Motivational Monday

Hello all I am back! Sorry I know its been a while since I have wrote but to be totally honest its because not much has been going on with me! On Saturday night I didn’t end up going because I felt sick and it was a $20 cover charge to the place that we were going, hah so decided to stay in and get a good nights sleep. Then on Sunday I had the definition of a lazy Sunday. I only left my room like 4 times to make meals and left my place once to go get ice cream ha I guess it was more like a veryyyyy lazy Sunday. But it was kinda nice to be honest I have been doing stuff with people everyday and night it was nice to get a break! I even got to read The Hunger Games and am now almost done! Very exciting hah! Today I was going to use to figure out all my classes and what times they were at and the internet broke down for a good 9 hours so didn’t end up getting much done till a couple of hours ago. It was kinda nice though because it forced me to do other things like reading more of The Hunger games and lead me to create my picture for today!

So this what I was telling you all about a while ago when I went to Vinnie’s and got a painting and used something off Pinterest to reinvent it. Unfortunately it didn’t turn out exactly the way I planned but I kinda like it anyway. It was definitely kind of an experiment. I painted over a copy of Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings, I marked out the saying, (if you couldn’t figure it out) “If not now then when,” I’m hoping this can be kinda of an inspirational thing for me to get out there and do stuff! Maybe it can work as a little Motivational Monday for you guys! Which gives me the great idea to start doing motivational Monday’s each week! I hope this quote reminds you that you only live once and you might not have tomorrow so you should get out there and finally do whatever it is you want to accomplish in life! This week is a practice run and then text week I will be better prepared! But I am about to hit the hay because my classes officially start tomorrow!!! Hopefully I will be blogging tomorrow or at least the next day!

Xoxox

Carlee Jean

Sleepy Girl

 Hey everyone! SO Peej was officially here! She just left like 20 minutes ago but it was so great to see her! It was really nice just having one of my best friends here from home just be goofy with and be myself with. We didn’t really end up going out at all during the night but we still had a lot of fun! Last night pretty much consisted of us drinking, watching YouTube videos of people who just had their wisdom teeth pulled, (these two are pretty good http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZrNFoopuXQ&feature=related and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSUs0LhYMaU) and skyping my mom back home. I’m sure my mom really enjoyed the conversation hah. When we were talking she told me that they are going through all my Nana’s stuff. That, unfortunately did make me a little homesick that I’m not there to go through it all with them but I’ll be okay, just a kind of hard to miss out on something like that. Other than that though the night was fun! Peej did both nights manage to fall asleep before we even got to go out so that is why I  titled this post Sleepy Girl. We also went to Urban Bites and I got my wedges and here is the picture I promised and a picture of us out side of the place!

 

We also ended up going to Petty's market which is so amazing it really inspires to try and get into cooking with fresh ingredients and all the food there alsike a third of the price. Here is a picture of that too to give you an idea of what I'm talking about!

But other than Petty’s market I did not do anything too touristy but I am still going work on it I just need to force myself to wake up and get there at least every other day. Oh speaking of which Peej gave me a great idea for my blogging! There’s an app you can download and its called like amazing ideas or something and you click and gives you an idea of something to do. Like one was read a book in the park or go sign up for a ballroom dancing class! I think that would be a great way to force myself to get out there and out of my comfort zone, which is what this whole trip is about! I need to get out other and enjoy so I’m not here in my room getting sad about missing people from back home! Over all it was really fun with Peej and cant wait to go visit her in Gold Coast! She has told me it is very different there, way more tropic and beach. The Gold Coast is called Surfers Paradise and definitely sounds like it is by the way she describes it! I will probably visit her in a month or so! I’m really looking forward to it! Anyways that’s pretty much all for now! I am going out tonight and it’s my first weekend here so I am excited to see how it goes! I will keep you guys updated with pictures and posts!

Hope you guy enjoyed the pictures there were kind of a lot for this post!

XOXOX

Carlee Jean

The Tourist

Hello everyone sorry about missing yesterday! But it was very full day of signing for classes and meetings I am very happy because I got into the printmaking class that I wanted to get into!! Yesterday I also went on a harbor cruise! It was an amazing and that is where I took this not so amazing picture ha. I had to use my phone to take it so it’s not the best quality. We went out to the clubs after they are so different the bars that I'm used to broad ripple. There are strobe lights everywhere foam being sprayed in the air and people dancing everywhere. It’s crazy but awesome. Anyways I woke up today a bit home sick because I think its because I had a dream about being home last night. It really makes me miss home and my family and friends. Luckily for me Peej (my friend from home who is studying in the Gold Coast) is coming today! I am very excited to see her. But I realized that I don’t really what we are going to do because I haven’t really done any tourist things yet.

So I have decided to try and be a little more touristy and get out and really see Sydney and not just the part that is right by me. I have to research a little as what we can do but I am looking forward to getting out of my side of town I think we might got to Paddy’s Market today which just like a very cheap little street market thing.  Then I think for dinner we are going to go to a place called Urban Bites (I know it’s one of Kalvins favorite places) and I already know what I'm getting. They are the wedge fries with a sweet chili sauce and cream cheese my very favorite meal here and I haven’t gotten yet so I'm sooooo excited! (It will most likely be my picture tomorrow) I will say that yesterday realized how much I'm going to love living here. I was walking and ran into some friends and was talking about what we were going to do that night. I don’t know, its just nice to actually start getting settled in here and feeling more comfortable here. But anyways I will keep you guys posted on my adventures the next couple of days with Peej

Oh I also added a pic that you can actually see me in from surf camp, meant to put it in my last post but forgot!

XOXO

Carlee Jean

Surfer Girl

Hello all I am back from surf camp, safe and sound from any sharks.  It was actually a realllly great time, met a lot of people and even stood up on a surfboard! (Pretty big deal if you have any idea of how unathletic I am) Anyways like I said it was a really good time I met a lot of people, but is really weird meeting a whole new group of people and trying to figure out where you fit in and what not. It is like high school or something finding a whole new group of friends and deciding what kind of people you want to be around. But over all everyone was super nice and I met people from all over the world, which is very cool. The instructors were very nice and not bad looking either haha. I met people who were from Russia, France, Netherlands, and Sweden. It was quite interesting. Also my advisor went on the surf camp with us and she is very cool I got along with her very well and think I am really going enjoy having her as my advisor. Its funny because for the most part I don’t become super close with my teachers but I really think I will go visit her in her office just to chat which will be nice to have over here.

 Oh almost forgot to talk about my photo I think it is pretty self explanatory, that is the group I was with over there and the beach we surfed on. So you are probably wondering if I will start surfing here and I would like to think I would once it warms up. It was freezing we went and rained one day. After my first lesson all of my toes were numb and the bottoms of my feet and me being the smart person I am I didn’t bring flip flops and only brought one pair of winter boots, so I had to walk bare foot to the beach and back everyday. I did have a few times where I almost skipped out on a lesson because it was in the 60s but I forced myself to do it anyways. Looking back I'm really glad I did, I think that is one thing that I hope I take away from this trip is to never miss out on an opportunity. Once I again if you know me at all you know I love my sleep but I'm going to try and make sure that doesn’t stop me from doing anything over here because I know I will never get a chance like this again. Anyways that was pretty much my weekend it was a great time and am very glad I went, I do have to say I miss you all very much back home! Hope you are enjoying my life story haha

PS: I finally got my charger in the mail so I can start taking real pictures!

XOXOX

Carlee Jean

Yummy

Okay so today is going to be a short entry since I have to leave in 15 min for my surf camp but I thought I would write a little something because I know how much my parents will appreciate it. Still don’t have my camera charger so I am taking pictures with my phone still. Today picture is of the first real meal I have made here. I made zucchini fries, which were pretty decent but need some kind of dipping sauce. All I did to make those is dipped in egg then bread crumbs and cooked for 20 min at 250 some got a little burnt but hey it was my first try. Then just had some pasta with tomato sauce and added canned mushrooms, very tasty if I do say so myself. Also I am having my very first diet coke over here! Taste a lot like the diet coke back home which is a very pleasant. The reason I decide to make this my blog for today is I am thinking about having a cooking blog on the side but I am not sure yet. We will see how that goes considering I just found out there is no oven here.

Oh well anyways I will not be posting these next two days because I officially decided to go the surf camp. I’m not as worried about it as I was before because one of my roommates is going too so now I don’t have travel they’re by myself! I’m looking forward to it now; I'm just hoping a shark doesn’t eat me! So make sure to say a prayer for me!  I also am looking forward to finally meeting some people; I have been kind of cooped up in my room lately! But I have to go I will be back in a day or so

A Jail Cell

So since I still haven’t really decided what I want this blog to be, I will continue to use it as a daily journal. Today I have decided to show why I need to decorate my room so badly and so hopefully I can use these pictures for my before and afters. Sorry the pictures aren’t that great I forgot the charger to my nice camera at home so I had use my iphone and yes I made my bed just for this picture hah. Anyway, as you can see it really is like a jail cell in here, which hasn’t been but I'm sure will become very depressing as time goes on. There is a very big challenge to decorating this room though. That problem is I'm only going to be here 5 months and I most likely won't be able to bring anything that I use around the room back home with me. I kind of like this though because it is forcing be to think out of my box to try and decorate this room in a cheap way.  So I have the idea to use the old magazines I bought yesterday to somehow brighten up the walls, but after that I was stumped. The obvious place to turn then was pinterest. I found a few ideas that I liked on there, especially one that evolves a old painting of some sort (don’t want to give away what I’m going do with the old painting just yet, so you will just have to wait and see what I do with it.) Since I'm trying to make this all of this decorating cheap I found myself back at Vinnie’s today, really loving that place. I discovered some great old pictures to use and for only $15. Doing all of this decorating really makes me realize how much I enjoy living in my own place. I think the thing I like most about finally living in my "own" place is that I am really getting the opportunity to force myself to be creative with my room, cooking, and stuff along those lines. Even this blog is channeling a whole new type of creativity for me and surprisingly enough I'm enjoying way more than I imagined. It was funny today I found myself thinking about what I was going to blog about today. It oddly enough is forcing me to do things out of my box just so I can write about them haha. I will hopefully be posting tomorrow but I am going to my surf camp tomorrow, and don't if I will have time! 

Clown Man

So I should probably decide what exactly what I want to do with this blog I'm still not sure what do yet, what I do know is that I'm going to try and post in it everyday or at the very least every other day. Today was definitely a lazy day for me still trying to get used to the time zone. I went got a new phone and watched the Bachelorette Men tell all, very exciting. I also finally finished unpacking today. I went to this awesome little bookstore and got magazines that I plan on using to decorate my room some how (I’m sure I will show what I ended up doing with them in a later post). But anyway on my way back from getting my phone I found what I think is Australia's version of Goodwill, Vinnie's. Vinnie's is where I found this little guy! Once I saw him it instantly reminded me of my dad and my papa so I had to get him. It's nice to have something that reminds me of both of them around, he sits on my desk and watches over me (a little creepy). I think this Vinnie's place may become my new favorite store, I don't if its because I'm from the US or what but all the old clothes, scarves, pictures, and dishes were pretty awesome in my opinion. Over all it was good lazy day, I did get a little sad but was able to keep my mind preoccupied. I will post to you all tomorrow, hopefully!!

I Hope You Dance

Today I officially got to Sydney, Australia and it was by far one if the most scary days of my life. I had to travel by all by myself around the world. I have never traveled by myself today and then to top it off I had to meet my two roommates who were complete strangers. When I walked in the place was mess and I was so scared to find out the people who were living behind those closed doors. That was hardest moment of my day was getting through that. I eventually met one of my roommates, Melinda. She seems to be very nice and has been living for a couple of years. She is from Australia the place with the big red rock? Not exactly sure where that is. My other roommate has not left room and I have not met him so I will have to wait and see how that goes.

Anyways on to my picture, this is a book that my mom secretly sent with me in one of my folders. I found it earlier tonight and found my mom and dad had written me a bunch of little notes next to motivational quotes on every single page. I couldn’t help but crying when I read how proud of me she was and how she couldn't believe how fast I had grown up. I even seem to be tearing up now when writing this but not sure if that is because of the lack of sleep I have had. I can't lie though I am pretty proud of myself also for getting through these first 48 they were not easy. But anyways I have only gotten a few pages into the book but thought I would save the other pages for days when I am feeling home sick. This experience already is showing me how lucky I am and how I really do have the best family in the world! As Winnie the pooh said "How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard." I am a bit scared of being here by myself and not sure what tomorrow holds, I Have this book to help me through the hard times and remind of how lucky I really am :) 

Please excuse any spelling or grammar errors; english class was never my best class