oblation oblation oblation

Let me preface this blog entry with a rating. M15+. May contain nudity and or other forms of adult content. Some of you will now be hooked on this blog out of intrigue, or perhaps a few of you have run away from fear of any genitalia related topics. Those of you who have stayed have braved the world of adult content, perhaps because you are in fact adults, or alternatively a perverse sicko. Either way, those of you who have stuck by me, I promise to give you vast amounts of said nudity.


Before I get to that however, I will start as always, at the beginning of the week, and run you through what some people might see as a monotonous and uninteresting life, or what some might see as a little glimpse into my wonderful (and yes, sometimes monotonous and uninteresting) life.


Actually scratch that, I will ignore the boring stuff, and just share with you a few little nuggets of gold that was my week.
Unfortunately I managed to get a nasty little cold for the earlier part of the week, which kept me a little bed ridden for the majority of the week, however I was determined to get better so that I may enjoy the end of the week, which I could experience the UP Oblation Run, Social Work department Christmas party, and of course my flight home to Australia for Christmas.


The start of the week, my housemates and I decided to bring some humble Christmas cheer into our house by having our own little Christmas celebration. We went out to dinner in this gorgeous little treasure of a find (feeling very pirate right now) in this little organic café. And to my immense surprise, HELLO TO VEGETABLE STIRFRY! Even better, the stir fry had copious amounts of different vegetables, and possibly the first time in the last 6 weeks that I have had so much vegies (bad vegetarian, bad! *whacks nose with newspaper*)
We came home to exchange our secret Santa presents – Thanks to miss Cathy I got some lovely necklaces (I believe the angry birds one was the best, haha) as well as some sealing wax, a miniature red top hat (jealous much? It’s amazing) and a masquerade t-shirt. Needless to say Miss Cathy, you did a terrific job of figuring me out :P.
We sang some Christmas carols together (some may say in a loser-like manner, but I prefer to think of it as setting the trends for the cool kids to follow).

Then of course I managed to get a cold, and watching many episodes of ‘The Office’ became my thing, aside from doing assignments at Starbucks. It sadly occurred to me that I might be frequenting the lovely air-conditioned Starbucks near our house for their free Wi-Fi a little too much, when the workers greeted me by my name. What is worse is that they greeted me by my fake Philippines use only, coffee name. Having a name that is difficult for people to grasp in Melbourne sometimes, and even a coffee name that some Melbournites have difficulty with too (hello- ‘BRubee’ incident anyone??) I decided to go with a name that was easy to pronounce; Emma. So when they are greeting you with “Good Morning Emma” you know it’s time to start splitting your time between Starbucks and Coffee bean & Tea Leaf.


Friday came around and it was time for the famous UP fraternity oblation run. Hold onto your seats ladies and gentlemen, this is where the nudity comes!
We made our way to the front of Palma Hall, where once a year, one of the university’s fraternities takes part in, what is basically, a nudie run. However the ‘oblation’ run serves as a form of political protest, with a new cause being picked each year. It is about giving their all, in a raw form. This started back in the 1970’s and continues to this day. Of course each of their identities are kept secret with brightly coloured masks. I suppose to stop the locals playing a big game of ‘match that wang’ with people they may know and also to keep the focus solely on the political issue at hand. Although I have been told that a lot of the local girls who have come from far off provinces and conservative families go along, because they have never been exposed to the naked male form, and curiousity gets the better of them. Either way, it serves for an interesting afternoon.




The cause they chose this year was conservation of the Philippine rivers. About 20 boys marched out in all their glory and fought their way through the crowd. We could barely see them as we were up the back, but it sure caused a commotion. Suddenly the crowd parted ways, much like the red sea in biblical references, and we realized they were headed our way. So we backed up until we were stopped by a fence. Next thing you know, the boys were right in front of us by about a quarter of a meter and posing for the media. Meanwhile, three Australian students (that’s us!) could be found behind them giggling like little school girls. Actually, the funniest thing of all would have been Tania’s complete look of shock at finding around 20 naked bums right in front of her. Not sure how we managed to get stuck behind all of this, but, they do say that you should throw yourself into the thick of the cultural experiences!

All the boys have a handful of roses that they carry with them to give to a girl they think is pretty, so little miss Cathy managed to get two roses off one boy, and another Filipino girl trapped with us got a sneaky kiss on the cheek, and a rose as well. Definitely the perfect opportunity to let rip the line “who was that masked man?” followed by a sigh…or in this case a fit of giggles.


Once the nudity disappeared we headed over to the social work department for a little festive shindig. One thing I have noticed about the Filipino’s is they absolutely love putting on ‘talent shows’ at every possible occasion. Fair enough since a lot of them are actually talented, however sucky for us because as the novelty Australian students there is an expectation that we perform at all of these events; even when you don’t want to. We tried using the excuse that as the main singer, I was sick and therefore couldn’t possibly partake, but alas we had to anyway (mostly thanks to Tania forcing it upon us… Sleep with one eye open buddy! Them mouse babies will find their way up your nose canals shortly!) We had a little boogie, played some games and finally got up to sing ‘lean on me’. It was then time for me to depart to the airport to make my way to Western Australia for a family gathering; Dad’s 50th and my sisters 21st.

It was actually a wonderful couple of days in Perth catching up with my extended family. Unfortunately living on the other side of the country as them doesn’t provide much opportunities to spend a lot of time together, and it would have been about 3 years since I was last able to see them all. We had barbecues by the river, and picnics in the park, and copious amounts of delicious wine and food. Oh how I have missed real food and greenery. Needless to say I am glad I came home for this festivity.
As for right now, I am on a plane back to Melbourne for a week or so, typing up this blog in a word document to pass the time, ready to post when I return home tonight (after greeting the dogs of course, I know my priorities!)
Perhaps I will talk to you all again before Christmas, but if not, Feliz Navidad, prospero año y felicidad.


Much love, B xoxox

renovations, naughts and crosses, and being pointed out as white

drumroll ladies and gentlemen, the moment you have all been waiting for has arrived!!
It is the time for another installment in my (currently not so) wacky adventures!

I wish i had more exciting things to tell you at the moment, however the week wasn't exactly filled with bungee jumping and exotic new lands. sigh. It was however filled with, wait for it.... UNIVERSITY!!...oh that was a bit of a let down. sorry for building it up so much!

So i left you on monday where i was procrastinating on assignments (nothing new there really). So I also began using my internet usage to look up flights to some more exotic places. currently in my head i am going to India for a friends wedding in January (if i can organise a visa in time) and I am completely thrilled about that. I have always wanted to go to an Indian wedding!! (congrats Hardeep!)
I am also pondering that after my time in the Philippines, I would go to thailand for a week or so, and then pondered on whether or not to continue travelling asia, or to go to the UK, Spain and maybe Greece.... yep, so i started looking up flights to Europe, haha. Wishful thinking on my behalf really because I doubt i would have the funding for these trips, but one can hope and dream!
I also began looking up weekend trips to Malaysia while I am here (and apparently i will have to leave the country end of march, just to re-enter the philippines to renew my visa. being forced to see another country, life is tough.)

So after my procrastinating i finally got on to doing my assignments (with Tania sending me to my room all night every time i tried to use her for my own distraction purposes) and voila, i finished them both!

So tuesday i got myself all ready to go print them off at uni, and scurried off to my classes. My Shakespeare teacher fell up the stairs on her way to class, so she gave us an activity sheet to do while she went to the medical center. so we got into groups and talked about each character in a Midsummer Nights dream. My next class i sat in for half an hour only to discover that the teacher wasn't going to turn up (no surprise there, having this class twice a week for the last 5 weeks i have only seen her twice...) so, i had been forced to write my essay for no reason. poop on that situation.

I then went to go shopping and get a present for our housemates Kris Kringle and pretty much became a couch potato in front of the fan for the rest of the day. i aim high in life.

Wednesday we went to class again at 8:30, still needing to do our presentation from a week and a half earlier, but our teacher hadn't been there. Turns out our teacher didn't turn up again and a sub came in. He took us up to a Human Rights forum (which we were hoping to bail on class to go see anyway). It was interesting...sort of, i think they needed to work on keeping the audience more captivated as they just spouted facts that I am pretty sure everyone knew (since the majority of people there were studying social work anyway, or were social workers) and so they lost Tania and my attention, so we doodled in my workbook playing naughts and crosses (i opened a can of whoop ass on that one!) and connect four amongst other games (pretty sure tania rigged connect four, i could not have possibly lost to her, lol)

Thursday was just as thrilling. Actually my Shakespeare class was enjoyable (as always, seriously am i starting to sound really pretentious and annoying with my love for this class???). Never before have i been pointed out in the class, but the teacher was telling everyone the difference between someone in the play having fair or dark features - I am pretty sure her words were, "so, something you need to realise is that when shakespeare's characters are described as having dark features, he doesn't mean they are dark skinned, which is something you might not realised because we are all the same colour....except B, but while B is white, she would not be classified with fair features, she would have dark features because of her eyes and hair" ........and for a good 5 minutes all eyes in the class were looking at me. yep, not awkward at all.
AAAAAAND as per usual, my next teacher didn't turn up again but left us with a 600 page book to read and analyse in 3 days. that sneaky bastard. Not sure how this is supposed to work lady, let me at her i say! No, don't hold me back - I'll scratch her eyes out!

SO - I caught up with Tan in our break and we got into a giant D&M about what we were thinking about the Philippines. pretty much my thoughts for the day were that i would rather be doing a placement here and getting involved in the community in that kind of way, rather than spending my time reading so much pointless readings and getting nothing out of my classes (except for shakespeare of course). I feel like there is so much more i could be doing with my time, and i want to get involved with organisations. It's a bit hard to explain the feeling, but maybe you understand what I am trying to say?
Either way, our teacher said we didn't have to stay in class because she wanted to go elsewhere and the other students wanted to work on their float for the Universities lantern parade. The lantern parade is apparently huge here, and all the departments in the university make a float and then..well parade it. I unfortunately won't be there to see it as i will be back on a plane to visit the wonderful world of Aus for christmas. I will however be there for the famous U.P. nudie run, where a fraternity of boys get their kit off, wear masks and run naked through the campus. apparently it's supposed to be an act of freedom every year, and I have been informed that alot of girls go to watch because being a conservative country, the majority have never seen a penis before. go figure. so, as at the start of our stay in the philippines, the Education abroad office told us it was all part of the cultural experience, so we will be watching the nudie boys run (anyone else got that quote from Juno in their head "all i see are pork swords" - sorry nanny, mum and dad, but since you raised me, you have to expect these things. this is me watching what i say :P)

ANYHOO, so Friday came around, and we went to class at 8:30am once again, and our teacher was not there...again. So we had a sub, and he spent ages talking about economics (i hate economics) and i got quite lost. We did however find out that divorce does not happen in the Philippines due to their religious ways, and they asked us if there was divorce in Australia. Cathy and I had to laugh, because of the 'HELL YES' response we would have given otherwise. Would 'hell' have been an appropriate word to use here? probably not, but we do use it often. sorry guys! :P

Friday evening we were going to go on an overnight bus to see the rice terraces up north, however thanks to the tropical rain storms happening, that was unlikely. This occured all weekend so we weren't able to go, so instead friday night we went to the gym and to see ' New Years Eve' and on saturday Cathy, Tania and I made our way to the national museum, and the national art gallery. Well, the art gallery was being renovated, so there was about three rooms, and the museum has very little also. biiiit of a let down. I had to spend the entire time stopping Tania from touching everything, and eventually had to hold her hands behind her back like a prisoner. She is like a child, so i nearly made her join the school excursion we kept passing. Sure, there was a struggle, but what ya gonna do. :P

This brings us to today, Sunday. Tan made her merry way to church while the rest of us went to the gym. I love the instructor on a sunday for body jam. He is so flamboyant, and gets into the moves like its no ones business. He even got us shaking our hips to ricky martin. yes, thats right; Ricky Martin. again our abs got a work out from the giggling. He even shimmying in my face. which made the ab workout even better, haha. The afternoon was spent singing while Cathy learned to play christmas carols on the Uke, Tan played the guitar and I tried to learn the keyboard (unsuccessfully)

And now, i am here talking to you lovely lovely people (scratch the two 'lovely's'). I will be back in Oz in 6 days time, and back in Melbourne in 10 days time ready for some christmas cheer. Hope to catch up with you all.

Lots of love, hugs and happy drugs
B xoxox



at Manila bay in the tropical rain storm.


Art in the Gallery


hanging in a park between downpours.

We're in Manila still

So here we are again, ready for a new installment in the saga that is my new Filipino lifestyle. Now according to miss Daisy, my blog is thoroughly entertaining when i am bitching about something. So, as per Daisy's request, I shall endeavour to through in some angsty and bitchy comments where possible. You are welcome Daisy, i expect a round the world ticket for sacrificing my positivity for your entertainment benefits. :) I will also accept payment in the form of chocolate, and/or cuddles.

So begins a new week. Monday we spent the time finishing off some uni assignments, (ohhh the drama, i know i have you hooked from sentence numero uno!) and well, that was a dull day. However Tuesday popped around and I went to my Shakespeare class as per usual on a tuesday (yipee!) and we have begun studying A Midummer Night's Dream; one of my favourite plays. perhaps my liking this play has something to do with the fact that there are fairies and mischief, and possibly because it reminds me of our year 7 school production 'In your Dreams' to which the infamous Shimmy King and I randomly burst into rendition of. Or perhaps it is all of the above. Either way, I really like it, and its a brilliant play to start with :)
MY Comparative literature teacher actually showed up this week, and started talking about a vikings romance story we had been reading, and then proceeded to assign us an assignment. Ofcourse, as things 'roll' here in the Philippines, I had to ask when it was due. She responded with next week before changing her mind and saying "Actually, since tomorrow is a public holiday, you can hand it in on Thursday because it means you have the entire day to do it tomorrow". I must have given her a dirty "oh hell no!" look because she took one look at me, and said "actually, no lets make it next tuesday..."
Darn tootin! who the hell expects people to spend their entire public holiday writing an essay, especially for the Filipino students who also take another 5 subjects twice a week. INSANITY!

Now tune in here miss Dais, because Wednesday appeared to be the day of the housemate 'bitch-a-thon'. Being a public holiday, we endeavoured to go to a park for the day, however having no clue how to get there, we instead decided to get some work done, and to hop off to the gym. So off to the gym we went in the arvo to do a class and make use of their free wifi. But ofcourse getting anywhere here in the Philipppines takes an hour, even to get 3 kms away due to the insane traffic. The traffic here is, well, MADNESS. sure, there are lines on the road, but nobody takes any notice of the lanes, they drive where they want to, don't use indicators, just honk at each other, swerve in and out of cars and trucks, and the taxi's have no seatbelts either. So, i have decided looking out the window just sets me off in a panic attack thinking that i am going to die. So after we arrived at the gym and took our skype calls etc, we went to do our gym class...and ofcourse because of the public holiday it wasn't running, but it took 4 people to let us know that, as they kept pawning us off onto someone else. So, we grumbled and left, and when we arrived home, Cathy, Erin and I, had ourselves a little grumble (as i mentioned earlier, living here feels like living with Bipolar, our moods seems to swing from one extreme to the other) and poor tania, came home after a day of awesomeness volunteering with kids, and walked into our ultimate grumble session, to which then we had to complete a group assignment together.

The next day seemed to get better, atleast for me, however poor erin jumped out of a taxi, and then the taxi reversed into her and just drove off.... ahhhh Manila, only you could do that. So after my Shakespeare class (loved it!) and my Comparative Lit class (to which, once again my teacher didn't show up to) Cathy and I decided to go to a nice restaurant to bring up our moods. I waited for her until her class finished, and hung out in the Literature library. My mood elevated quickly when i saw that ALL of their books were very old hard copies of all the classics, Shakespeare, Thomas Hardy, Oscar Wilde, and more. I had severe nerd-gasms walking through the aisles checking out every single book they had. Tania then messaged me to tell me she wasn't feeling great and wouldn't be coming to our next class. She also told me that she hoped i had brought my umbrella with me. Confused, because the morning was incredibly hot, i asked her why i would need my umbrella, to which she responded "You aren't near a window right now, are you?" I stepped out of the library, to see torrential downpour. The weather here can change in a second, and when it rains, it doesn't do it half assed. Thankfully Cathy had her umbrella, and I had a plastic binder folder, and we made our way in the pouring rain to the restaurant. It was called 'The Chocolate Kiss' and just so happened to be on campus. However we turned up there DRENCHED, but got excited when we saw real food on the menu. I got an eggplant parma and we stuffed ourselves silly of food. DELIGHT!
My next class was Community Organising, and we had to present an autobiography of ourselves. Very, very awkward, but spent the three hours listening to people explain their history's. it was a handy way to get a background info on each of my class mates without having to use small talk. I hate small talk.

Friday 8:30am, we were to present our group presentation with our teacher who has decided that social work is all about economics (dipshit), so we got their bright and early, aaaaand dn dn dnnnnnnn.... he didn't turn up! Cue, grumbles. What i found funny was that as soon as we found out, the other girls in our class whipped out their nail polish and sat there painting their nails, haha. Turns out, always come prepared!

Cath and I went home for a quick nap before heading off to the shops to do some Christmas shopping, and then head to the gym. We took a Pilates class and it turns out I have no core muscle strength, and I am not quite as flexible as i used to be. doh!

Saturday, our plan was to go to waterfalls, however Tania, convinced us to come along to this volunteer day with the children who are victims of military abuse. So we headed to the gym in the morning, and tried to make our way to this volunteer place. we got incredibly lost for a while (goooooood directions tan :P) and finally made it. The kids were really cute and sweet, and we spoke to a few of the workers of the organisation. They seemed very excited to have us there, even though we weren't actually doing anything. They even dragged us up to be in their big group photo. They explained some other volunteer days, and I, for one, am definitely keen to do more work with them. Hopefully there will be more opportunity in the new year for this.

Our subdivision had a Christmas party on Saturday night, so we went along to this and everyone brought a dish of food. They also had a talent show, to which Erin and Cathy decided we would partake in. P.s. I hate you guys. I have massive stage fright, and somehow I had to partake because I would be the main singer in our little band. We sang Slow Club's 'Christmas Tv', and i spent the entire time shaking, voice cracking, and wanting to die. Did i mention i had stage fright and i am now plotting the death of my house mates? lol. Not to mention they got some of the new friends we made that night to film it. The film will never see the light of day!!
There were some younger girls who sang as well, and wow they are so talented! I couldn't believe how there were so many young talented girls in playing instruments and singing. When we tried to sneak off on occasion the presenter would say on the microphone "Don't leave Australians, come sit over here!", so i wonder if we were told to stay because we were a novelty. Anyhoo, we decided to sneak off again at the end, and they gave us a little 'prize' for partaking in the show. Win for getting an angry birds coffee set! hahahaha. Seriously, there is a HUGE obsession with angry birds. I remember one night when i was obsessed with angry birds back home and used up all of Kyles iphone battery.... hahahaha.

Afterwards, Cathy, Erin and I decided to get our boogy on, so we got ourselves dressed up and went into Makati to hit the clubs. We found an awesome one with awesome music called 'Republiq' and spent the next few hours dancing the night away, although i remember why i love Australia's law of not smoking inside clubs. We crawled our way into bed at 4:30am, ready for Tania's alarm to go off at 5am for her to make her way to church.

While Tania was at church we decided to finish up some Christmas shopping and headed our way into Makati once more. I had found this amazing vegetarian restaurant online, so we stopped there for breakfast/lunch/dinner (mostly because we stuffed ourselves silly) with the most AMAZING food. I was in vegetarian heaven. As there is hardly ANY, and i mean NO, vegetarian food here in the Philippines, when i find somewhere like this, i overdo the amount of food i eat. We tried the entree's of carrot soup, spring rolls, and spinach and fetta croquettes (amazing!!) and then Kofta balls (i am pretty sure i died and went to heaven with this one!) and a vegetarian nut roast, and then ofcourse banoffee pie for dessert. When i say we stuffed ourselves silly, i am not exaggerating. The menu had SO much to choose from, and it all looked delicious!! and everything we tried was DELICIOUS!

We headed to a health food store, so that we could stock up on some healthier options for our pantry, and then finished our shopping before heading back home in our food induced coma and all watching movies on our laptops. Lovely :)

That brings us to today. We woke up, needing to do assignment work, and spent a good hour watching the kittens and cat that had made a playground of our little courtyard. We named the Mother Bermuda (or muda) and the Kittens are now called Cinnamon, Sirus, Zona aaaand Gubba. What a good way to procrastinate :)

Anyhoo, now i suppose i should write these two essays that i need for tomorrow's classes, and the two readings i need also.

I hope i had inserted enough bitching for you miss Dais, if not i shall try to remedy this situation :) turns out I am not in the bitching mood right now, as both my assignments are literature ones and i enjoy it *cough* NERD! *cough*

There is now less than two weeks until I am back in Australia for Christmas, and hopefully i will be able to catch up with some of you then before I make my way back to the beautiful city that is Manila.... HAHAHAHA, well i think my jokes are funny :P

Love B xoxo

hipsters, beer, controversy

This week i woke up with a new outlook.
I sat myself up, looked into the mirror and realised something important. My oh my have I been a whiney little bitch of late. Here I am in a new country, the world is my oyster as they say, and I am going 'It's so hot, it's too hard'.
Well buckle up there soldier, you are exceptionally fortunate to be here - quit your bitching and do something with it!

So thus, my time here in the Philippines had a mental turning point.
I went to my classes (I still am loving my Shakespeare class SO much) and did my assignments (luckily not TOO many this week) and didn't have to contend with any more registration.

On Monday I had a lovely lunch with two exchange students from Germany, Mara and Hanna. They are both such lovely girls and we had a great time chatting and eating :) two of my favourite things to do!
We had planned to meet again on thursday night as it was going to be Mara's birthday and she invited us over for dinner :)

Thursday rocks around and we attended each of our classes (Shakespeare = amazing) and as per usual my comparative literature teacher doesn't turn up, so I have a few hours to kill before my final class for the day. I went with Tania to the music building as she was going to meet a lady there who she had been talking to for the last couple of days.
The lady as it turns out travels to UP every single day to take her daughter to class, and waits for her there. Her daughter who is (as Tania tells me) a remarkable singer, and is majoring her degree in music. Her daughter is also blind.
I met the two of them, and they seem to be such amazing people, and the daughter turns to me and says 'My mother tells me that you have cheeks like apples. Red like apples and roses' and gives this giant smile. It was really sweet to see her take in everything around her this way. It made me think how powerful it would be to have your imagination take your sight for you, i wonder how everything appears that way...
Either way, the point is they were both remarkable people, and i hope to bump into them again.

We journeyed to the Social Work building next to use the library and we bumped into Christine, another RMIT social worker here to do her placement. We sat with her for a while and she told us she was the university with delegates from all over the world here to hold an international conference on feminism and anti-violence against women movements. It sounded AMAZING!
Next thing, the delegates are all outside to perform a cleansing ritual used by the indigenous tribes in Canada, and we jumped in to partake. It involved the burning of sweet grass, and letting the smoke and incense cleanse us. We spoke to a few of the women afterwards, and it they were all pretty remarkable women and do some awe-inspiring work. I got a few contact details off a few of them, and then had to run off to class.

That night we went near Cubao to have dinner at the house of our new German friends, and they made hamburgers (with delicious grilled zucchini for me) and we spent the night chatting. Thomas, another exchange student from Austria was there, and it was just amazing to have a few drinks and hang out chatting. Later in the night two other Austrians came to join us, Natalie and Patrick (both doing internships here in Manila) Natalie is working for an NGO and Patrick is doing some work for the consulate. It was such a wicked time hanging out with them. A little later in the night I was supposed to meet Cathy and Erin out in Makati, so after some convincing, Patrick, Natalie and Thomas came with me.

We met Erin and Cathy at a bar in Makati called M-Cafe. Mostly it's full of westerners, and is quite expensive for Manila, but we were invited by some of the guys from the Spanish Embassy that Erin and Cathy met a few weeks earlier. It ended up being a great night, and I tried to get a European passport off one of the spanish guys as well as Patrick (hey they both work for their respective embassies...a girl has got to try) but alas it did not work.

We then headed off to a club, however weren't allowed in as a few people were wearing thongs. So instead decided that we would jump into the resort pool, but our attempts failed as the security guard overheard our sneaky plans and stood at the pool entrance. FOILED!!!

So our veins pumping with cocktails and beer, we decided to call it a night at 3:30am. Natalie and Patrick went their seperate way, and Thomas, Cathy, Erin and I (living together or near to each other) caught a taxi back to Katipunan Ave. Making ofcourse a stop at the local fast food restaurant 'Jollibee'. They have amazing cheese fries. Just saying.

Friday we had a lunch date with our RMIT contacts from Melbourne, and some Filipino students who had done an exchange in Melbourne. It was such a great lunch talking to them all, we have all decided to do some weekend trips together, and one of the boys works for a senator, so he invited us to come along to Parliament to hear a debate about the RH bill.

For those of you back home i will give you a run down on the RH bill. It stands for the 'Reproductive Health' bill, and it's a bill to make the pill available for women, as well as family planning, and education more readily available in the Philippines (plus more, however not abortion).
However here in the Philippines the majority of people are of a Christian belief system, and the church and state government are not seperate identities. SO - this is the first time in history that the government is going against the will of the church. The church is claiming a very monty python approach of 'every sperm is sacred' and deem it the murder of a possible child, and are also preaching that it will legalise abortion. HOWEVER the bill specifically states that abortion is not to be legalised, but there is propoganda to the uneducated of the Philippines telling them this to make them side eagainst the RH bill. However after talking to one of my class mates, she angrily said "It's also a means of poverty control. Families keep having kids because they don't have contraception available to them, and then children are being born into families who can't afford them, and then some are reduced to prostitution or worse, and for what? what kind of life is that? The RH bill needs to be passed, family planning needs to be available here in the Philippines"

...So you can see why it would be so FASCINATING to go to a parliamentry debate on this topic. It is the most controversial thing here in the Philippines. I am so excited to go to it.

Saturday, Cathy and I signed up for the local gym. Funnily enough it is a fitness first gym...but it's got some amazing classes. We tried our hand at hip hop classes, and were incredibly unco, and then sunday tried our hand at Body Jam. The teacher was incredibly flamboyant and playful, so we couldn't stop ourselves at giggling when he shouted 'POSE LIKE MADONNA' and pulled out this full on pout. We can see that he REALLY enjoys his job.

We decided to go out again last night, and went back into Makati, to a warehouse bar. It was reggae night and it was incredibly chilled and artsy. As Erin described it, it would be the Brunswick street style hangout for the hipsters of Manila, except instead of a street, it's a warehouse. It was a pretty amazing vibe, but we were pretty exhausted so will endeavour to go about another night when we have more energy.

And thus concludes this tale.

Stay tuned for another installment :)

Love B xoxox



New Austrian friends at M-Cafe

to scream or not to scream....

So this week has tested my patience. It has stolen my patience away from it's cozy home, smacked it around with a smelly fish, yelled playground taunts at it until it yelped and wailed angrily and was then stretched like the skin on a drum. it was tested and it has failed with flying metallic colours.

Positive thought right?
Let me fill you in on the week that was. Gather round closer. Not you extreme sports calendar!!

But first I will fill you in a day or two before my patience reached boiling point....

We went to a Filipino hip hop battle. yes that's right - you heard me correctly, no need to go de-wax your ears, or search for that hearing Aid. It was incredible how they can dance. All those flips, and baggy pants, and what not. SO GOOD!

Now for the rest of the week...
So we begin our little tale with the beginning of the week that was - First official full week of classes.

Tuesday - bucketing down with the kind of rain you can only find in tropical climates. unusual climate for this time of year in the Philippines, or so the locals informed me. I went to my first ever 'Introduction to Shakespeare' class. I sat quietly in the back of the room, hoping no one would notice me. But being a pasty white girl in a room full of tanned Filipino's makes you stand out whether you like it or not. The teacher came bounding into the room, and happily called the roll. I was relieved at how amazing her english was; although i suppose to be an english teacher, you have to have clear english speaking skills. She called my name and everybody turned to look at me, when i tried to pronounce my name (it incresingly occurs to me that when you are in a room of Filipino accents, the Australian accent sounds amazingly Bogan). She then continued to take the roll.
After this she announced that she would like everyone to pass up their homework from the previous class (the one i missed thanks to my foot swelling up like a balloon and taking a trip to the university medical center). So my heart races like a maniac as i realise...ummmm homework?? shit!
Thankfully i discovered the homework was just to write an essay on 'Why do you think this course is a core part of the english curiculum?' as well as 'when and where were you when you lost your shakespearean virginity?' People then talked about how they watched Shakespeare in Love, or saw Claire Danes and Leo DiCaprio getting it on in a pool.
My professor (That's Professor Ick to you!) sat cross legged on the table and in true theatrical style waved her arms around madly as she talked Shakespeare for the next hour and a half. its safe to say i really really loved this class. She is so very obscurely passionate and not at all timid to speak her mind.

My next class was Comparative literature from Europe during the Renaissance and Medieval times. For which my lecturer didn't even turn up. After waiting in the class room and talking to this lovely Filipino girl (I believe she called herself Check) i walked in the pouring rain to get a form from the international office. Like i said previously, everything here is done manually... I turned up at the office looking like i had just gone for a swim, and they all proceeded to tell me that i should buy an umbrella...yep, thanks for that one. I believe the best comment was one of the men who looked up from his newspaper to quietly ask 'was that from the rain?'. I am sure the humour would have been lost on him if i sarcastically replied with 'No no, I just felt like dumping an entire ocean on top of me'.

And then back to the next class we went. Hi-ho Hi-ho Hi-ho.
The next class was our first day of Community Work. Which we spent 3 hours in an entirely freezing cold air-conditioned room listening to the teacher speak in Tagalog mostly, and throwing in the occasional word in english. I would have to liken the experience to feeling like someone is speaking another language to you...purely because they were. To make it worse, we figured out that we were in a class of nutrition students, not social workers (after a long discussion with office staff who said we couldnt go into the class with social workers, because it was not our major, to which we said it was, but they wouldnt let us anyway). SO we spoke to the teacher who told us to transfer into the social work specific community work class.
Cue going back to the office. To which no one was there. Cue me wanting to stand at the top of the building and scream out my frustrations, but instead falling into fits of hysterical giggling. As it turns out i have discovered that I have bizarre emotional responses to stress. Go figure.

Wednesday - We had our 8:30am class for Project development for social welfare and community development. To which our professor has a background in economics and has decided to teach us from a purely economical standpoint. bleugh. Another reason to hurl myself off the top of a building. I believe his words are "Mathematics is so important, we will be focusing on that". I don't know about that.. I am pretty sure another reason i picked this type of profession was because of it had no association with my archnemesis, the dreadful Dr Mathematics. He then proceeded to tell us that we had 4 different assigments. One was a group presentation due at 8:30am on Friday morning (yes, less than two days away) and that there was no class next week due to doing another huge assignment. Now we found this out painfully, asking questions, to which he had no solid response. It's a theme here in the Philippines i find unusual. here let me give you an example.

Professor - "You have an essay to write"
Us - "What is the Essay on"
Professor - *mumbles something non committal* "just go write an essay, not sure how long or what the topic is specifically. also u have a day to do it"
Cue our very confused faces, and giving up on trying to figure it out being that we have been trying for the last half hour.

Thursday - Thursday was the same classes as Tuesday, and i enjoyed that very much. After class, i went to the international office to pick up some more forms, and then we spent the next 4 hours walking all over campus to get it signed and all this to change our class day and get an ID.... When we arrived at one of the offices, the man told Cathy, Tania and I that we actually needed to get the form signed by another office first, to which he recieved three very unhappy and exasperated glares from three very unhappy and sweaty australians. He then slowly exclaimed "...or maybe we could just sign it for you..." Yep, i think you should do that mr office worker. If you have the capacity to do that in the first place, why couldn't you just do that?!?! The system here drives me insane.
So the entire day continued on that way, and we went back to the international office to only recieve more forms to fill in and chase after. The office lady, Belle, told us that we would be having a christmas dinner for all exchange students, and every country would be putting on a song or dance or something cultural. After thinking she was joking, she laughed and said "It's because of you B, You always come in laughing and you have rubbed off on me". Now I can only think my coming in laughing has something to do with that inappropriate stress mechanism where i fall into fits of giggles because i actually want to scream or cry. But to be known as the happy-go-lucky joking one doesn't seem like such a bad thing to be thought of as.

Friday - We had our presentation. During which our professor was falling asleep, and then when the other students presented theirs, he walked out of the room to take a phone call. I am pretty sure that's disrespectful, and i am not filled with confidence that we are going to get that 75% minimum we need just to pass this subject. Breathe in, Breathe out. Breathe in, Breathe out. Perhaps i should use my stress mechanism and laugh maniacally again???

I also went to buy a small travel laptop that afternoon (because mine seems ancient and certainly not portable anymore) And i picked up this lovely one that i am typing on while having an ice coffee in starbucks (whoever invented iced beverages and air conditioning is my hero. seriously, where are these people, i owe them a big big hug). They all told me i could get a free dvd transferer thingamo (i dont speak technology) and off i went. Later to get a text message from a VERY flustered worker saying "Mam, we gave you the wrong dvd thing, please can you bring it back, please, so sorry". Mostly because she will get charged and what not. So that brings me to Saturday...almost. Friday night, my housemates and I spent the night, learning songs. Tania on her guitar, Cathy learning to play the Uke, and Erin and I harmonising to a beautiful song by Slow Club. Our hosue has become a fiesta of musicality. I love that. Music is so much fun and such a relaxant.

Saturday - I took it all the way back to the mall, and I think they lady was so excited to see me, it meant her no longer having a coronary. I was told that i had to go pick up the dvd thing from Makarte (another 40 or so minutes from here). Nothing here is done in the easiest possible way. So she told me she could get it on my behalf since there was the stuff up. Yes please, so now we play the waiting game.

We then as a group went to the movies to see twilight (now now, don't go judging), and then bummed at home for the rest of the night. We did do some grocery shopping which is interesting on its own accord. I just wanted to buy some soap, alas all the soap is skin whitening soap... I want a tan, not to become pastier. doh!

Today we are doing nothing, except i am reading 'One Day' which is toying with my emotions a lot. Dam it being so amazing!!

So here is my reflection process. This life here in Manila is vastly different from anything I have ever experienced. It is by no means a holiday, and it definitely will be an adjustment. And I will get there, I know this is where i need to be in my life right now, and I have been stripped bare of the lifestyle i am used to. It's only now that i can begin to build myself back up into a new person. And i will do it, not with ease, but with determination.

Now I shall get back to my inner turmoil with this book. must finish it before school madness begins once again tomorrow (after our delicious dinner tonight at a place called 'Van Gogh had Bi-Polar...interesting name....)

Much Love to you all,

Love B xox

no picnic.

The system here in the philippines for enrollment into classes is vastly different from that at home. for one, everything here is done manually. This means, taking a form to each department, getting the lecturers to sign off on you taking the class, doing to administration, getting it inputted into the computer and doing the same for each class from different departments.
Then ofcourse going back to the education abroad officer to hand it in. Then recieving a call from them to say it hadn't been inputted correctly and having to do it all over again. It wouldn't be so much of an issue if each building wasn't a mile away from each other (I am pretty sure that isn't an exaggeration, the campus is its own suburb). There is alot of walking back and forth in the sweltering heat only to have to do it all over again, for a signature.
It makes you wonder why they have not implemented a system where you go to one office, and they do it all online for you, since ultimately it gets inputted into the computer anyway.
Having done this for an entire day on our first day of classes as they decided to change the timetable for one of our classes i realised that I was one subject short for my requirements of exchange. So it was back to the drawing board. What is a subject that interests me, is offered in english and fits into my timetable. I came to the conclusion that i would take Comparative literature of Medieval and Renassaince writings from europe, in the english department of UP. The English department seemed like a great place to find a subject taught in English, and it fit in perfectly (and in the same classroom directly after) my Introduction to Shakespeare class. So here is hoping that it pans out. However after Cathy went to her third world literature class to find that she would need to read 5 novels, and about 13 short stories all for analyses over a span of about 12 weeks, taking up two literature subjects seems like death. We shall soon see next week what my work load will entail.

Now I am officially enrolled in Community Work, project Development in Social welfare and community development (which after two classes, two changes in teachers already seems like it is definitely not going to be a picnic, i may never leave the library), Introduction to Shakespeare and ofcourse now comparative literature of Medieval and Renassaince writings from europe. Then finally, just for fun and excercise Cathy and I have enrolled in Modern Jazz dance classes.
Here is hoping that I survive, and can make it from one class to another in one piece.

The walking around wouldn't have been so bad if in the last two days my right foot hadn't doubled in size thanks to enormous swelling. On Tania's birthday (her 21st birthday!! excitement) we went out to dinner for some delicious thai food, before heading to Kareoke, where we had a private box where we could terribley screech at the top of our lungs with no judgement. It was great fun, except for the fact that my foot had ballooned over dinner and i could barely walk. That put a damper on my ability to accompany my songs with my epic moves like jagger, and left me icing my foot for most of the evening. I have to say all in all it was an amazing night though, just to chill and have some silly fun.

So the next morning when my foot hadn't gone down one bit, instead of going to my first lot of literature classes, I made my way to the University Medical Center. Since the University appears to be it's own suburb it makes sense that the Medical Center turns out to be a small hospital with an emergency ward, consulting suites, and hospital rooms, pharmacies, etc.
The lovely Doctor there told me that after scraping my foot on coral i needed to keep my wounds dry to prevent infection, however being that the air here is so damp with humidity, it was not an easy task. So she bandaged me up, gave me some drugs, and sent me on my way. Now i can say that I am happily walking around (with only a small hobble) and in a few days i will be back to my old self. It's situations like these when i realise just how accident prone I am. I really know how to injure myself in the speediest possible way.One week into living here and I have already made a trip to the doctor for injury. It reminds me how in South America after 3 days I had to go to the hospital due to turning a beautiful blue shade....I sure am a special one ;)

I am missing everyone terribly, the next 6 months are by no means going to be a picnic, they will be exceptionally difficult (on the uni front, just to pass here you need to get atleast 75% which is just scraping by in Filipino standards, which in Australia would be equivilent to a Distinction) and adjusting to a whole new way of life will be hard. I do believe though that I am in the place that I need to be right now, but it's going to be a struggle. Possibly something that I very much need...


Now, I won't bore you all with the details of anything else, as for the most part, i would like to keep you all as friends. And it's not nice to bore your friends or they will never come visit again.

I will love you and leave you for now. Hope everyone is well.

B xox

first week impressions of my new home

Hello everyone out there in the bloggerverse!

So far my first week in the philippines has been an interesting one. Our first full day was comprimised of going to the mall and collecting goodies to make our house a home. We asked for a blue blender, got a red one. we asked for red speakers and got white ones. I asked for a blue fan, and got a pink one. With the pink coloured sheets that are on my bed and the light purple curtains and now my pink fan, my room is looking increasingly pink and girly. For those of you who know me well, you will know that under no circumstances am i a particulary pink kind of girl. It turns out that i am surrounded by it. The bright colours in my room (even if they are pink) make me feel that little bit more at home however. As do the photo's I have stuck up around my walls :)

To set the scene of our new home you need to understand that Quezon City (where i live) is very much a university area. There are 3 major universities right near us making the area unlike the real philippines. Instead we are surrounded by American influence, absolutely everywhere. Katipunan Ave (the big highway we live off) is lined with McDonalds, KFC, JolliBee (fried chicken), Pizza Hut, Starbucks, and a myriad of other such American takeaway. It's insane. Everywhere here also delivers to your house, including McDonalds and even Bubble Tea from our local 'Ninja Tea'. Talk about being too lazy to walk 100 meters down the street for tea. I will be interested to explore more outside of our area into the real philippines.

Living in the house has been interesting, with only cold water, showers (even in this heat) take a minute or two to become used to the temperature, and the unfortunate incident of waking up to a cockroach crawling on me in my sleep. Every morning we are woken up the people on the street sweeping their drive ways, or selling icecream and other such goodies, or honking their horn at the bright old time of 6am. It's a killer!! Why would someone want icecream that early...who knows!

We have also learnt that leaving ANYTHING out for long enough will become mouldy due to the constant moisture in the air, as well as the Filipino's are (to my delight) obsessed with aircon, however I have found myself to be freezing cold when entering a bus or shopping center after about 5 minutes.

My house mates, Cathy, Erin, Tania and I have spent a nice amount of time bonding over dvd's, shopping and having copious amounts of smoothies. To date the best flavour has been Peanutbutter-choc-banana. It's deliciousness all combined in one amazing drink!

We have made a few local friends (mostly thanks to Tania imposing her happy personality on locals) including Henessey, the lady who works at the bank. We have also been down to the university several times to meet the other international students, The education abroad office workers, and to get lost. The place is like it's own suburb, its HUGE, and mostly surrounded by what looks a bit like a jungle and old buildings.
The Philippines are relatively safe thanks to security guards being EVERYWHERE, and even on the trains there is a carriage with security that is only for eldery people and women. They definitely take safety seriously here, but again I have learnt that there is reason to.
Thanks to another Aussie student, i have learnt on campus to avoid what is commonly known as 'rape alley' and also to not be on campus late at night by myself if i would like to keep my kidneys, or else have them sold on the black market. Is anyone else reminded of Charlie the Unicorn right about now???
Definitely instills you with a sense of confidence. Ofcourse this is still quite rare, but safety must come first, and now that we are aware of this we will take extra precautions!! For a class that finishes at night, all three of us who are studying will wait in the library for each person to finish and then taxi it home together. I am quite fond of my kidneys, they come in handy from time to time. :)
But don't fret all, Belle and Joy at the education abroad are very protective and lovely and keep a good eye out for us!

As for classes, we have enrolled in those that are required by the university, and I have also enrolled in 'Introduction to Shakespeare'. I am exceptionally excited to learn about Shakespeare interpretations by another cultural perspective, that and i am a nerd really.

Cathy and I will also be taking part in dance classes at the university a few mornings a week, and are looking into Yoga classes that are local.

One Korean student that we have met has commented on how much we laugh, and quite possibly thinks we are crazy, and even asked if we ride around in kangaroo's!! I am wondering if they will understand the concept of drop bears, or whether the language barrier will be lost on her? hehe.

The work load of each university subject is said to be incredibly intense and other RMIT students who have come to study at the philippines have said they rarely had any time to travel the country while here, so our household decided to go away for a few days before the craziness started to Puerto Galera, off one of the islands. It was a beautiful beach, where we stayed to Jetski (so much fun, i forgot how good adrenaline felt) and snorkel. The snorkelling was AMAZING!! so many beautiful and brightly coloured fish, and interesting corals. I would love to go Scuba diving off the islands some more. I managed to scrape my foot pretty badly on some coral though, OUCH!!

On white beach we are harrassed by locals wanting to sell us massages, hair braiding, pearls and other pieces of jewellery. It was hard to turn them all down, because it is there income to sell their products. We made a few local friends (again to Tania's enthusiasm) and took some tricycle rides around. We had two of our own personal tricycle drivers who we would sms and they would come pick us up.
After our first day it began to bucket down like crazy and we waited in our room for the storm to pass. It was amazing to see the lightening across the bay.

That night we went to a local Pizza restaurant that was reccommended to us, called Luca's. The Pizza's were MASSIVE!!! insanely huge, but delicious all the same. After being told that the cheese here was to be avoided, we learnt that it was actually ok to eat cheese here, you just had to pick where u ordered it from, nowhere dingy.
We asked for our leftover pizza to be bundled up and gave it to our lovely tricycle driver Robert to share with his friends.

The local's here love to burst into song randomly, which i love. We started singing 'to the left, to the left' to which our driver burst out singing 'everything you own in a box to the left'. Life really is a musical here. love it!!

The next day we went out in the pouring rain to get a few beach trinkets and sarongs, and ended up back at the beach to get some massages as our muscles ached from the jetski's. For about $6AUD you get an hour full body massage lying on the beach. It was the most amazing massage. I was able to look out across the shore, to the rain falling on the water, and the sounds of locals chatting amongst the sound of the waves. What I loved even more was that my masseuse was wearing a tshirt advocating for child sex trading to be stopped. I wanted to ask her about it when our massage finished but our boat decided to rock up early, and we had to run to get it, so we could make it back to Manila. The boat docked at White Beach briefly where we went to get a smoothy, and this beautiful old woman with no teeth and a big smile that made her entire face crinkle came up to say hello. She spoke no english and we spoke no Tagalog, and we immediately wanted to buy anything she was selling, she was just so cute! Turns out she usually sells mangoes, but had sold out and just wanted to come say hi. I think she was quite intrigued by Tania and just wanted to hold her arm and smile at us for a while. We immediately wanted to shrink her and put her in our pockets!!

I almost forgot to mention one of the funniest things that i have seen for a long time! In our hotel room we had two trundle beds. Cathy was mentioning how she was worried that her bed would fold up and close on her like in the movies. about one minute later she moved on the bed and it engulfed her that same way!! a laughing fit ensued - So funny!!

We are now back home in Manila and are ready to start classes tomorrow aswell as celebrating Tania's 21st birthday, possibley with a bit of kareoke..hey why not do as the locals do!!!

The biggest and hardest part of the adventure begins tomorrow! Stay tuned!!


Much love xoxox

P.s. I have been trying to post more photos on here, but it appears it doesn't want to work for me currently. So here is a few :)

and so it begins...

Hey all,
Here it is. We have arrived safe and sound into Manila. We spent the night watching movies, and I am not sure whether it was Qantas guilt, but they kept coming around and feeding us constantly, which seemed ridiculous to us, as we would sit there thinking ‘I’m pretty sure you just fed us!’.

Flying into our landing reminded me of a quote by Francesca Lia Block “Strawberry sky dusted with white winter powder sugar sun. And nobody to munch on it with.” For me there was Cotton candy and marshmallow clouds floating in the skies, highlighted with pinks and oranges and even green hues melding in together. As the plane descends below into angry grey clouds who are thick with the promise of rain, lightning shoots down upon Manila, and I am overcome with the realisation that this is where I will call home for the next 6 months.
At the airport people look at us, at our differing complexions and are automatically intrigued and quizzical as to what has brought us to the Philippines. Even in the dark the humidity smacks us in the face, and we begin removing our Melbourne layers.
I watch Tania in the cab, and she is like a kid in a candy store, she exclaims loudly at everything we pass, and it reminds me of my first time overseas in a new city, the utter excitement and thoughts of adventure. When I look outside I see a city. Perhaps it is a sign of desensitizing to new surroundings, but all cities around the world begin to look similar to me. When I look at the people on the street, and the cars on the road, this is where something stands out for me. The jeepney’s (a strange hybrid of a jeep and a mini bus) are what catches my eye as something I have never seen. Each is individual with its street art like outer shell and the cramming of a few too many Filipino citizens inside.
When we arrive to our new home, we are greeted enthusiastically by our new housemates Erin and Cathy. They show us around and have spent the day furiously cleaning the house after our previous tenants (insert exclamations on how dirty boys are) and we sit up for a few hours talking before we are overcome by the travels of the day and go to sleep.

Today I have woken up to the noises of the neighborhood. It appears the neighbourhood rises early and has no qualms about making as much noise as possible. But it’s ok, it doesn’t hassle me in the slightest, it is what reminds me that I am away on a new adventure.
In a strange way it never occurred to me that this is the type of adventure I have never been on before. I have never lived in one place overseas for a prolonged amount of time, nor have I taken part in actual work overseas; it has always been a holiday. This time instead I will be enrolled in another university, taking their classes, and spending my time doing the copious amounts of assignments that they throw my way, and at the same time floundering in trying to keep my head above water immersed in a new culture. Seems silly that this would not have occurred to me until right now, and it seems silly that it has only just occurred to me how tough it is going to be.
I do however believe that this experience will open up so many doors for me personally, and it will make me stronger and more self aware, which in most cases is a positive thing to happen.
It will also test my new found vegetarianism. The last tenant of this house, who was a hardcore vegetarian for a long time, had to make the exception here in the Philippines, or else starve for a severe lack of dishes that didn’t contain meat. Yep, this is going to be interesting.
It is definitely going to be a hard 6 months in every way, but my house mates came up with an ingenious plan to go away for the weekend to a tropical beach to kick start our spirits before the work really begins. Something I will not turn my nose down at. Bring on bliss I say!
I can say that having only been here a night, while mixed in with my excitement, I am already missing you all back home. Today will be spent going to the mall, collecting all things for our house to make it a home, and to buy sim cards for our phones, internet credit amongst other necessary things. I can’t wait to get out and explore the area and meet the locals and begin this scary and amazing adventure. BRING IT ON!!


xoxoxoxo

beautiful FLB imagery

Sometimes she has imagined what it would be like to fly, to live in the river, to run like a horse. She has dreamed of that freedom, that power, and fears the wilderness in herself that wants to live as beasts live, moved purely by need and desire. She has felt torn between the heat of her limbs and the thoughts in her mind telling her to be careful and good and always calm. Don't scream or cry, don't run to him and throw yourself at his feet, pleading for him to take you in his arms, don't strip off your clothes and run naked to the water, wild with wanting.

- Francesca Lia Block







"I wish I wasn't a girl who needed so much but a little free creature that slept in deserts and ran on clouds and lived on lilies."

- Francesca Lia Block



Photo 1 - http://nirrimiphotography.carbonmade.com/
Photo 2 - http://ymefreak.deviantart.com/
Photo 3 - http://pretty-as-a-picture.deviantart.com/
Photo 4 - http://matt-ikus.deviantart.com/

the great 'Great Ocean Road' road trip

there was adventure.
there was vintage stores, and roller skates. there was mushroom coloured dresses, high heeled shoes, and thomas hardy books that smelt old and amazing and like the best of summer, and thunder storms all rolled into one. there was hours in cars riding up and down the coast, then there was camping in the fields. there was forgotten tent poles and tents hung from trees and exceptionally cold feet. there was broken cameras and baby blue wrens, that whistled and chirped and sang songs against the blue backdrop provided by my car.
there were apostles, not quite twelve of them. there was salada crackers, more long drives, and there was laughter amongst the sun. there was short hikes to falling waters, juice boxes and silly stories. there was alphabagetti, and oops cooking on electric barbecues by the beach. there was icecream phish and roaring waves and starlit skies. there was dedications on the radio to two girls serenaded by triple J lullabies, sleeping in their car by the beach.
There was more op shops, and amazing trinkets, and cassette tapes of music from the 60's, 70's and 80's. there was george michael, and in car dancing.

Then it was over, and there was only fun memories, and the thrift store goodies.

There was smiles and there was friendship. always friendship.

a south american state of reverie

I have had many adventures before these next ones that I am about to embark on. The most recent of which has been South America.

This is a small taste of what adventures were had and what i experienced over there. It was one of the most amazing things i have ever done.