lulu-lemonicious

I just discovered that my photo was posted on the blog 'lulu addict'.

So, at my new lululemon store, I had the awesome-ly fun and zany experience of modelling some lululemon gear for our weekly update on new styles that have come into our store. These were posted Friday morning and an australian blogger by the name of 'lulu addict' has used on of my photos on her blog. Famous? no! Cool? very!

For those of you not on facebook (Mom, Dad, this is for you!!!!) here are some of the photos from the shoot and a link to the blog post I'm in!

 http://luluaddict.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/latest-no-limit-tank-bliss-bag-and-more.html

ps. I was really pink and sweaty during the photo-taking. It was a gorgeous 30 degree day in Adelaide and wearing long sleeves and black pants was super hot

Drawing a Blank

I'm lacking in creativity for the title, I toyed with the idea of simply putting 'wednesday' but, lucky for you, I balked at the last second.

I start lululemon tomorrow morning, I'm so excited! After which I will toil away, likely all night, to finish this assignment that's been following me around like a bad smell these past few weeks. It's not even a very difficult project, it's a 'photostory' basically a presentation, minus the public speaking part. It requires a powerpoint document, write up and audio recording. I think the novelty of it all is what's daunting to me. If it was a paper, no biggie, I would simply assemble all the parts, implement my tried and true recipe for an essay and, voila!

Today I lost just about everything, which required many retracing of steps and just a bit of frustration. This headache refuses to budge from my brain, It's been about 4 days now, what gives? I'm not typically a person complaining of "head aches" but this is kind of bizarre. Anyway, I misplaced keys, waterbottle and a brand new bus ticket, only 1/10 of the trips used which made me quite upset. the keys and water bottle were all retrieved, the bus ticket, not so much.

Better luck tomorrow!

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

After 'My Week with Marilyn' was cancelled for technical difficulties, Eliza, Melanie and I settled on the movie named above. It was great! My favorite is going in and seeing a movie I dont' know anything about, or haven't seen a preview for. I find the lack of expectations always makes the experience far better.

I have a headache, something thats been niggling in my brain for the past few days, so annoying. I missed yoga today but made some headway on my assignment.

Miss you and love you!

Pancake fail

I really should have taken photos but the pancakes were just so burnt, I almost didn't want proof haha. Yesterday was the 6-month mark into Henry and my relationship so we planned a cross-oceans date consisting of a pancake feast and a movie. It's crazy with computers, we can both be on skype together AND watching a movie, talking to each other throughout the film, laughing together, all that good stuff. I got the flour and eggs and baking powder Saturday, in preparation of some epic pancakes. It all started pretty well, everything mixing together nicely and then, for some reason, I thought to check the best before date on the eggs and the day was March 8!!! Eww! I had already put one egg into the batter and had cut up my last apple so I decided to just take a chance. I was pretty bummed though, because I had bought the eggs just ONE day before, meaning that the store was selling cartons that were over 2 weeks past it's best by. I got a little paranoid and checked the best before on the flour and baking powder too. The baking powder was fine, marked for Valentine's day 2014 but the flour was already a MONTH past it's best by! I googled that and found a forum talking about 'flour weavils', I highly recommend googling it if you've ever considered using old flour. Pretty nasty stuff! At this point I felt defeated but, since the eggs had smelled and looked fine and the flour was weavil-free, I figured I might as well go forth with the cooking and see what happened.
Burnt pancakes is what happened. I ate about half of one pancake, out of a batch of about 6 and they tasted terrible even with the burnt parts scraped off. I think the main culprit was my laissez-faire measuring style in regards to the baking powder. Waaaaaaaaaay too much, giving the pancakes this terrible, metallic and zingy after taste.
Though the pancakes were a bit of a flop, the rest of the date was PERFECT! Well, as perfect as cross-ocean dates can be. Less than 5 weeks til Henry's here. We started watching Spirited Away but were both too tired to finish it, meaning a follow up movie date is just around the corner-yay!
This weekend was crazy busy, working at terribly early hours, going out with Eliza and the ladies, (kind of) doing homework, y'know, the regular. I'm off to see 'My Week with Marilyn' tonight with Eliza after cheerleading. And tomorrow morning, hot yoga adventures, followed by a very long day of classes, followed by a necessarily long evening of homework catch up.
Love you guys!
ps. finally got to skype with mom and breezy last night (hi you two!) after their trip to cuba, it was so awesome! It's hard to explain but somehow not 'seeing' them on skype that stretch of time made them seem even farther away.

Back in the Game

Hiya!

I am officially a lululemon employee as of a few hours ago. The paperwork was a breeze, since everything important is stuff I'm familiar with already-yay! I start Thursday, which means I"ll work the next two days at the cafe and perfect my chai vanilla milkshake-yum!

Aaaaaaaaand, with lululemon comes the opportunity for some serious yoga class so, tonight, hot yoga, here I come!

Another little side note: it seems I am out to thwart myself on any attempts at homework. I biked into the city today and not-so-conveniently forgot my entire laptop at home! How did this happen? I had to miss a skype date with Henry AND now have the perfect excuse for not working on either of my assignments....not that I'm too proud of that, more just a bit relieved. Alas, the relief will not be lasting. Tonight after yoga is designated a homework Friday night-how boring!

ALSO, I had the pleasure of talking to my Grandma on the phone last night (Hi Grandma, if you're reading this!). The connection was crystal clear which completely surprised me, since the last (and only) time I called Canada back in February for my Dad's birthday, the call was continuously dropped and static-y and echo-y. New vow: call Canada more often!

Love you guys!

Rainbow-y Kinda Day

A rain storm seems to be threatened by all the dark, lingering clouds but other than a few bouts of spitting, it was a fairly clear day. I even saw a gorgeous rainbow, so bright and colorful against a nearly black sky but by the time I had pulled my camera out it had disappeared! Booooo!

I went for $3.50 pizzas with Liv, Eliza and Maddy, the crust was a bit thin but, hey, for that price there really is no reason for complaint!

I didn't do a stitch of homework. Didn't even open it up..........oops!

Love y'all!

Hungry Lululemon Games

I tried to create some sort of sentence/title that would include the 2 most exciting things that have happened to me since I last left you but.... I think it falls a little flat haha.

Hunger games=epic movie! I didn't read the books so I can only imagine the utter excitement felt by the literary fans when they see this movie. My friends who have read the book and saw the movie with me last night raved about how close the movie stayed to the book's original story line. The whole audience cheered VERY loudly at the end of the movie and I know there were some uber fans in the theatre, due to the numerous people in costume lined up. I LOVE midnight showings, it brings out the awesomest people, so much energy and excitement in the air!

As for lululemon, I dont' remember if I told you but I had a group interview last Wednesday, at 7am which was so surprisingly REFRESHING! Waking up at 6 isn't usually my most favourite way to start a day but I quickly saw how much of the peaceful piece of the morning I mis while I'm sleeping away the hours of a day.

The interview went well and I heard back from the store today. After having a coffee meeting with the store manager, Sara, I've been given a part-time position! I'm so excited to be back in the lululemon culture, working with like-minded people who share a similar view on life and health! From what I hear, there's tons of opportunity for getting involved in the community and, vice versa, getting the community involved with us! Due to my previous experience, I'll also get to act in more coaching/personal development roles with the team which is something I'm super passionate about! I can't wait to be back in the game!

So, yeah, that's been my Thursday, plus a load of way overdue laundry! I have a project for my contemporary aboriginal issues class that is giving me the evil eye so I should probably go attend to that now.

Love love love!

All Apologies!

Hiya lovers!

It's hard to believe it's been nearly two weeks! I feel like time has run completely wild, leaving me behind to ponder what happened to the days. Assignments are becoming due, I started working in a cafe and, in short, life happened. I'm so sorry I haven't been updating these past days, it's been on my never-ending to-do list but NO MORE! I love keeping you guys in the know of all my adventures, and especially uploading photos (I like taking pictures of weird stuff and knowing I have somewhere to post them helps me to rationalize said behaviour).

Hmmmm, so whats new? The cafe is awesome, very close to my place, a 5 minute bike ride down the street. This is a major bonus as my shifts start at 6:45am. Everyone I work with is unbelievably nice and helpful, so friendly, and the people that come in are really sweet as well. My accent is a major topic of conversation. My position is something of a glorified runner: I take orders, run food, run drinks, clear tables and (my favourite part) make milkshakes and desserts. I'm currently perfecting my off-the-menu specialty: soy vanilla chai milkshake

I'm counting down the days until Henry comes, and we've been doing mucho planning and booking of various flights, campervans, hotels, trains, circuses, etc. I very much miss him and having the days fly by in a blur is a definite advantage for bringing me closer to his arrival.

Victor Harbor was unbelievably epic but that deserves its own post, which I will follow up with shortly-I promise!

Fringe ended on Sunday but I caught the last performance of a circus troupe: 'Pants Down Circus'. It was absolutely MINDBLOWING! I took Chris, a fellow Canadian exchange student who works at lululemon AND is from Calgary, so we have many people in common. I couldn't take photos but I did take some of the garden, a cool contortionist (although I would argue she's just a dedicated yogi) and Chris being crazy:

The flash makes things really dark and 2-dimnesional looking (case in point, that red shape is actually a  really cool lantern) but the flash off everything is blurry so, I apologize for the bi-polarity of these photos in terms of clarity.

Tonight I am going to a midnight showing of 'The Hunger Games' with my Colorado friend Jennifer. No, I have not read the book but Yes, I am excited! She's crazy about the books and her enthusiasm is quite contagious!

I have also become completely obsessed with muesli, I eat it as cereal and it constitutes basically every major meal of my day. Topped with tons of cinammon, of course!

I should let you all go now, so I can go catch my movie. I'll be sure to write up a review tomorrow.

Love you all lots!

Weekend Bye Bye

Bye guys!

I can't make this very long but I'm heading out to a beachhouse for the weekend with Diogo and his gang (don't worry, not an actual "gang", just a group of friends).

I'll be back monday (sunday for y'all) and will update you on all the recent happenings then.

Love you!
Amye

Aussie Legit

Guess what I got today????

That's right people, I am legitimately (kind of) an Aussie! Or at least I'll now be able to avoid any potential hassle when a bouncer doesn't agree my Ontario Driver's License is a legitimate form of ID haha.

Big Ol' Day

Hi!
I went out last night with Eliza and a bunch of other really cool people so this morning I was feeling a bit less than energetic. I was huuuuuuungover. I spent the first couple hours of my day lazing around, watching TV and eating hard-boiled eggs. Definitely not my first choice for a breakfast meal but the only thing my fridge was offering me today. Next thing on the agenda: groceries!
After an awesome skype date with Mr. Goodman, I ventured out into the world, sunglasses donned against the raging sun. It was actually a gorgeous day again today, not a single cloud in the sky, and the fresh air did me good, I was feeling recovered almost immediately!
Today was a day of parks.
I meandered through one of the city's 4 huge parks first, on the corner of north and east terraces. this little guy greeted me:

I embarked on my journey today with the intention of doing this 'observation' report thing, a first assignment for one of my courses. People watching: awesome! I decided on Rundle Mall, a busy walkway downtown which is buzzing right now due to Fringe. There are buskers everywhere, shops, restaurants, people of all ages and not a single car in sight. I drank some juice, it looked like this:

(as you can see, pure australian fruit!)

People watching was fun but when the busker near me stopped playing his guitar I knew it was time to call it quits. I then decided to (finally) visit Adelaide's Botanic Gardens so off I went, in a leisurely fashion, as everything was closing down around me.

The gardens were DELIGHTFUL! Something about being surrounded by green that just calms me and soothes my soul and recharges my battery. It was so peaceful in there! I think this trip has made me a little obsessed with trees. All the Australian ones are just so twirly and swirly and twisty and COOL! And huge! 

Everything was all fine and dandy, i was sitting on a bench, reading when 2 park dudes rolled up on their john deere and informed me that I only had 5 more minutes before the park was closed. no biggie, I was planning on leaving soon anyway, to hit up the uni library and catch up on course readings. So, I started gathering my stuff up and then another guy roared up and this time offered me a ride right up to the gate. What service!

I started on my way, waking towards the uni when I saw this great photo opp and reached for my camera.........uh oh, I started pawing through my purse and pockets but I definitely did not have the camera. The last pic I took was that tree up there, which was in front of the bench I was reading on so it must still be in the park! I hurried back, confident that I could catch the attention of one of the park rangers so I could go back in and retrieve the camera.

I showed up at the gate and saw a couple on the other side of the locked entrance, arguing over whether or not they should climb the gate or look for another exit. Shoot! That was discouraging. There was a funny old man on the "right" side of the fence, encouraging the girl to get over her fear and just jump the gate. He got curious when he saw me trying to climb over the gate so I explained about my camera. He showed me a shorter part of the fence and was so helpful, offering me a boost up but, ha! I didn't need that, I'm an independent woman!

I got on top of the fence but then the scary part was jumping over, since the ground was a lot further away than it had been on the other side. I had attracted a little bit of a crowd, as I stalled ontop of the fence, trying to psych myself up for the jump, which I should note was going to take place in flip flops.

I jumped, it was fine and everyone up top gave me the thumbs up and good lucks for finding my camera. I beelined it back for the tree, found my camera and then came the tricky part of getting out. Since the fence I jumped over was way higher from the parkside, I knew I wouldn't be able to get out the same way so I started walking through to the otherside, all the time hoping to run into a park worker who could just unlock the gate. 

The park was totally empty which was weird, that is until I came across  a guy doing what looked like clipping samples from a bush. So, without my glasses, I assumed he must work there. I went over and learned that he was not, infact, employed by the park and I had to be the one to break the news about us being locked in. I have to pause here to wonder where were all the park people? They couldn't have done that great of a job if there were at least 3 people who had no idea the park was closed haha. The guy and I joined forces and tried to find a way out.

We ran into the couple from before, who were at the gate when I was jumping the fence. The four of us banded together and eventually made it back to the entrance gate, where we found a low point in the fence, with a convenient rock that acted as a little step to make the process even easier! Awesome!

I'm off to bed, adios amigos!

summatime

Hi y'all, oh ya know, just sitting outside on a gorgeous summer afternoon! I just got out of my peace, justice and reconciliation class and it was so informative/depressing/exciting/inspiring. We mostly talked about a bunch of civil conflicts and corruption, hence the depressing part but then we started talkign about things that could be done to bring about change, which lead to the exciting and inspiring part.

Here's a couple pics I JUST took haha (please note the sweat on my forehead to demonstrate jsut how summery it really is right now)

Awesomeness

Hi guys!

Sometimes (actually, all the time) I just kinda blank on a title for each post. Hence the strange, unrelated, one word, generic titles that sprout up here on the occasion. So...sorry!

Today was absolutely awesome! I finally got to skype with the boy again, after days of separation (that somehow felt like even more of a separation than previous). He had a wedding but I'm glad he's back in a wifi-friendly zone where we can see/talk to each other again. So excited for his visit!

I set off to hand out some resumes, got a bit discouraged when nowhere was hiring. There's a cafe on my street that looks so cool and hip and 'down with the kids' and all that jazz. I got cold feet about dropping my resume there until I noticed they had a sign in the window asking for experienced staff so, stepping through the door, one thing led to another and bada-bing bada-boom, I have a job! Er, another job! I'm guarantee 20 hours a week so this last one definitely takes precedence over the last 2. I start next Saturday so I can still go away this weekend.

Oh ya! Not sure if I told you but I'm going away for this (long) weekend, with friends to a beach house. I'm so excited! Diogo was trying to convince me, I was humming and hawing, we hung up and literally within 5 minutes I caved, and now I'm so excited! It's starting to get cold here, especially at night, so one last chance for beach-y, summer-y awesomeness is in order.

I started two of my other classes and love them! I'm on a knowledge high, well, actually, I didn't even really learn anything substantial but just being back in an academic environment is so exciting and refreshing! I met some really cool people, including Chris from Calgary who's working at lululemon here. We discovered we have a couple people in common, through lululemon and he invited me to a yoga flash mob.....!!!! Like, what is that even??? Obviously I'm in and I'll let you in on what exactly that entails asap!

love you!

ps. this type of fence is EVERYWHERE! that's something a little unusual I've noticed here, that every single house has a fence of some type, the majority being the kind pictured above. Very territorial, these Aussies........

Go Sabres Go!

I just got home from CHEERLEADING! It was F-U-N, what does that spell? FUN! (I couldn't resist)

Right now it's a 4 week training thing and then there are two teams we can join, or both. One is less commitment and more just for fun while the other competes in regional and national competitions. Since I'm only here for one semester I'm not sure which one will work out best but either way I'm having a ridiculously good time! Gymnastics +Dance + Enthusiasm + Big Smiles = My calling in life...................

Monday Jobday

Hi there!

Just got home from a jampacked day of class and doctors and resume dropping. Actually, on a whim, as I was waiting for my chai latte (newest and most major addiction EVER), I asked one of the ladies working if they were hiring. She was looking over a resume so my timing was a bit more than just serendipitous haha. She took my resume and got really excited as we started talking more. I described my barista and serving experience and now I'm booked in for a training shift on Friday. Well, I think it's more of a try-out, I don't think I have the job YET.

Then, at another cafe downtown, I inquired about whether the manager was hiring and he happened to be right there. We talked for a bit and then he invited me around behind the counter, business was slow, and basically started training me right there. He did tell me, up front, that he didn't have a position available immediately but that he wanted me to be a callin/backup/school holiday/saturday girl for the time being.

So....two jobs yikes! I'm going to wait it out and see, the first cafe is at the Mawson Lakes campus adn SO far from my home, about an hour and a half by bus. That's definitely not an attractive feature. The other cafe is pretty cool but since I might not be able to get many hours, I'm going to continue handing my resume out around town. I feel like today must be a lucky day or something, because after weeks of non-receptive managers, I have two potentials in one day!

It's starting to feel more like fall today, which is so bizarre because I feel like I just went through this whole autumnal thang.

Here's a pic of fall at its finest:

M>I>A

Hi strangers!

Sorry I've been so lacking on the posts, I have no real excuse, so let's just leave it at: I'm terribly sorry, I missed you all and I am newly committed!

Soooo,, this morning I was supposed to partake on a Dolphin Cruise at Port Adelaide. It was organized by the university and I paid upfront. Instructions were only to meet at the train station at 10am, so there I was, not quite sure what I was looking for but searching for anything that looked remotely dolphin-cruise-group-y. I found my group, though we were really just a group of 15 or 20 students, no real direction or leader or instructor telling us what to do or where to go. Kind of strange but we eventually realized we were supposed to have caught the 10:10 train, but by then, we had missed it.

One of the girls' friends was already at the cruise ship that we were supposed to have gotten on. She said they would wait for us if we caught the next train at 11:10 but even at her end, there was no leader or guide or school rep with instructions. She called us back saying that she had shown her proof of purchase to the cruise ship guy and he had basically said "That means nothing to me".

So what did we pay $18 for?????? Super un-organized!

We all agreed to throw in the towel and went for pancakes instead. I met 3 really awesome girls from Colorado and we bonded over our maple syrup and chai lattes. We all hung out after, and went to one of their apartments. It's in a student lodge but OMG it's AWESOME! What really hurts is that it's th building I was obsessively applying to and calling when I first got to Adelaide but they were full. However, I just received an email from them saying they've had some rooms open up so.......I beleive this calls for a LEASE-BREAKING!!!!!!

But how???? Please, send me your ideas! I'm desperate!

This past week has had me kind of down in the dumps, and I've come to realize it has a lot to do with my living situation. I'm used to living with my best friends and, though I know nobody here can replace that role, I'm still yearning for some social life in my housing situation. Instead, my room is really depressing and I never see anyone in the halls and the building is so quiet! The management are ultra control freaks, there are new passive agressive notes pasted up in the common areas on a daily basis, if not slid under everyone's doors too for good measure. My screen window has been broken since I moved in and still nothing has been done. It's just NOT the place I want to live and now that I've seen a slice of what I COULD have all my energy is in getting out! So please, again, send me any ideas you may have!

Due to the mysterious skin rash (what I originally thought was eczema turned out to be a major strand of some 'dermatitis' thing, caused by coming into contact with something my body doesn't like, have yet to figure out what that contact was though) I got last week I missed Tuesday and Wednesday's classes so I'm excited to get in there this week and figure out what my other 3 classes will be like., Enviro law is back again tomorrow and I have a follow up doctor's appointment afterwards. (During which I'm going to beg my doctor to write me a note saying my housing situation caused the mysterious rash-worth a try lol). I'm going to hike over to UniLodge after and find out what's available and then come back here and try and reason with the landlords.

Wish me luck!