Popular Penguins

Posted on October 14, 2008 by AustralianDaisy

Time has pretty much become meaningless in my new world on the other side of the planet. Minutes stretch into hours, which stretch into days, which stretch into months … There is no real point in worrying about how long I will be in Australia. I’m here and that’s the most important part.

So please don’t hold me to it, but I think it was about 3 weeks ago when I met up with My Flattie and we did 4 km of walking in the sand on Bondi Beach. A couple days later, just in time for my newly painful shin splints to put a significant damper on my catwalk, I decided, in complete stupidity, to walk the 2 km from school to the train station because ya know … it’s FUN for every step to hurt.

Halfway to the station I decided it was time for a little detour. My backpack was making me sweat (eew gross!) and my shins had begun screaming at me umm … right … moving on…

What I meant to say is a bookstore, with a golden halo hovering delightfully along the perimeter, called out my name. “Daisy! Daisy! You MUST visit me.” Who am I to decline an offer from an angel?

And that’s when I discovered “Popular Penguins.” And a light shone down from the heavens like “aaahhhh” and … hey listen – I told you in the last post I’m going crazy.

Ok so for real though – yo – I’m totally digging the “Popular Penguins.” And as much as I joke about divine intervention … I do believe that life has a funny way of teaching you things. I will write more about it later but “The Consolations of Philosophy” by Alain De Botton was one of the books I bought that day at the bookstore and I have learned a LOT from it. It’s fascinating and it is actually helping me cope with life so far away from home. I would have never discovered, read or bought the book if it were not for the joyous Popular Penguins – classic books at affordable prices. And I would have never discovered the Popular Penguins if my brother hadn’t given me the heavy duty backpack, or if I hadn’t met up with My Flattie a few days before…

I think that’s pretty cool.

So to share with you one of the things I’ve recently learned from my new book, I present to you a quote from the great philosopher Schopenhauer:

Much would have been gained if through timely advice and instruction young people could have had eradicated from their minds the erroneous notion that the world has a great deal to offer them.

Oh yeah. That’s right.

Supa Centa

Posted on October 12, 2008 by AustralianDaisy

When I drove past the nearby home store mall today and saw the words,

SUPA CENTA

plastered on the side of the building I did a double take. Supa what?

Is that a joke? Or maybe “supa centa” happens to be another language? Because it surely couldn’t mean SupER CentER could it? Oh yes. Oh yes it could do.

Wait … could do what? That doesn’t make sense. It could do? Oh right. Yep yep. It could do. Supa Centa could mean SupER CentER. And it was plastered all over the building and parking lots. It could do.

AGH!!!! I’m going crazy!!!

Please, please put a little more Purel Hand Sanitizer on the humongous scrape on my collarbone. It didn’t kill me last time … And maybe if we’re lucky my eyes will well up with tears again from the 11 point sting on the pain scale of 1 to 10. I just LUV putting straight rubbing alcohol on open wounds. It doesn’t hurt AT ALL. Nope. Not at all.

But it may do.

Right. The Please kill me NOW searing pain from the This will only hurt a LITTLE alcohol dab on an open wound may at least distract me from the miserable grammar headache that is POUNDING in my uptight brain. Who in the world names their mall the “Supa Centa?” Who does that? An “Oz”zie apparently.

And may do? Could do?

NO NO NO NO NO NO!

Did you know the Australian Cockroach (or Periplaneta australasiae) has wings? Oh yes it do. Not may do. Not could do. No. It DO!!!

[deep sigh, shake my head, and self talk, "It's ok Daisy. It's only grammar. And yes Supa Centa is spelled with "a"s insted of "er"s so you have to pronounce it like an Australian ... And ok maybe you hear a lot of Australians answer your questions with "may do" and "could do" ... " deep breath, "But hey - not ALL Australians have bad grammar (in fact most are great) and at least their cockroaches have wings..."]

However, it showcases your flair as a social scientist

Posted on October 11, 2008 by AustralianDaisy

Have I mentioned lately how much I LUV skool? It’s making me heaps-smart.

I got one of my essays back today and here is what my teacher said, “The task criteria are addressed in a sound fashion. However, your insights verge on a much more critical analysis which would demonstrate your flair as a social scientist.”

Right. I am soooo in the wrong course. I got penalized for critical analysis? How am I SUPPOSED to approach it? Like a hippie?

I think so. But the problem is – I don’t want to be a hippie!

Today in different class a different teacher said, “I think we should do some sculpturing. Anyone ever taken Drama?” Wait a minute … I thought I was enrolled in Peace and Conflict – not a Drama class!!! So we broke up into groups and silently depicted the word she gave us. My group was given the word “war.”

Apparently we were heaps-talented because the teacher cried from the sheer power of her emotions. Roll Eyes 4 Yeah. The teacher cried because two of us (who kept laughing) were pointing pretend guns at each other (which were our fingers) and four of us were lying on the ground trying not to laugh. Not that we weren’t taking it seriously but seriously how seriously did we need to take it?

Then she made us go around the room and share our emotions. All of the other students were like, “I felt really uncomfortable, like death was in the room,” or “It was so moving to see them standing that way, I really felt their anger with each other,” or “I felt unnerved that two people had guns, even though they were pretend.” You're Crazy

Say what? Ok the person who said that was DEFINITELY pulling that out of their … well … you know what I mean.

I didn’t have any dumb things to say so I remained silent. Oh no!!! The teacher would have none of that. She picked on me, “Daisy how did you feel?”

I COULD have lied. And I probably SHOULD have lied but no … I, in my honesty, said, “Yeah so I didn’t realize we were supposed to be emotionally involved in this so I just felt like we were playing around.” Devil 2

I’ll stop there – you can imagine what the teary-eyed teacher thought of that … OMG 3

So The Guy Without A Nickname met me after class and we went to lunch. I blah blah blahed to him about how ridiculous class was and then

WHAM!

My flip-flop got stuck on the curb of the street we were crossing and I fell FLAT. That’s right. I fell FLAT ON MY FACE. It was pretty much the most graceful moment of my life. And my bruised knees and bloody, cut-up palms are great because now I’ll remember being slammed into the pavement at a speed of light for the rest of the weekend.

Oh joy – today has been fantastic!!!

Friday – I was thankful for the restaurant Brave – mmm – yummy and gluten free!!!

Saturday – I have no doubt that tomorrow I will be grateful that Amazon ships to Australia. I love Amazon.

Gratitude Schmatitude

Posted on October 2, 2008 by Daisy

It seems like the question “What was I thinking?” runs through my head more and more often.

Seriously – like what was I thinking when I was like “Oh this will be GREAT! I hate Australia so much that I’ll make a gratitude journal about Australia so
I can hate it less! Yay! Pretty fluffy bunnies and bubbles.”

Clever yep – that’s me!

I have no idea what to write today. Why? Because I’m ROTTEN!! And since Matty Matt asked why I don’t have any recent pics posted – here is a pic of me TODAY - looking as rotten as ever.

Hee hee – I actually find it somewhat amusing to be so rotten. It’s like every day I wake up and am like, “Will TODAY be the day I turn into an ogre?”

Ok – what am I grateful for in Australia? Let me put my thinking cap on … hmm….

OH! I think I have something!!! …

I’m grateful that I got to talk to my BFF Matty Matt today on the phone.

SIKE! That totally isn’t AUSTRALIAN!!!

Ok ok – I came up with something.

I’m grateful that my new jalapeño plant is cute.

And if you REALLY insist that my gratitude journal be better than that I suppose I could take it one step further and say I’m grateful that even though they don’t sell jalapeños at the Australian grocery stores which totally suck and even though no actual Australians I’ve met up to this point (besides the dude at the garden store) even know what a jalapeño is … EVEN THOUGH ALL OF THIS … I’m grateful that I found one to grow because it’s like a little piece of back home right in my new cement backyard. And that IS something to be grateful about.

I wish everyone knew what most people do

Posted on September 16, 2008 by Daisy

1. Most people know that most people don’t really want to know how your day is going when they ask. But should that stop us from telling the truth?

Unsuspecting person – “How’s your day going?”
Truth Teller – “My day? It pretty much sucks big time, kinda like a black hole.”

Effective communication often requires the application of cultural and contextual knowledge. And this is why even though my day DID suck big time today, I answered that question with, “Good and yours?”

2. Most people also know that when you share a 3 person bench on a train with only one other person (who is a complete stranger) that you shouldn’t sit next to the stranger. And you should DEFINITELY not sit so close that your arms and legs are completely side by side and touching. Most people know this.

I think most people also know that if the said victim (for example: ME) attempts to move away from the imposer and you can visibly see that the victim is so close to the wall that if she gets closer she will BECOME the wall, you should NOT scoot even closer to the victim.

Unfortunately for me, I didn’t sit next to a stranger that falls into the category of most!!!

3. Most people should know to put their phone on vibrate or silent when sitting in a postgraduate class. And you should DEFINITELY not answer your phone in the middle of a lecture. But if for some reason necessity dictates that you take a call during class – LEAVE THE CLASSROOM AND DON’T TALK ON YOUR PHONE WHILE THE TEACHER IS TALKING!! I’m fairly certain most people know this.

And no – these 3 are NOT the reasons I’m having a rough day.

1, 2, 3… ELEVEN Petals

a petal for every passion, life is just one of them

Category Archives: I feel like I’m taking CRAZY Pills