Some things are universal... like the love for South Park

Sorry I haven't updated in a couple of weeks- I haven't been extraordinarily busy, but nothing "blog-worthy" seemed to really be happening.

I went on my first mystery shopping trip. Pretty uneventful. It took about 10 minutes, then I was back on the bus, scribbling down notes to remember what happened for my report. I should be paid for it on Saturday. I finally see another job added to the website this morning, a shopping trip to Coles. I pounced.

I've seen a couple of movies- The Watch- don't see that. Rent it if you must. It was ok, just really goofy. And The Campaign, which made me miss home because they said North Carolina a lot and made me feel worse about our political system- so overall, a depressing experience.

I have been reading almost non-stop. I need to made a list of the books I've read since I've been here. I am now working on the Tomorrow series, reading at the rate of about a book a day. The series is 7 books total, and it is about Australia being invaded by another country and a group of teenagers who fight against it. It's better than I'm making it sound.

I've voted! Just dropped the absentee ballot in the mail this morning. My civic duty is done. Now all I can do is cross my fingers...

Spring is here, as I've said, so I am getting a tan. I went to Semaphore, a nearby beach, yesterday with Emma and Marie. I have google mapped the bus route, so I will be going again in the near future.

I had dinner last night with Sam, Marie, Sarah, and Emmanuel. Marie made Thai Prawn Curry, it was great. We had very civil discussions about politics and religion, which somehow deteriorated (or elevated, depending on how you see it) to discussions about South Park. It was amazing: a person from Zimbabwe, a person from Montreal, two South Aussies, and an American in complete consensus: South Park is awesome (well, Marie was less enthusiastic, but I like to think it's because she hasn't seen many episodes of South Park).  I have been a little homesick lately; I even have a countdown going on my calendar (46 days, by the way), but it's the second time that South Park has made me feel at home. In my 2010 trip, in Melbourne, I was feeling a little low and homesick (partly because I was literally sick). I went downstairs to the hostel TV room to find people from all over the world enjoying an episode of South Park. Who knew these little bratty brain-children of Matt and Trey could hold such power and unite people of all nationalities and races? Oh, South Park.

Royal Adelaide Show

First, a couple of life updates: still working on permanent job, but for now, I am also exploring the exciting world of "mystery shopping." It's not going to be much money, and may not be worth the time I spend on the report, but it is some extra cash, and if I am ever able to line up several jobs for 1 day, it will be worth it. My first one is this Sunday, and I will be spending a maximum amount of 10 minutes in the store. I will let you know how it goes.
I have been spending most of my free time the past week outside reading in the wonderful springtime sun. Benefits: 1) I am not spending money 2) I am reading 3) I am developing a base tan.

Yesterday I went to the Adelaide show with Sarah, Emmanuel, and an American who was only in Adelaide for one day named Taylor. We picked Taylor up at the airport around 9am and then ran a couple of errands, including getting a Subway lunch to save money and some drinks and snacks to have at the show (remember from the older post about the Gawler Show that "show" means "fair"). We found a place to park for free and bought our tickets (we went on a day that if you arrived before 1pm, adults could pay children's prices- sweeeeet.) We bought admission to this thing called the "Yellow Brick Road," which leads you around the fair to different booths, where you will be given free things.

We spent the first couple of hours winding in and out of different exhibits and filling our yellow brick road bags. We also went into the show bag area, a concept that was foreign to me and will be to Americans as well. Show bags are these souvenir bags you can purchase. There is a huge warehouse full of all kinds of show bags, most of them being some type of candy or toy, so as to attract kids and make them beg their parents to buy the bags.

Around lunch time, we decided to go check out the wood chopping and watch the competition while we ate our sandwiches. We picked a good side because we were right in front of the guys who had the longest handicap times, so they had to wait the longest to begin, and they were by far the best at wood chopping. Check it out!

 

 

It had started to rain a little, so we were all cold. We got some coffee and teas and continued our tours of the inner exhibits. We visited all the dogs and cats (they have dog and cats shows and allow people to walk through and look at all the animals). We also watched a reptile show and saw a rabbit "jumping" competition (jumping in quotes, because I was first impressed that rabbits could be trained to jump hurdles, but after watching a few minutes, I realized rabbits cannot be trained to jump hurdles, and when placed in front of a hurdle, will occasionally jump over it out of sheer luck). We then toured the 'Taste SA' tent, sampling all kinds of goodies and picking up some to have for dinner later. Taylor and I demanded to have a dagwood dog (corn dog) before we left, so we grabbed one, as well as a Farmers Union Ice Coffee (of course, famous in South Australia) before hitting the last couple of exhibits.

 

Sarah and Emmanuel had aqua massages (haha),

then we checked out the last warehouse on the way out. There were tons of booths selling things like clothes and shoes and toys, almost like a market. This is also different from our state fair at home, where you can only really get junk at the fair, not actual clothes and stuff. Emmanuel had been coveting flying helicopters all day, and Sarah bought him one since he was so good today, haha. He was so happy!

 

We stopped by the grocery on the way home for a couple more things, then went home and created a feast of mettwurst (like summer sausage), crusty bread, brie, Camembert, Bojangles fries (which I made, and everyone devoured, I think a field trip to NC for some Aussies and one American from Montana is in order...) kalamata olives, sun dried tomatoes, olive oil and dips and red wine- so good!

Spring is Here!

Spring starts down here on September 1st, and apparently mother nature got the memo because it has been a gorgeous weekend!

Yesterday, I went to the Gawler show with Marie and Hannah. We watch Emma's belly dancing class (and despite hiding on the back row, I managed to get a couple of pictures of her, haha):

then we got lunch. Corndogs are my tradition fair fare, but they are called dagwood dogs or dippy dogs here. Anyway, it was good. We explored the crafts and food competition area, and got the required (at least for me and Hannah) bag of hot donuts on the way out. It was such nice weather, the first day of spring!

Today was the same way, and I spent pretty much the whole day outside reading in the sun. I only came in because I realized I hadn't eaten lunch and it was 3 pm and I was hungry. But I figure, if the weather keeps this up and I never get a job, going to the beach is going to become my job...


On the job front, I applied to several more jobs last week. I will go tomorrow to see if I can check in with Subway and make sure a manager received my resume. I don't get places like that not hiring me. Someone said something about being overqualified. There should be no such thing with jobs like these. I am not asking for more pay or anything, all you would be doing is hiring a more responsible and experienced person as opposed to a high school student. GIVE ME THE JOB.

Also, I am going to be playing on a B grade team next season in volleyball. Our season ended last week (with us competing for the bottom position) and we missed out on the "wooden spoon." They give an actual wooden spoon to the worst team, and both us and the team we were playing wanted it. It was very strange to be playing to lose, but we were worse at losing apparently, and won. I did end up with a spoon though because I had to play on Marie's other team to replace someone and we were playing for the spoon also. So I got a B grade spoon, a little souvenir from volleyball.