Also on Australia Day - probably the funniest photo I’ve ever seen. From left to right: Adiba, Mika and Michal the Fearsome
And then what happened?
'But I don't want to go among mad people,' said Alice. 'Oh, you can't help that,' said the cat. 'We're all mad here.'
If you’ve never had your disembodied face stuck on a chocolate pie in honour of your country’s (slightly dubious) national day, then I’m just not sure what you’re doing with your life.
Australia Day in Göttingen involved a very long lunch/coffee session with Andrew, Lisa and Dinant, shopping with Josh and Lisa (frantically trying to work out if the ingredients for Anzac Biscuits exist in Germany - they do, mostly!), a late-ish grill in the freezing dark, Vegemite on toast, lots of Aussie music (Midnight Oil, AC/DC, Jet, Grinspoon, Powderfinger, Silverchair, Amiel, The Cat Empire, Sia, and so on), long and rather inebriated talks on philosophy and the meaning of life, dancing, bogans, and snow falling at one in the morning. Couldn’t have asked for anything better!
Seems I have conflicting superpowered alter-egos. To be fair Daphne gave me the nickname “Sober Girl” because I was the only remotely coherent person in the vicinity on the night we met, so it was more a relative term. I don’t know, is it possible for a superhero to also have a superhero secret identity as well as a normal person secret identity? I guess I’m just super versatile…
Wait. What?
I had a dream about this once, when I was fourteen years old. I remember because I wrote it down in the morning. I still have the notebook floating around somewhere. An old abandoned ferris wheel in the middle of a field - in my dream it still turned, so I guess it’s not exactly the same, but who’s to say the vines didn’t grow in the eight years it’s been since then and now?
This is super, super weird right now. Like deja vu, only weirder. I wonder where this photo was taken?
(Source: glitterytrance)
DRAW-ING IN THE MUD WITH MY GIANT TREEEEEEEEEEE PENCIL!
IT IS MY FA-VO-RITE MUD WRIIIIIIITING U-TENSIL!
MA-KING A PICTURE FOR ALLLLLL OF THE FISHES,
THAT I WANT TO EAT ‘CAUSE THEY’RE FU-CKING DELICIOUS!
DO BE DO BE DOOOO. MUUUUUUUD PENCIL!
MMMM HM. OH YEAH.
So today I finally discovered Adventure Time (“Oh hey, maybe I should take a look at that cartoon Tumblr has gone completely nuts for”) and you guys, oh my god you guys. It’s so great! IT’S SO GREAT. So now I am going to go make myself something delicious and sit down and watch a few more episodes (they’re only eleven minutes long, so why not?)
Basically this is a PSA saying do yourself a favour and go watch some Adventure Time and then be happy.
Second Semester and the Kings of Kugel
Ooh-ahh lookit, a vlog! Haven’t seen one-a those ‘round these parts fer a goodly while. Let’s meet some of the Wintersemester folks, more colloquially known as the Kings of Kugels, as they travel to and from Prague by Deutsche Bahn. And gradually lose their minds and end up singing Dutch Christmas carols. Fun for everyone!
I am kind of tired and only just woke up
BUT
this made me giggle.
(Source: katierichards0n)
Josh Pyke - Covers are Thrown
Oh Josh Pyke. How do you keep providing the soundtrack to my mind this year? Why haven’t I listened to any other albums of yours yet? On my to-do list. Meanwhile, this song is in my head all the time ALL the time.
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
New Day, New Year, January 2012
I’ve somehow managed to catch some awful bloody illness AGAIN (seriously!?), which kind of put a dampener on my New Year’s Eve celebrations. Apt, considering I think I’ve been sick more often this year than ever in my life before. Mind you, I’d have to be at death’s door to really pull a Koala event anywhere below “totally awesome” level. Anyway after trying to put my common room back together in the wake of last night’s celebrating, I sat down this morning to a breakfast of lemon and ginger tea, throat lozenges, and leftover apple and raspberry crumble, because damn it all if I’m not at least seeing in the New Year with crumble! I have the most bizarre assortment of foodstuffs crammed into my fridge and cupboard, and scattered across the table. On the table alone there are four bottles of wine (two half-full), a jar of sambal chili, a handful of Raffaello chocolates, and a packet of Dutch gingerbreads called Pepernoten.
I sat for a while nursing my tea, staring out the window and mentally trying to compose this post. Something profound to say, think of something…! I’m not sure. I’m a little wary of 2012. I have a feeling it’s going to be full of some significant and possibly difficult choices. I think I’m probably going to have to learn how to deal with the culture shock of being back in Australia, and to really measure what happens next in my life. It’s going to be tough to go back to the lifestyle where I have to make certain sacrifices to achieve goals (e.g. social life goes back into storage while I try to make/save money), considering that the three years prior to 2011 all had this very concrete goal of getting me to Germany for this year.
So then how do I go forward from here? The next milestones aren’t really determined for me beyond finishing my degrees in Sydney. From where I’m standing now, I see myself returning to Europe as soon as I possibly can, to in some way continue the life I’ve begun here this past ten months. But then I wonder if I’ll go back and find there’s still a life waiting for me in Australia, one where I stay there and go on as before. Am I going to be brave enough to hold on to this? Should I be holding on? It’s all a bit perplexing. But I’ve learned the importance of taking the opportunities I’m given while they’re there - it’s not always going to be easy for me to get a visa here, so I need to grab this chance while I’m young. There’s still so much to be done.
In the meantime however, there’s a lot to be lived here in Göttingen yet. I’m settling down with my tissues and some Dexter, and letting this day carry me where it will. I’ll take the wheel when the time comes.
View From the Top, December 2011
Photos taken from Olafur Eliasson’s Your Rainbow Panorama at ARoS Kunstmuseum in Aarhus.
Trees and Trimmings, December 2011
Jane and I decorated the tree on Friday evening, which was exciting because it involved a lot of gorgeous tiny birds and ZOMG real actual candles on the tree!! In Denmark Christmas is mostly celebrated on Christmas Eve, so on Saturday the whole family came around and we had the most wonderful dinner together. There’s a very nifty game with the dessert - it’s an almond rice pudding, and a single whole almond is mixed into it. If you get the almond in your portion, you have to hide it in your cheek until everyone is finished, and then everyone guesses who has the almond. And then the person with the almond gets the almond present!
After dinner we put all the presents out under the tree (as directed by Santa’s Helpers, Molly and Emma), and then lit all the candles on the tree, and held hands and walked around it singing carols (in Danish and English). It’s so cool to have Christmas in a new way! Now I want to try Christmas traditions in LOTS of countries. Do you guys have special Christmas traditions in your families?
PS Yeah, I made the star on top! :D
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