Only seven more weeks...

Hello hello everyone!

To be completely honest, since Easter weekend, I truly haven’t done that much other than school, hence the lack of updates!

It’s week 8 at ICMS and good news-I finally have my entire uniform! I received my pants yesterday…that’s great. They are so terrible. Seriously hardcore not flattering. I’d prefer to not have them! Rumor has it that we might be getting some money refunded for this entire ridiculous fiasco, but I’ll believe that when I have the cash in my hand.

While I’m complaining…cockroaches. Seriously?? That’s disgusting. I can handle the spiders, no big deal. But ROACHES. That’s not even sanitary. I’m tempted to start keeping all the ones I kill in a baggie and then sneaking into the GM’s office one night and sprinkling them all over his desk.

This past weekend, I had been planning on a little excursion up to the Gold Coast. Perri’s parents were due to fly in early on Saturday morning, and Per and I were going to meet them at the airport. We were then going to rent a car and drive up the coast, which is said to be the most beautiful drive in all of Australia. It’s quite lengthy, probably about a 10 hour drive. We would find a fun activity to do on Sunday and then I was flying back early Monday morning so I wouldn’t miss classes.

However…Due to a snow storm in Chicago, the Neirman’s were delayed, causing them to miss their next flight, and when all was said and done they didn’t arrive until later Sunday morning. I decided it was pointless to literally have about eight hours on the coast, and so did Perri, so we bought non-refundable plane tickets that we couldn’t use…I had so been looking forward to it too, but oh well. Not in the cards apparently. The Neirmans will be coming back down to Sydney later this week on Friday or Saturday, so I’m sure I’ll get to hang out with them some this weekend!

I got my midterm exams back. The front office one went quite well, as expected. And the facilities management…Well. They have these things at ICMS called a conditional pass. That’s when you score between a 60-70%, and a regular pass is at least a 70%. I’m not going to tell you my score (ha!) but the average for all of the classes was a 46%. (don’t worry, I got above average). It’s ridiculous-the teacher literally just wants to fail everyone! I don’t think he was hugged enough in his childhood.

Last Monday we had another marketing pitch-this time, for Diesel Jeans. My advertisement turned out really well; we had to create a one page print ad for a glossy magazine. Of course being the over-achiever that I am, I made a four page fold out ad. Really, it was because so many of the photos turned out so well, I couldn’t bear not to use them! My friend Jillian modeled for me down at Manly Beach one morning. Seriously some of my favorite pictures that I’ve ever taken. I don’t have the final ad on this link, but I’ll try to get it up soon! And let you know if we won or not…
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2192661&l=f70a8&id=22414798

Today was a really long beach day for me. Thank goodness…this whole Fall thing was starting to get old! I’m hoping it’s really nice on Friday too, that way I can do it again.

Good news-it’s my half birthday tomorrow! (When I announced this to some Australians they thought I was CRAZY…they never, ever even think about their half birthdays!) Not only that, I only have seven more weeks (to the day) of this journey. Crazy to think that I've been here for longer than that already!

Cheers!
MJ

Fun facts:
Primary, secondary, tertiary: elementary, high school, college
School: primary or secondary (never college…oops! I always say I go to the school on top of the hill…people looked at me like I was strange-but that’s probably because there’s a primary all boys Catholic school across the street from the college…ha!)
College: somewhere you live-I live at the college
Uni: (university) somewhere you go-so when you commute

It took how many weeks before someone actually explained this to me???