugly stick- the girls were all so beautiful and the guys were all so tall, broad-shouldered, buff and totally swoon-worthy!

You could tell everyone was just brimming with excitement and they started playing songs on the loudspeakers like 'Teenage Dream'(very fitting song I would think) and my group of friends just linked arms, started singing and skipping along. There are not many moments in life where that is appropriate! We only managed to go on one ride, the Tower Of Terror which is a free-fall ride but the queue was definitely worth it, especially when some black guy asked our group where we were from and I got to brag and say 'Australia!' which of course had to be followed up with a "Crikey, mate!". As you do.

At midnight everyone flooded out of California Adventure and over to Disneyland. They aren't kidding when they say that it's the happiest place on earth. The music was pumping loud, there were lights everywhere and this feel good vibe surrounding everyone. They had lots of dance clubs basically dotted around the park so we went to the closest one but it seemed it was just for the 'show-off' dancers. Not that that's a bad thing but basically people just form circles around the kids who can dance like a match has been lit underneath them. Everyone else just kind of stood around. Luckily we found a 'dance music' club that you actually had to queue to get in to and everyone was dancing not just the cool 'shuffle' kids. Every day I'm shuffle-in'.

We basically spent the 'morning' club-hopping. The hip hop club was definitely interesting. For some reason it seems only Americans have embraced the style of dancing known as 'grinding'. Really appealing name. Which as it suggests involves a girl and a guy rubbing up against each other and somehow it's called dancing. A foreign exchange friend of mine, Sophia likes to call it "Sex on the dancefloor". An experience in itself was when towards the end of the event some random attempted to grab my waist and well you know...he soon realised I was not digging it though. The best dance location was right in front of the pink castle and luckily when we first got there it was just before 1am when the fireworks were due to start and that really was spectacular as we got a front-row view and there were professional dancers living it up on stage, some wearing light-up costumes. And the whole time all the seniors were dancing and I learnt a bunch of snazzy dance moves that night. I really just let loose after a while and whilst we were walking around the park I would just bust out a move but I was definitely not the only one. Like a real-life musical where people just burst out into song and dance.

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Oh and I can't forget the fashion of the night. Some girls were wearing sky-high stilettos. No idea how they survived the night. Then there were these three guys who took the Pauly D look to a whole new level they had their hair ~~gelled~~ glued straight up in the air, it was about 50cm(20 inches) high! The more sane seniors of the event wore the graduation caps you could buy there that had mickey mouse ears sticking out of them and most bought light-up items so that we were all walking disco balls.

Grad Nite completely made up for skipping prom. No expensive dresses or uncomfortable heels, heaps more seniors from all around the state and beyond, the option to go on rides(although we waited an hour and a half to go on space mountain), more than one DJ and the location being Disneyland- it owns prom any night!

It's all in the list.

2011-05-24T11:17:00.000+08:00

When I was back in Australia I longed for the weekend, it was both a break from school but also chance to catch-up on work and chill with my family. Now that I'm in America and school isn't as strenuous and my host family situation isn't working out so well the weekends haven't been so great for me. Until this weekend that is. I conned my mum into letting me order a to-do list off BoyGirlParty's etsy store as an 'easter' present(as I don't eat chocolate or lollies). I had a lovely to-do list notepad back in Aus but I didn't end up taking it with me to the US and I had been missing it so. And no matter what anyone says it is not nearly as efficient, practical or satisfying to write a checklist on a scrap piece of paper- it will just not do. I absolutely adore my current to-do list; it has just the right amount of lines and has a 'do later' column which is actually really practical because you still get to cross something off(so you can achieve that feeling of to-do-list-completion satisfaction) and it acts as a reminder to complete the task the next day. One of the things Miranda Kerr discusses in her Treasure Yourself book(this post) is that productivity is key and I'm quite sure there is a to-do list mention in her book somewhere.

Without my list for the weekend I know I wouldn't have been anywhere near as productive nor happy for that matter. I did a bunch of exercising( when I say a bunch I mean about 45 mins worth which is probably peanuts for other fitness junkies out there) as I need to ~~keep~~ be trim and slim for my upcoming cruise to Mexico with my exchange group this coming weekend. I contacted one of my exchange student friends' host sisters about possibly staying with her family in the summer holidays as they live up in the mountains by a huge canyon, have horses and do water sports so I thought that would entertain me over the ridiculously long break. I was somewhat nervous about asking but having it down on the list made me just go for it. I also did a truckload of cleaning(again, my truckload is probably the equivalent of a toy sandpit truck in comparison to some cleaning crazies out there) and made VEGAN banana bread! We didn't have any eggs so I decided to make the recipe from this vegan cookbook my hostmom had as she's on a vegan spree at the moment. It uses Veganaise as the fat instead of eggs! I was kind of worried as I don't like mayonnaise anyway but luckily you couldn't taste it at all and the loaf turned out fantastic! So delicious that my exchange sister, Hannah said that we have to make another loaf tomorrow because she knows we'll finish it so fast!

So how was your weekend?

Still poor.

2011-05-17T13:20:00.006+08:00

You know how I posted a while back before I left for my NY trip(a short update on that will be up in the coming weeks) about trying to really save money and how I had planned to continue my scrimping and saving in the big apple? Well that idea failed somewhat dismally. I ate my cup of noodles there and crackers and fruit roll-ups that I had brought but I still pigged out and bought lots of other food like a large cup of Pinkberry fro-yo, ben and jerry's vanilla ice-cream, spring rolls, subway, etc, etc. So now as my punishment I can't fit into some of my clothes and I don't even dare attempt to try on my prom dress my mum sent me over from Australia. I tried I really did but my boiled eggs did not look appealing and they went off very quickly(as I was in an April fools mischief-y mood I dropped one of them out the window of the hostel). I did spend a lot of money on food but I don't regret it too much as I still remember how those foods tasted because they were all so good and they were associated with a lot of fun times plus I kind of thought to myself "This is New York. When am I ever going to get a chance like this again?". But since I have arrived home I've gone back to my stingy-ness and hopefully today or tomorrow I'll be going around handing out babysitting flyers so I can earn some extra cash.

Frozen yoghurt at its finest.

Treasuring Myself

2011-05-15T03:21:00.002+08:00

I'm the kind of person who is selfish. Not in a nasty sort of way but I tend to focus on myself a whole lot in terms of my mental state(I wish I was one of those Italian mothers who cooks masses of food for her family and runs around making sure their every need is taken care of and doesn't even worry about her needs in the slightest). But I believe that the best way to help others is to firstly help yourself and frankly I don't believe I can start forming relationships with others if I don't have a good relationship with myself. Anywho, this brings me to my favourite book as of now: Treasure Yourself by ~~supermodel~~ superwoman, Miranda Kerr. A book written for young women(although I see no real age boundary) about how to make the most of what you've got, which Miranda believes is a whole lot. I guess it's about realising your potential. To me it's almost a bible for life but of a non-religious kind as it's basically about how to be a good person and contribute to this place we all like to call home; Planet Earth. One of the analogies Miranda uses is the book is that every lady on the planet is a flower, each slightly different than the next but all still equally beautiful in their own unique way. A rose is just as beautiful as a daffodil. This, along with a day's worth of free time at school due to statewide testing that I was not allowed to participate in, led me to doodling in a journal about what sort of flower I was. This is what I came up with:

I really wish I had a vase of tulips in my room right now, they are simply the symbol for me, Shivi. I think this was a really powerful exercise and I think I'm going to google tulips a little further. Miranda uses so many other analogies and self evaluation question exercises in her book but most powefully she uses powerthoughts or affirmations which are simply statements you repeat to yourself about life/positivity/happiness/etc which are like exercise routines for your brain. Go check out the book and the other beauty products Miranda is selling here.

Track and Field

2011-05-05T00:45:00.001+08:00

I really knew I wanted to take advantage of all the school sports available at American high schools for my exchange year in the US plus I have a little bucket list for the year and one item to accomplish was 'win something' so I had hoped doing a sport would help me achieve that. One of the sports available in the 2nd school semester was track and field. I had done running in PE classes when I was younger and had never come last in the sprints(nor had I come first or second either...) so I thought it would be something I could have a go at plus it seemed such a 'cool' sport as you get to hang out with both guys and girls, go to big track meets and it is frequently mentioned in movies. Plus it's not really a team sport and I am not a fan of team sports for fear of letting others down. I don't think I realised that instead of having to worry about letting others down, in track and field you just have to worry about embarrassment whilst everyone stares at you when you come in last or 'scratch' at the long jump. Unfortunately, since I'm not the fittest person in the world I got injured very quickly during the season. First it was my left foot. Then I had shin splints. And lastly I injured my back during spring break(on a trampoline!) and probably made the injury worse by going to a themepark the next day and riding on the rollercoasters. So this whole season I have only ran 2 races and participated in the long jump for a record....2 times at the meets! I didn't even bother going to the last meet as I knew I wouldn't have been able to run at all with both my back and shins hurting and I watched as the track team walked past my class to go on the yellow school bus to their meet. It was really sad. I'd hoped that I would actually improve by the end of this season but I've always been last and now in two days in the final meet of the season and I don't even know if they'll let me run in it anyway since I've missed so many meets. I really wish I would have gone to an American highschool all through my teen years then I would have had the opportunity to start track in my freshman year or even in junior high and would really have improved. I'm still ever so greatful for the experience and participating in track allowed me to meet some really great people that I'm closer to than almost anyone else at school. I was thinking about perhaps doing track at an american college as part of another study abroad program but I'm assuming by that stage the students would be really elite but I can always do running and weight training in the mean time and build up my fitnest level. At the moment I'm trying to decide what sport I should do for the next season in the new school year which I've realised will only be about four months(time is flying....). I'd really like to do cheerleading but that's a whole other kettle of fish....

My exchange sister from Austria.

Poor Girl's World.

2011-03-30T04:07:00.001+08:00

I actually thought I'd have plenty of time to blog this year during my high school exchange but it seems I'm almost as busy as last year. Turns out today I leave for New York. The big apple. Whilst it almost seems unreal the fact that my cash is dwindling does seem very real. I was given a travel money card before I came on exchange which my parents loaded with some of my pocket money for the year, whilst it's not a credit card, I've been flashing it around like it is one but after taking a closer look at my account summary I had to take drastic measures and I don't think I've used my card for about a month. I always used to think it was so hard to save money and that scrimping and saving little by little didn't make much difference overall but I've realised if you really want to save money you've got to have a different mindset. Before I really took to this 'money-saving' way of thinking I had all these little necessities I was planning to buy and would never consider missing out on eating out or doing an activity that cost money. Now that I've really embraced scrimping I realise it's not that bad and I haven't missed out on that much or really regretted it. If anything I've experienced more, enjoyed myself more and learnt simple ways to make things last. One of my expenses that I knew I had to accommodate for this year was toiletries so in order to save money I've been using up some of the shampoos already in the bathroom I use that my host mom had in there even though they may not be the ones I'd usually get they're still good and it means I won't have to go out and purchase as many myself. I also noticed the toothpaste I found in the bathroom here foams up really easily so I don't need to put as much on my toothbrush. I've also been trying to save my pimple cream by making sure I cleanse my face for at least a minute to prevent blemishes in the first place. This March I think I've spent around $170 which is less than half of what I spent in January and February and is going to be really helpful as I need money for shopping in New York. Unfortunately the trip only includes breakfast at the hotel so in order not to spend a fortune on food which is one-time thrill type of spending I got my host parents to stock us up with food from Costco so at least we won't have to buy all our snacks there. We bought cup of noodles, crackers and fruit roll-ups plus I was skyping my mum back in Australia and she said that when she went travelling around Asia with a friend 20+ years ago they took hard-boiled eggs in their suitcases as they keep well so today I'm going to boil up a bunch and pop them in with the rest of my luggage! Thanks for the idea mum!

My high school had a variety show(basically a talent show minus the prize) several weeks ago and I thought that would make a fun Friday night out but it cost $2. Usually I wouldn't blink at eyelid about paying for that but now it's like $2 is $2 less that I'll have in my bank account. I recently spent a day in a nearby seaside town, Santa Barbara and I ended up spending over $30 on just food alone- all the little snacks I bought throughout the day added up so now I'm really wary with any money I spend. I knew I really wanted to go to the talent show so when my drama teacher presented me with the opportunity to usher for the variety show which meant I could get in for free I signed my name up right away! I actually had so much fun ushering- I got to greet everyone coming in and it was nice seeing how community-spirited everyone was about the event and I got to mess around with all the other ushers there. There was like 7 or 8 of us which was way too many so we were all fighting to give our programs to the new guests coming through the door. If it wasn't for me being so stingy I wouldn't have been able to get such a 'wholesome' experience of the night.

I will continue to let you all know how my stingy mindset plays out in real life whilst I'm hitting it up in the big apple this week.

Australia Day

2011-02-13T13:24:00.000+08:00

I know I'm a bit late in blogging about it but January 26th was Australia Day! When I was at my culture camp from the 4th to 8th of January in Los Angeles all the other aussie exchange students were talking about all the australian memrobilia they'd brought to celebrate Australia day. I on the other hand had completely forgot and didn't have so much as a flag to celebrate so quick smart I skyped my mum and told her to send me as much aussie 'junk' as she could find. I say junk because most of the merchandise sold to celebrate Australia day is made as cheaply as possible and usually found int he $2 stores (not 99c stores like they have in the US!). Luckily on about the 23rd of January I received a box from Australia filled with tooth-pick sized flags, balloons, napkins, stubbie holders, flashing and non-flashing aussie badges plus an aussie flag themed hacky-sack, a giant flag, bandana, wallet and a cd of classic bush songs! That parcel made me grin from ear to ear, never before had I felt so happy to be surrounded by tacky aussie merchandise. I've labelled this year, 'The Year Of No Year'(but those of you in the know will know that technically the year of no fear was last year but it's really applicable to me for 2011) so I knew I had to do something wacky for school even though I didn't know many people at that stage. My mum had also sent me a set of sweatbands and a matching headband with the Aussie flag on it so I knew I had to suck up the courage and wear them. I also wore one of the flag badges and an aussie rubber wristband and took a bag filled with the hundred odd tooth-pick flags to pass them out to people at school. Although I looked totally crazy I had such a blast and have never felt more patriotic and proud of my country in my life- one girl asked me what was with my get-up and when I explained what day it was she said "Well I never wear anything for Mexican day"! Everyone enjoyed getting their tooth-pick flags and I gave them to a couple of my teachers who stuck them on the classroom walls. My choir teacher was the most excited by the small gesture her face lit up when I handed her the flag, I totally made her day!

After school we had a bit of an Australian day bash. I put on the cd with the bush songs, we blew up balloons, used the giant flag as the tablecloth and set out the napkins. Me and Hannah, my exchange sister played a little game of hacky sack whilst our host dad set up the barbeque. We had a lot of trouble finding some decent sausages. They had everything but a decent beef or pork sausage at the supermarket, they had chicken sausages, hot dogs, big fat italian sausages, bratwurst, sausages that were sealed up in air tight packaging and then there were breakfast sausages. Why an earth you would need a specific type of sausage for breakfast is beyond me but they were the closest thing we could find. I was pretty chuffed being in charge of the BBQ and turning the sausages, I've never really done it before and I felt so Australian! Unfortunately the sausages weren't quite the same as real Australian ones but I really didn't care as our little Aussie feast reminded me of home and I was as happy as pig in mud! I even made Anzac biscuits that day too which we pigged out on for dessert, they're like oatmeal cookies but 10 times better. It was a shame about the sausages so I'm going to see if I can get an Aussie recipe off a friend for homemade sausages but other than that I had the best day out!

It's not all sunshine and rainbows here.

2011-02-01T13:04:00.000+08:00

About two weeks ago, January 17th, was Martin Luther King Jr Day in America, a holiday I have never celebrated before. In Australia racism hasn't been much of an issue compared to the United States. To me, just the fact someone would actually consider making blacks take back-door exits and sit on different seats on buses is just crazy- African Americans are still Americans and are still humans for that fact and should be given some basic rights. My host mom even said that when she was a little girl growing up in the 60's in California, black people had to use different toilets and were sent to the back of the bus. My US history teacher showed the class a short cartoon clip on what would have happened if Martin Luther King didn't actually die but instead went into a coma and awoke thirty years later. In the clip Dr King wasn't too impressed with present day society as they hadn't progressed the way he had hoped. My teacher, Mr Valencia was discussing with us how segregation still exists today as my school, Santa Maria High School has approxiamately 80-90% Hispanic students whilst the nearby highschool, Righetti has the complete opposite with approxiamately 80-90% Caucasian students. For me coming to America I did have quite a few expectations of what my life, home and school would be like, even though my exchange company, EF reminded us several times to assume nothing. So walking into a school where you see only about one or two white teenagers at a time(if not less!), is a little different. My first day at the school was almost like stepping foot into another country(ie. Mexico) as everyone looks and dresses differently and many of them speak Spanish too. Righetti High School was actually the closer high school to my house here and originally I was going to be attending there but it turned out that they were too full. But if I had just gone there I don't think I would have had the cultural experience I'm having at SMHS.

I have also heard that an exchange student who went to Righetti said some of the kids there weren't very nice yet at SMHS I haven't heard one rude comment even though I walked solo past many big mobs of guys who you'd speed past if you were in the streets at night. However in my suburb of Orcutt(just outside the Santa Maria town centre and closest to Righetti) I had a young white male honk his horn at me as I was on my way up to the shops. I actually had one of the mexican guys from SMHS drop me home one day to Orcutt and he was surprised I lived there and still went to SMHS as he exclaimed "This is like whiter-than-white town!". It's kinda sad how people don't mix as a Hispanic girl in my history class said to me that she lives near Orcutt(AKA Whiter-Than-White Town) and she said that she just doesn't talk to her neighbours. I think it's really good that they have exchange programs like EF to help share cultures and show what different people around the world have to offer. We need to embrace our differences!

Status: Landed

2011-01-31T13:59:00.000+08:00

I am finally here! Really this place is amazing. I have discovered that Australia isn't all that bad and definitely has its benefits but I am definitely very happy here. From what I had kept hearing, everyone is really friendly in the US and I am ever so glad that, that stereotype is spot on. The amount of people my host family say hello to in the street, even people they don't know is amazing- there is definitely a great community vibe here in my lovely little town called Orcutt. The neighbours here even have street parties and my host family were invited to a farewell party for one of the nearby locals who is retiring and moving to Florida. This is the kind of thing I've wanted to experience my whole life, not that I've always known it but I think it's been there sub-consciously. It's not like Australians are completely antisocial but I've never really experienced a lifestyle where my family and the locals are very tight-knit. We're more like a loosely knitted scarf with lots of holes in it in terms of bonding with those around us. For me I think this year is going to be about meeting new people and becoming more confident and outgoing. I met another girl at the 4 day culture camp we had in Los Angeles who is actually from my hometown, Perth and she would just start talking to strangers in the street about anything and everything and if she didn't get the desired response from someone she would just laugh it off and it would make for a great story to tell someone later. To be able to have a conversation with a stranger is definitely a skill I'd like to acquire as it makes mundane tasks like shopping trips, something really special and uplifting. And whilst I'm on the topic of 'socialisation'(I sound like I'm talking about puppy-training or something...), it's recently occurred to me that I've had little opportunity to meet new people in the last few years. At highschool I'm been with pretty much the same group of people since 8th grade and have rarely strayed from my friendship circle. My parents rarely introduce me to new people and I haven't gone to many classes/activities/events where I've had the chance to mingle with unfamiliar individuals. So it was such a change to meet all these new people at the culture camp I went on from the 4th-8th of January- there was lots to talk about as everyone was curious as to where each student was going in the states and what they knew about their host family so whilst it was a tad nerve-wracking I really enjoyed it. There are lots of fun things headed my way but for now I'll leave you with a couple photos of my culture camp from early January.

{All the aussie EF kids arriving at the hotel}

{Where we had our morning 'culture' lessons}

{Johhny Rocket's Retro Diner}

{Robin William's impressions}

{Julie Andrews' star}

{Christmas decorations were still up on Rodeo Drive}

{Lifeguard hut at Venice beach}

{Santa Monica Pier where Hannah Montana movie was filmed}

{Disneyland}

Bring on 2011!

2011-01-03T09:45:00.002+08:00

Happy New Year y'all!

2011 is going to bring big things for me and I hope for you all too. I actually leave tonight at 11:45pm to jet off to the States! I have been waiting for this day for what seems a lifetime and luckily there hasn't been some dreadful accident or my death to prevent me from going! :D I just have a ridiculous amount of packing and organising to do today though. I'm trying to make sure I either bin things or take them with me, I ~~want~~ need to start afresh when I return home. I WILL become a new transformend and better 'Shivi' by the time the year comes to an end and I don't want to slip back into my old less confident, unsocial ways of being. The last few days have been spent buying gifts for my host family(I had planned to make them this totally awesome present but time has literally just slipped through my hands), transferring pictures, music and documents onto my new netbook I received as a going away present which is actually giving me a fair bit of grief at the moment(half the photos I transfer don't seem to show up), selling a couple of bento items on ebay from when I became foolishly obsessed with pretty lunches(check out my items here if you feel like helping out a sister in need), writing out some of my favourite recipes into a blank recipe book my friend gave me for Christmas and may another random tasks I want to get finished before I leave. Hopefully I'll update you all by the end of the week as after flying from the Perth airport to Sydney all of us EF exchangees meet up and fly to the 4 day culture camp in LA where we have morning culture lessons and afternoon excursions- one of which is to Disneyland! So this will be my last post in Australia(for a year anyway)!

Love love love,

Shivi xx

P.S. Just thought I'd brag and let you all know I attained an ATAR score of 94.55 for my year 12 exams(which is like a ranking so I think means I beat 94.55% of the students taking their final exams in Western Australia! Hopefully it's enough to get me a scholarship into the local university!

P.P.S. This is my 50th blog post! Snaps for me!

My Christmas Day

2011-01-01T16:38:00.000+08:00

Christmas Eve wasn't the best for me as we were all tired, stressed and not in the best of moods and quite frankly the night finished off with me in tears. I ended up going to bed very late as I knew I had to finish making these pesto sausage rolls as we were already behind schedule in terms of cooking for the big day. Actually when I went to bed it was Christmas Day which in that case started very nicely with mum and myself wishing each other a "Merry Christmas" and saying "Night, night" just before we went to bed. Mum was sleeping on the mattress in my room as my aunt and uncle who were visiting for Christmas were on a bed in her room.

My brother woke up very early on Christmas morning and my aunt and uncle were all up and ready at 7am to go to the beach, so eyes half closed I threw on a dress, I think(I can't even remember I was that tired). It was the first time we've ever gone to the beach on Christmas day and it was nice to see everybody wearing Santa hats and a family with no young children what-so-ever about to have a water-gun fight. After a quick walk along the beach we headed back to the car before it got up to the day's maximum of 41 degrees celcius. When we got home I showed my brother, Roy some of the presents Santa had left him before my Dad came over to take him to church where each year Santa makes a visit on his very own helicopter- now that's not something you see every day! Meanwhile back at my mum's house my Dad let his Jack Russel called Sorcha stay over. We gave her one of her presents which was a squeaky dog plush toy which she loved- I haven't seen her that excited about a toy in forever! She was wrestling it around like crazy with many a hair shed from her new toy, I'm not even sure if it has still lasted!

Although I knew we had a truckload of food that needed to be made that day I wanted breakfast to be special. After all it is the first meal of the day and sets the scene for the rest of Christmas. So I made some delicious quinoa pancakes from a shake bottle mix which tasted very healthy and earthy and were much nicer than the normal white flour pancakes you buy. Plus as they're not wheat based they don't taste as stodgy.

Then we got to the good bit- present time! I had some really nice presents this year- my aunt and uncle bought me some hand-knitted fingerless gloves for my exchange which I'll definitely be needing as it's been getting down to 1 degrees celcius at nights where I'm going to be staying(more on that soon, I promise!). Knowing that I love recycled and eco-friendly products my aunt bought me some jewelery that was all recycled and made from refurbished computer parts- I absolutely love them and they're my sort of colour too! From my mum I received a nintendo dsi xl in bright red and the 'rhythm heaven' game for it and some other goodies which I may showcase at a later date. Unfortunately because we ordered some presents online this year, they didn't arrive in time for Christmas. I actually had to leave an IOU under the tree for my mum this year as I'd ordered this hypnosis relaxation CD from the US which is still yet to arrive. Three of my Christmas presents from mum are also making there way over here but it looks like mum may have to ship them to me in America.

We had planned a Christmas lunch but we were still cooking food come 5 o'clock. I mentioned in the previous post we were to have a vegetarian Christmas this year so we spent hours making this Sweet Potato and Leek Roulade which in the end turned out fairly sloppy and barely resembled the recipe photograph whilst the egglpant parmigiana with boccocini we made took half the time and tasted a lot more delicious. This was probably the first time I've had a proper Christmas dinner at a dining table(usually we go to our friends' house and just have a barbeque/buffet sort of thing outside) with the whole sha-bang - fancy cloth placemats, napkins, candles, plates/bowls reserved for special occasions only and decorations here and there. Now my aim in life is to have a repeat of that but with a traditional Christmas turkey. After the lovely meal we had a cracker-pulling ring where you crossed hands and pulled a cracker with the people either side of you- I definitely recommend you try it some time.

By this time it was getting late but before we all tootled off for the night my aunt and uncle brought out some old photo albums of my mum and my aunt when they were little which my mum hadn't seen probably in over 20 years! I could totally see the resemblance between my mum and my now-deceased grandmother- as an adult my mum looks almost identical it's uncanny! The albums were falling to pieces though and many photographs were missing and all the little photo corners were peeling off- definitely in need of some TLC.

Despite the 40C+ heat on the day and realising by the end of the night we'd actually had one of our air-conditioners on 'warm' I think we were all pleased with how it turned out and it was definitely nice to have my relatives over for Christmas as opposed to it just being me, my mum and my brother. Sometimes you kind of wonder what Christmas really means when you're not religious and no longer believing in Santa Claus but come Christmas morning you can feel there is something different in the air and it's a time of joy, laughter and unity throughout the community.

This Christmas...

2010-12-20T22:52:00.000+08:00

I'm getting ready for: the arrival of my aunt and uncle from England(if they even manage to come with all the snow they're getting over there, delaying most of the flights out of London) who are vegos so we've had to do a little extra preparation for them and we're having a vegetarian Christmas for them which is exciting as we're going to try all these new recipes out of the various vegetarian cookbooks we've accumulated over the years. A Sweet Potato and Leek Roulade with a Christmas Stuffing looks like it's going to be the main attraction on our Christmas table this year.

I'm baking: music note shaped vanilla cookies as per the recipe from the new Junior Masterchef cook book(recipes are so much easier and much more to my liking than anything that would be in the 'adult' Masterchef cookbook) using vanilla extract and not vanilla essence. I ended up making 6 batches of them for all of mother's 30 piano students.

I'm listening to: Glee's new Christmas album. We haven't bought a new Christmas album in a couple of years and have stuck to the collection of carol CDs we already have but I was itching for a new one and I knew the Glee album would not disappoint. All the songs on it new so joyous and truly embody the spirit of Christmas, even with all the new carols on it that I've never heard before and the gospel twist on "Angels We Have Heard On High" was magical.

I'm decorating: my dad's Christmas tree. He's a bit of a scrooge so he only bought his own Christmas tree a couple years ago after I asked him to get one. so him, my brother and I were putting up the ball-balls,tinsel and lights over the weekend and we bought a nice gold, sparkly star to go on top as we couldn't find one in the shops when we looked for one in 2008(we didn't end up putting the tree up in 2009). It's been really nice to celebrate Christmas not only at my mum's house but at my dad's too.

I'm buying: the majority of my gifts online for the family(and even for myself as my mum hasn't quite figured out how to use paypal and online shopping sites)as I can buy more unique and tailor-made gifts for the recipients to enjoy. And as always there are huge discounts usually when buying online.

I'm attending: a Christmas carol concert. My dad, brother and I went to one this weekend at the local park which was much easier than attending one in the city as the parking/walking distance was less of a hassle and as we couldn't stay for long we had no trouble leaving easily. It was really nice to just spend the evening with other families who were getting into the Christmas spirit. They had candles you could buy for $2 but straight away my brother blew it out as well as attempting to blow out the 'big' candle that the organisers were attempting to light all the other smaller ones with to give to people. Luckily we managed to keep the second one alight, even though I did have to put my hand over my brother's mouth every now and then.

I'm loving: the fact that the whole month of December is special if you put in the effort and relish the jolly spirit of the season; not just the 25th.

I'm photographing: Our lovely advent wooden 're-useable' advent calendar. I've never been a fan of the chocolate ones and this one is so much more exciting even though we've had it for years and I probably know all the trinkets off by heart. If you count you'll find there are 20 toys as today is of course the 20th of December(for the next hour and five minutes anyway...)

Have a lovely Christmas all!

P.S. Feel free to use this as a blog tag if you're in a 'jolly spirit'.

Persistence, Luck and Success.

2010-12-15T16:30:00.000+08:00

Being the brave 17 year old that I am I got my mum to ring up about this scholarship business and the lady who is supposedly in charge of the scholarships was extremely vague about the whole thing and didn't even give my mum the scholarship due date. After a long pause she managed to say they were due in August but still no date and she told us she would get back to us about it after she had a look into it. More than a week later we had no phone call back so my mum tried to get in touch another two times with her- we left messages with other people in the EF office and were told she would call back and that she was on the phone. I think this lady is actually a tad scared of my mother, who gave her a right telling off over the phone about the information that had been sent out to us about the US Visa application(it was all out of date, mixed up and just very hodge-podge, not acceptable for such an important matter). Then yesterday I saw I had an email reply from this lady about the scholarships; I'm guessing her nerves got the better of her and she decided she couldn't deal with another confrontation. Reading this new email she sent you wouldn't think that a couple weeks earlier she'd just told me I was too late for the scholarship. I'd say something fishy was going on there... But I'm not complaining because I got it! I won the scholarship! Well as my mum reminded me, I earnt it. As I'm sure you know from this post I really struggled with writing the darn thing and it took me a weekend or so to complete it so at least it wasn't for nothing. Unfortunately I didn't get the $2000(but I expected that, especially with all the dodgy-ness surrounding the issue...) but instead $500 has been wiped off my invoice so I am quite pleased with myself and....ridiculously happy!

You know, earlier in the year I really wanted some extra money to come my way for the exchange and I've always been one to try to get a hold of any 'luck' I can so I pulled out my 'trouble dolls' from my dresser. They were a present from my Aunt and Uncle when I was younger from one of their numerous vacations. Here's the little blurb that came on the piece of paper tucked inside the little box:

In the land of Guatemala the Indians tell this old story. They teach that when you have troubles, share them with your dolls. Remove one doll for each problem. Before you go to sleep, tell the doll your trouble. While you are sleeping the dolls will try to solve your troubles. Since there are only six dolls, you are allowed only six troubles a day.

I asked one of the dolls to help me get some extra money to pay for my exchange and popped the jelly-bean sized doll on the corner of my bed-side table. I knew this would be no small feat and that I may have to wait a while but several months later my trouble has now started to wither away and I owe part of it to that tiny little doll. My trouble dolls have never failed me, every trouble I have EVER told to them has been diminished in some way or another and usually obliterated completely. I have always felt much more relaxed going into an exam when I've told my trouble dolls, the night before, about my worries of forgetting all I have attempted to memorise. I think it is much more reasonable to ask a jelly-bean sized doll to help with a trouble you have rather than expecting them to grant you a wish, a much more difficult task I would assume, although I'm no expert in the field of magic, luck and pixie dust.

The Scholarship Fiasco.

2010-12-02T17:57:00.002+08:00

I got some really gut-wrenching news the other day in an email "Unfortunately your scholarship application is too late. I am sorry that you have missed out". Thinking about it, I think in the next couple of hours I progressed through the seven stages of grief, for my loss of a scholarship...

Stage 1: Shock and denial
I re-read the email several times and just sat looking at the computer screen in complete disbelief- this was my worst nightmare.

Stage 2: Pain and Guilt
Then the tears started flowing and I ran to my favourite crying spot- my mother's ensuite bathroom. Gosh, I was such a mess! At the same time I was also thinking to myself "Why didn't I just do it earlier in the year?!"

Stage 3: Anger
Then the rage flowed through me and went a little like this... 'Stupid EF! They stuffed up once again! It's all their fault! They told me I had until November! RAWRRRRRRRRR!'. Something like that anyway...

Stage 4: Depression
Then I started to feel awful and was in a complete slump and felt like my life was taking a turn for the worse. I'd just had my high school graduation the day before and was already feeling sad that a big part of my high school journey was over and that university is getting closer. This news just made me feel even worse as the exchange was something to distract me from my troubles and instead it just added to them. Plus I felt all my effort was wasted and the quote "if you work hard you will succeed" was a load of balony.

Stage 5: The Upward Turn
The crying stopped.

Stage 6: Reconstruction and Working Through
I knew I had to do something about this whole scholarship thing and since the lady who sent me the email was one of the head staff in charge of EF in Australia I knew I had to go higher so I started searching for other places of contact internationally. I told my mum about it all and she's contacting the head office in Australia about it, although they've yet to return our calls(last time we had a problem with EF we had to phone twice to speak to someone about our issue and it looks like we're going to have to do that again). If we don't get a good response from them we're contacting the US office or even the Swedish office as that is the country the whole program stems from. I am thinking of posting my application to one of those offices to see if they think my application is still worthy.

[I should probably add here that I emailed the Sydney head office earlier in the year about the scholarships as I'd received no further information on the topic since being accepted in the program. One of the staff members said as long as I sent it in before the end of November that it would be fine. I even emailed a couple of weeks ago before I started writing the scholarship to check it was still by the end of November but had no reply. I've still yet to find out when this mystery deadline actually was.]

Stage 7: Acceptance and Hope
I'm starting to feel okay about it all now as I know that all that I can do is contact some of the other EF headquarters that are 'higher up the ranks' than the Australian one and if nothing else make sure that the Australian staff get 'told off' so that this never happens again.

I am still very hopeful that my application will be considered and that I may be lucky enough to get some funding. They are only partial scholarships of up to $2000 but when I need to buy a new laptop, video camera and winter clothing any extra money is going to be of use.