The awkward moment when... #4

You knew there were going to be more, because let's face it: my life is filled with endless awkward moments. I think it's a world record how many awkward moments I have in just one day compared to what some people have in their entire life. I guess it makes life interesting, if I have to think of a sort of up side to this curse of awkward moments when:

• Someone comes to you to ask about your friend's relationship status and you have to pretend you're clueless when you actually know everything

• You're play wrestling a couple of flat mates and someone walks in to find you all in a compromising position (eg. you're lying between someones legs as they are sitting on top of you, while you're partially lying on someone else and there hair is in your face). You all look up and say hi 

• It's early in the morning and you're asleep when your flatmate texts to ask if they can get their shirt you borrowed the other week. You're pretty much still asleep and after the fourth attempt at writing "okay", they come around to pick it up. It's just then you remember and realise you only sleep in a t-shirt. A thin white t-shirt. You're flatmate is a guy... oops. Moral of the story: when I'm asleep, I am not aware of anything. Never interrupt my sleep. 

• You're walking to class and a guy gives you a weird look because you are both wearing the same jumper. It's not my fault guy jumpers are so comfy.

• You're sober, but while walking home after a night out, somehow you manage to trip over a bush and fall into someones garden and need your drunk friend to help you up 

• When the friend you are massaging gets an erection

• When you and your friend are sharing a seat, but they move and you fall off and they try to catch you and instead, grab your breast. 

• When you are dancing with three guys as a group and they are all trying to hit on you and pull you towards them... at the same time and it becomes a very weird competition. Well, that's something that doesn't happen often (or ever again). 

• When you thought you were the only one at home, so you're singing and dancing in the kitchen and then hear a noise and turn to find your flatmate standing there staring at you 

UK trips #8- Brighton

Brighton is one of the most iconic places in the UK. Everyone's heard of the pier, how it has a fairground at the end of it, an arcade and small stalls of essential seaside food (fish and chips; fairy floss; churros; ice-cream). And for anyone who is a bit of a history nerd like me, you may have heard about the Royal Pavilion, or at least know the significance during the lead up of the first world war. Or perhaps, you have heard from fellow uni students, that the nightlife is fantastic in Brighton. It's a place where there is something for everyone, and yesterday, enjoying our freedom after exams, one of my flat mates and I went down for the day to explore.

We were so lucky with the weather, because (ready to gasp in shock?) it was sunny! I know! The sun was actually visible and shining brightly that I wished I had sunglasses because it was so blinding. And the sky was blue, plus it was 9 degrees, so it was a warm day made even warmer by the sun's appearance.

Sunset at Brighton Pier

This gave us an opportunity to walk along the pebbled beach and down the pier at a leisurely pace, while enjoying each others company for one of the last times before both of us leaving our accommodation in a couple of days. We went into the arcade and played the 50p sweet scoop, amongst the multiple photography stops of the scenery, before walking through the streets and discovering a traditional English pub, where we had our fish and chips.

We both really loved the city, and even though we were there for only the day, it won over our hearts, because it had so much life and personality, with a lot going on, without being super busy like London. Plus, we went out clubbing the night before, so we were incredibly tired running on a couple hours sleep, but we still managed to have a great time walking around and exploring.

Australia Day in England

Yesterday was Australia Day, and I know there is a lot of controversy around this public holiday, so I'm sorry if I offend anyone. I talk about so many random things in this blog, however,  if there is one thing that this blog doesn't involve, it's politics. I admit to be incredibly ignorant when it comes to politics but I accept that everyone is entitled to their own opinion. So let's keep this post light and back to how I spent the day:

-had a morning exam, which isn't the greatest thing, however it was my last exam of the semester, so now I have officially finished my second year of uni- woow!

-to celebrate, a couple of my class mates and I went to a local dessert place and ate this:

mine is the one on the left: ferrero rocher waffle (YUM!!!)
Because this is what freedom tastes like: it is sweet. Really, decadently sweet. 

-bought a new oversized tee-shirt for a pajama, which is really comfy. I know that doesn't sound exciting, but who doesn't love comfy pjs? 

-for dinner, had the true 'Aussie snags on a barbie' British style: which means, because it is winter and raining, it's sausages cooked in the grill, which is just as delicious. 

A whole lot of us students went around to one of the flats and there were around thirty of us crammed in this flat's living space and all celebrating Australia day together. It didn't matter that we were all from different places around the world, we all had a great time hanging out and partying with these incredible people who I utterly love to bits.

-at midnight, a group of us went into town and continued the celebrations at a bar, where we stayed until it closed for the morning. And most of us who went to the bar were Australians. 

-when I went home, realised I lost my student ID and bus pass and spent a good ten minutes outside in the strong wind looking for it. And luckily I did, because I found it in a bush (and lucky I thought to climb into the bushes to look for it too)

Lose Yourself

Every day I wake up with a song stuck in my head, and unfortunately today I woke up with the song 'Given Up' by Linkin Park in mine. Usually I'm completely fine with having that in my head, as Linkin Park is one of my favourite bands, but today I had an exam first thing in the morning, so it wasn't the sort of song that I really needed to hear, with it's lyrics including:

Thought I was focused but I'm scared

I'm not prepared

...yeah, so not the best song to listen to before an exam.
It's like that time in my final year of high school when I had the Simple Plan song 'Jump' stuck in my head during an exam:

Forget your problems

It's time to let them go

Forget tomorrow, I just wanna jump 

Based on that, you can probably tell that I really don't like exams. But to be honest, I really enjoyed studying for them (once I got started), because I'm doing really interesting subjects, but exams themselves are awful. And I have another exam tomorrow and once again, first thing in the morning. So today I'm going to think of motivational songs. I do have a study "I CAN DO IT!" playlist that I always listen to if I need to get stuff done which starts with Eminem's 'Not afraid'. I used to not like rap at all, but since discovering that not all rap is sexist and homophobic etc. I realised that most rap is actually really deep and really good when you need that extra motivation. So, because I've already spoken about 'Not afraid' in the past, today I'm going to feature 'Lose yourself' because it too makes you feel like "YOU CAN DO IT!" So, if anyone else has exams going on at the moment, good luck! 

The invasion of notes

My room has fallen hostage to an invasion of notes:

My walls are covered in handwritten lecture and class notes

My floor is covered in text books

My pens are running out of ink

My sticky notes are all used up

My laptop constantly needs charging

My outfit is a ripped flannel shirt and leggings

My seat is the floor

My back is burnt after leaning against the heater

My bin is filled with crumpled and unfulfilled 'to do lists'

Wall One (these are A4 sized paper)

Wall Two (there are four walls I have covered in notes like this)

And I've hit a new level of procrastination:

Just sitting on the ground surrounded by a pile of unopened books... just sitting there, not even listening to music. It's just sitting and wasting time.

Taking photos of myself looking constipated and sending them to my friend and talking about constipation and creating a comic story about constipation, until we realised that constipation is actually a deep and meaningful metaphor for life.

And back to sitting and doing nothing at all, while realising my exams are only in a few days time. But I'm still just sitting there.

Until I remember my 'Motivational Music Playlist', so I get up and instead of studying, I start dancing because the playlist is just so good.

Don't look back in anger

Keeping with the theme of Manchester from my last blog post, today's song is 'Don't look back in anger' by Oasis. This song, quite rightly, is one of their most popular songs, alongside the much loved 'Wonderwall'. I've always really loved these songs, and there have been many times where I have put on Oasis after a long day and danced around my room to just relax and hop into pyjamas and not worry about anything. But while I've been in the UK, these songs have become even more loved, as they now accompany great memories of dancing all night with the amazing friends I have made here.

At the end of the evening, songs like 'Don't look back in anger' and other great British classics would get played before the lights come back on in the club and we all have to return home, but while the music is still playing, we are all singing and dancing together in a circle, linking arms. And these moments are some of my most treasured of my whole exchange experience, because I love these absolutely wonderful people. And typing this now, I realise that I should have chosen to write about 'Wonderwall' because that song is also part of these moments, as well as realising that the lyrics:

I don't believe that anybody
Feels the way I do, about you now

and

I said maybe, you're gonna be the one that saves me
And after all, you're my wonderwall

are incredibly relevant. But never mind, because both songs are incredible.

UK trips #7- Manchester

I'm a massive fan of Joy Division, so I knew from the very beginning of my time in the UK, that I would have to visit their home, Manchester. And finally my wish came true, with a few of my friends and I spending a couple nights in this historic city. But not only am I a Joy Division fan, I'm also a bit of a history nerd, who is currently studying 'Victorian literature and culture', making Manchester even more of a perfect place to visit for a mini holiday, as it played an integral role as one of the biggest Industrial cities during that era.

My friends and I spent several hours travelling, with a forty minute train to London and then catching the 5 hour coach to Manchester, so when we arrived we got settled into our hostel and then went out for dinner at the local fish and chip shop, having an early night in preparation for the busy next day.

Chetham Library

We walked around the city, admiring the old buildings that exhibited incredible grandeur and I couldn't help but imagine how it would have been like during the Industrial Revolution. It would have been so rich and breath taking, and still today the architecture certainly does have the same effect, with me wanting to stop and take photos of everything. We also visited Chetham Library, which is the oldest public library in England, dating back from the 1600's. It felt as if we walked into the library in Harry Potter and the old leather bound books were magical.

"Joy Division recorded here"

I am so glad that my friends are the incredible people that they are, because they put up with me in exploring the city while searching for different Joy Division landmarks without them knowing who Joy Division was. It was a bit awkward how this pilgrimage meant dragging them to dodgy looking alleyways and abandoned buildings, with me saying things like "in the 1970's, this empty lot was where Joy Division recorded their first album" and "this empty store that's locked, used to be the record store where Ian Curtis had a part time job." But despite most of the places no longer existing, I was so happy to have gone and seen these places and to have walked the streets that the band would have walked down on a daily basis. 

After a full day of exploring the city and a hearty dinner at the local Witherspoons, the four of us joined our hostels pub crawl evening, which was so much fun, making new friends and dancing the whole night long. It was definitely my favourite part of the trip, especially the first bar we went to playing David Bowie songs, which I sang along to and danced to. We then moved to the table tennis bar which also had a dance floor with great dancing songs, then to a gay bar before going to the club Factory, where we finished the evening before all of us hanging out in the hostel lobby. It was such a great night and a fantastic way to finish our time in Manchester before travelling the next morning back home. 

David Bowie

Today we found out about the death of David Bowie, who (as I mentioned in a previous post when I talked about 'Life on Mars') is one of the great musicians who influenced a lot of my childhood. My dad played his music to me from a very early age, so for as long as I can remember, David Bowie too has been part of my life, with 'The Labyrinth' being one of my favourite movies when I was younger.

It's going to be a very short post, because I feel like if I tried to create my own tribute to this incredibly talented artist, I won't be doing him justice, because he was that incredible. Instead, I'm just going to highly recommend watching the movie 'The Labyrinth' and as well as listening to some of your favourite songs of his (mine, being 'Life on Mars', 'Starman', 'Ashes to Ashes' and 'Changes', etc.)

But I also just love all of The Labyrinth soundtrack, so here is the opening of the movie for inspiration:

Essay time

Okay- I am so exhausted because I spent the entire day working on an essay and at this point I have exactly 102 words left to reach the word limit, but OHMYGOSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I CAN'T DO THIS ANYMORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm seriously lying on the floor in foetal position (which, by the way, makes this quite hard to type) and I have been trying to write the same sentence for over ten minutes and thinking:

 "I don't even know what I want to say"

"What is this essay even about?"

"What subject is this for again?"

and attempting to read over what I have written, but I'm like "I don't understand what I'm trying to say. Is this even in English?"

I am actually so exhausted and I think I've gone insane (even more so than usual) because I haven't seen another human being all day, and I'm starting to have conversations with inanimate objects.

This post really has no important message to it, it really is just me avoiding looking at the monstrosity of an essay I have been struggling with. I've been putting off this essay for so long, spending all of yesterday Skyping one of my best friends for ten hours straight (which was amazing), doing laundry, having extra showers when I've already had one, and even at one point a few days ago, taking shameless photos with my flat mate of our Christmas pyjama bottoms.

Also, I've done a lot of binge watching of 'New Girl' and finished an entire series in one day, as well as reading a book, making endless cups of tea, washing other peoples dishes that were left on the sink, and the most recent thing I've done was attempt to find a gif to show how I feel right now, and none seem to be satisfying enough, however whenever in doubt, Jess is always the best option:

This scene is when Jess was home alone and she kept hearing noises. The reason why this picture is so relatable is because, for the past couple of days, it's just been me and one other flatmate in our house and this evening I heard the doors of the corridor opening and closing at one point, so I messaged them to see if they wanted to have dinner and their reply was: "Im not at home at the moment" and I was like "then who else is in this house?!?" (still don't know who it is, but I can hear something) So I know how Jess feels.

I'm just going to be completely honest and say: all I want to do right now is have someone give me a big hug and let me curl up and fall asleep (and while I'm asleep, my essay gets magically written). 

One sentence movie reviews

Recently, I've been watching quite a lot of movies with my flatmate. I'm usually not very good with films that I don't know and tend to be very fussy and can't be bothered with a lot of genres and story lines. But that does mean that I am capable of summing up my thoughts of a film in one sentence, and due to the fact of watching so many (well, a lot for me), I thought I may as well make a blog post out of it.

Big Hero 6- Has to be the coolest cartoon of all time, with a loveable robot and a Fall Out Boy song

Inside Out- (a previous post) An excellent concept that keeps you engaged

The Spectacular Now- (a previous post) Believable and such a sweet story

The Breakfast Club- (a previous post) Excellent script that would work really well in a play. Only thing I don't agree on was the ending.

Ghost- (referred in a previous post) Corny and probably quite bad, but still my all time favourite film

7 Pounds- First half of film I was like "what on earth am I watching". Second half of film I was like "Ohmygosh! This is amazing!" A must see.

Catch Me If You Can- Was pretty good and for that genre, was well written with fantastic acting.

Flashdance- I was surprised, but it was really enjoyable and I felt like I was so unhealthy compared to the lead

Footloose (old and new)- Old one is seen as a classic and fair enough, but I personally liked the new better because I thought the story was more developed and preferred the lead guys performance in it

Saturday Night Fever- Shocking film and was so unsatisfied with the story and ending. Don't waste your time with it.

Grease- What's not to love? One of the greatest musical films ever that you have to sing along to with your friends

Blue is the Warmest Colour- Overrated and very very very very long and 2D characters that should have had more development

LOL- (the French version) Enjoyable and really well acted

What We Did On Our Holiday- Was hilarious with its black humour that British scriptwriters have perfected to an art form

Bright Young Things- Probably not everyone's taste, but I absolutely love it- the era and it's young socialites. Sort of like a 1930's version of 'Skins'

Killing Bono- Dark comedy and drama- it was a fantastic film that I really enjoyed and didn't realise until the end, that it was based on a true story

Big Hero 6

Day trips in France

Sorry for the erratic publishing of posts this week. I didn't have internet connection for a while, but since my last post, I'm now back in the UK and procrastinating on getting back to essay writing and exam studying. At least when I was away I had the excuse that it was the Christmas holidays, so I didn't feel guilty about not doing any work whatsoever. But I had an incredible time with my friend and her family, and am so grateful for having the opportunity to experience their culture in such an immersive way.  I had never eaten that much food in my life- and believe me when I say that I eat so much food- and it was all so delicious, like having brioche with nutella for breakfast, cooked meals at lunchtime as well as at dinner, which usually had cheeses after and then a dessert. One of my favourite foods there was this really nice chestnut dish, which I really fell in love with. I have no idea what it is called and I doubt that you can buy chestnuts in a jar in Australia, so I feel like it was a holiday love that I'll always look back with fond memories.

But not only was the food and people great, but so were the day trips to different towns. One day, we visited La Rochelle which is very beautiful with it's fort on the coast with Medieval and Renaissance architecture. We spent the day going to a restaurant for lunch and then walking around the streets until visiting the aquarium. I haven't visited an aquarium in years- I can't even remember the last time I went to one (other than where my formal was held for high school, which doesn't really count, considering I didn't get to see any fish really)- so it was lots of fun and I loved seeing the jellyfish, turtles and sharks the best.

La Rochelle port

There was another beautiful city that we visited, which is located in another region of France. Blois is located on the river which also has a castle and really stunning churches and buildings that look like a fairytale could be set there with its adorable cobbled streets. My friend and I spent the day walking around just admiring the sights, braving the cold before getting hot chocolates in a small cafe just down the hill of the gothic cathedral.

Blois streets 

I just had such an amazing time and still am in awe that I got to spend the Christmas break in that absolutely wonderful country. 

Bonne Annee for 2016

Happy New Year everybody! I can't believe that it's already 2016, because I don't know about anybody else, but 2015 went by really quickly. I think that was the fastest year of my life, but definitely the best year of my life so far (being on the other side of the world would definitely do that). 2015 was also quite a challenging year with heaps of stuff going on constantly, but (be prepared for a really cringe worthy, but so true line) such a rewarding year full of so many great experiences and opportunities, as well as meeting wonderful friends who I love so much. And because last year was so amazing, I'm going to try and make sure that 2016 is going to continue being as fantastic.

Already, this New Years Eve and New Years Day has been so eventful (some good and some... different, but quite funny at the same time). New Years Eve was certainly an upgrade from how I spent it last time (dancing around the lounge room and waiting for the countdown); this time I was in France with my amazing flat mate. Her friend and the two of us went to someones house party for the count down, and despite the language barrier for a lot of the people there, everyone was really friendly and I had a great time. It's so funny to think that being an Australian made me the exciting exotic thing of the party. To me, being at a French house party seems more exciting than me speaking English and trying to say random words in French that don't make sense, for example: "pamplemousse" which is my favourite word in French which means "grapefruit" (my French is very limited as you can see). But we made things work and I did have good conversations with many of the people there and a great way to spend the countdown.

Now for the eventful part of the beginning of 2016: on our way to the club, we were all going to catch a bus there, but somehow me and this other guy lost everyone on our way. And because he was from Bordeaux and I'm from Australia, neither of us had a clue where we were and he was also very drunk. And unfortunately, because I couldn't speak the language, I couldn't phone up someone and ask them for directions or where they were and both my flat mate and I have only UK numbers, so I couldn't phone her. So I had to rely on the drunk French guy and told him to phone up his friend with his phone that had 20% battery and figure out a way to get there. We were both standing in the middle of some random street at 2am in the morning in a foreign country in the middle of winter, with me only wearing a singlet top and leather jacket to keep me warm. Thank god I've been living in England for the past four months, so my body has acclimatised so I wasn't cold, but after forty minutes of figuring things out and eventually getting a taxi to the club, I was a bit chilly. So that was a different way of spending the first couple of hours into the new year, but it's actually quite funny and quite a typical thing to happen to me.

But once we were at the club and rejoined my friends, everything was great and I was able to dance all the morning and was able to warm up quickly. The club we went to was a really good club and the theme was 'Versailles' which meant there were decorations that reflected 17th century France, like curtains and portraits, laced parasols hanging from the ceiling and waiters dressed with the ruffles and masks. It sort of reminded me of the ball scene from 'The Labyrinth' which is my idea of an ideal ball (that may be one of the reasons why 'Final Masquerade' may be one of my favourite Linkin Park songs- just a side note thought there). I had a very awkward moment at one point too, which is also hilarious, but still so awkward so I don't think I will divulge into too much detail with it, sorry. But it just completed the overall amazing night.

Anyway, that was my 2016 so far. I got home just after 6am and watched a few episodes of 'New Girl' (one of my new years resolutions is to eventually buy the box set) and then I woke up at midday and joined my friend's family for lunch. A very good start to the new year, so to everyone BONNE ANNEE!

Ball from 'The Labyrinth'