Been here a while now!

Hey everyone. Due to people asking me how I've been, I realized I haven't given an update since my first week here. I know I've been bad at writing in my blog and being on msn and stuff, but I'll try better! Everything's great, I really love my life here. Everyone's been really nice to me here and have made heaps of wonderful friends, most of them are gay guys which is always fun lol. Been having a lot of fun and keeping busy. I work at cafe which is fun, except for the boss. My roommate from Germany who arrived a few weeks after me got me the job, she's good quality. I study Japanese, but the course ends on Friday, it was easy in the beginning then got heaps harder. Let's see, I've been to Sydney, haven't really been to many other places in Australia yet, would love to go up to Queensland and Northern Territory one of these days. Yeah.. it was pretty cold here, but it's getting warmer everyday, yay spring's coming!

I'm going back to the US at the end of November for 3 weeks, it'll be nice to see everyone again though I will miss it here, but it's only for 3 weeks. Will have to go from the Aussie summer to the Buffalo winter, fun... I've been speaking a lot of the slang and my friends told me my accent's been changing, don't think anyone will understand me back home. WIll have to make a translation sheet or something.

Anyway, let me know how/what you all have been up to and such. hugs /Will

Speaking that Aussie slang

Here's an introductory course in the Australian language

*As- used after a word to mean very. Ex- that would be funny as

*Fuck- they say fuck/fucking a lot, it's pretty funny

*Mate- friend, buddy, you can call your computer mate. Ex- that's mate. Hurry up mate! (to a computer)

*Cheers- thanks, first time someone said that to me, I was like 'umm we don't have a drink?', but yeah, it means thanks

*Fuckwit, dickhead, fucktard, wanker- a loser, someone annoying/stupid

*Hey?- means what? When you want someone to repeat something
*No worries- no problem, you're welcome. Ex- cheers mate for doing that. No worries

*Jumper- sweatshirt
*Maccas- McDonald's

*Ciggie- a cigarette

*Reckon- think, guess. Ex- you reckon he's coming?

*Tazzie- someone from Tasmania

*Pommie- someone from the UK

*Sheepshagger- someone from New Zealand

*Yank- an American
* Rubbish- garbage
*Root- to fuck, have sex with someone

*Chips, fries, wedges- two of them are the kind that are served at McDonald's and are baked/fried and served with ketchup (one is thicker than the other so it has a different name?) and the other one is in a bag you get at a store. I don't know which ones are which so yeah...

*Bloke- a guy

*Heaps- a lot, many

*The bush- the outback

*Flat- apartment

Aussie update 1

I've been almost here for a week now so I thought I'd give a little update.

Saturday/Sunday/Monday morning: Said goodbye to my family at the aiport flew from Buffalo-Detroit-LA-Auckland-Melbourne. Altogether it was about 30 hours, yeah, not fun. The flight attendants on the Auckland and Melbourne flights were realllly nice. So I arrived in Melbourne on Monday morning, went through customs, almost left a bad at the airport when I went on the shuttle bus, but the driver was nice enough to let me go get it. I went to my hostel, the walked around the city (very nice by the way) and went to look at flats/houses, aka only one since I got lost

Tuesday: Same thing, walked around the city and went to look at a house. I'm living here now. It's with a guy and a girl who are about 25, they are really nice and friendly. There's a German guy studying at uni here, but I haven't met him yet because he's in Queensland at the moment. I get my own room and it's a little far from the city for me and I don't care much for the house. I'll give it a month, if not, I can get an apartment closer to the city.

Wednesday- walked around some more. Tried Vegemite (very popular here, it's in a jar and is the non alcoholic leftover goo from the beer brewing process). It's the nastiest thing I've ever had in my life and people love it here (well most do anyway). It's illegal in the US, as it should be.

Thursday- moved into the house and did some stuff

Friday- Met Mitch, he's was an exchange student in Switzerland and he became my first friend here. We walked around the city and had me try Oporto's. It's kind of like a fast food restaurant, it's really good actually. We bought some booze (chocolate vodka and cappucino vodka) The guy let us try it and he didn't even ask for ID, yay. Yeah, I got sick off the chocolate one, barely wanted to eat anything the next day, it tasted good when I tried it though. Then we went out to a gay club. It was a lot of fun, even though they played old Aussie techno, really wanted some songs I'm used to. The night consited of guys telling me I'm hot, some guy dancing all over me on the dance floor, and practically getting raped by the 'omfg' girl. Yeah, a lot of strange things happened last night, but it was fun

Saturday- a little hungover, mostly hung out with my roomates and watched the footie and saladfingers on youtube (if you're in the mood for getting creeped out, then watch it)

Food- the food is really good here (except vegemite). There are heaps of Asians here so there are a lot of Asian restaurants, yay.

Money- things are more or less the same I think, maybe a little more expensive here

Aussies- they really are a very nice and friendly group of people. Kind of crazy, but that's good. Really forward and direct too.

Job- I haven't got one yet, that's because I haven't really looked. I'm going to make a resumé soon and go out and see what's up

Weather- it's winter here now so it's cold, I should have brought a jacket like my mom had told me, but I didn't think it would be this cold in Australia, but it'll warm up (hopefully) soon

Animals/nature- no, I haven't seen any koalas, kangaroos, dingos or platypuses yet, they're all in the bush. I wanna see some!

Housing-I like my roomates, but don't care much for the house. When I get a job, I'll look for an apartment closer to the city.

Melbourne- it's a nice city. Cool architecture. Different than I expected (the houses and thought it would be a little more fast paced). In a few months I might go try Sydney out, just to see what another part of Australia's like

Pictures- so far I've only taken like two, I need to take some more of the city and the outback and all the fun animals there when I see them. So be patient :P

Keeping in touch- I've been ok at it. I've got to talk to a few. It's hard though, there's a 14 hour time difference from NY and I don't really have internet on my computer (I have to connect a wire because there's a password for getting a wireless connection and my roomate doesn't know it so she has to call her friend). I really want to call my family, but again, it's hard. I miss you guys and I want to know I haven't forgotten yooooouuu

Homesick- The first time in my life I'm homesick. Sometimes I just sit here and want to cry and think 'why am I here!?'. It's not Australia, it's the fact that I'm living by myself. I wasn't homesick in Sweden so I guess it's because I have to worry about buying/making my own food, doing everything on my own, paying for everything. I know it would be like this if I went to college and dormed. So it's hard for me right now, but I'm sure I'll get over it. Oh I miss my family.

Finally moving

So, I'm finally moving after several months debating where I wanted to go. I'm going to Melbourne, Australia on June 6th. I am really excited and looking forward to it. I really need to move on and go to a place where things happen and there's culture and excitement.
Of course, I am scared. Unlike exchange, I'll be living on my own, no family to go live with and no school. I'll be working and having my own place. Those two things seem pretty daunting to me, since I'll have to pay my own bills and such and then being in a different country and city tops the cake. But all that is part of the adventure. The first week or so will be hard while I look for a job, a place to live, get to know the city and get my life started there. I think it'll be best to get a roomate/s. That way I'll have someone to talk to and help me when I get lost (which is going to happen A LOT :P)
I am sad about leaving my family, friends and pets again, I know I'm going to miss them since I've learned to appreciate them more after being gone for so long, but everything will turn out just fine in the end.
I'm really looking forward to going (but not the 25 hours it's going to take to travel there!) and I'm sure I'll have a good time.

Puerto Rico!!

I came back from Puerto Rico last night and it was wondeful. I was there for 10 days with my parents and sister. We arrived at the airport on a Thursday with some old guys playing some salsa music and that was cool.
Things I did:
*Went to the rainforest (El Yunque), hiked around and went swimming in a little lake with a waterfall with really cold, but refreshing water. I saw some lizards, that was it, no other animals =(
*Went to the beach
*Went to Old San Juan a few times. Walked around, ate street food, went to the old forts, shopped, visited some old churches
*Went to Guayama where my mom's family lives. My mom wasn't sure if they lived in the same place, but they did and they were surprised.
*Ate
*went to a mall called Plaza las Américas, it was a cool and big place

Things I didn't like
*a lot of traffic jams
*a lot of stray animals. Well it was nice there were a lot of cats and dogs you could pet on the street, but sad they were hungry and stuff.

Randoms
*The drinking age was 18 there, people didn't even ask me for ID, it was niiice.
*I love mofongo, it's so good! It's made from mashed fried green plantaines filled with meat or fish stewed in like a pepper and onion sauce mmm
*Puerto Ricans don't know how to make donuts...
*the boys were hot mhm
*The people are so friendly and fun there. Really laid-back too. They hardly ever rush and do things at their own pace.
*Even though traffic's bad and people do u-turns all the time, the drivers are pretty friendly and the roads are safe
*The weather was so nice, hot and sunny everyday. The day I came back was cold and rainy ugh
*When we were on the beach, my parents recognized someone from our city, he was friends with my mom's brothers and sisters. He was there with his wife and mother-in-law. He gave me some malta which is a drink made from sugarcane.
*Speaking Spanish again was pretty weird, it had been more than a year since I learned it. Surprisingly I remembered quite a lot and was able to speak it to an extent. Puerto Rican Spanish is weird. They don't say their s's, so 'qué buscas? (what are you looking for) becomes 'qué buca?'. I even started doing that... I was definitely speaking Spwenglish when I was there, saying stuff 'dame un påse por favor- give me a bag please, or yo vänto på minas padres- I'm waiting for my parents' I felt like Matilda and Gunn :P
*People thought I was Puerto Rican (really, not American Puerto Rican), people came up to me speaking Spanish and some tourists asked me if I spoke English and then asked me for directions haha.

Fun with Andrea
I met Andrea a few years ago on msn, we talked on there and became good friends. When I was in Puerto Rico, I told her I was there and she came to see me with her mom and brother and her brother's friend. It was soo nice to see her and we had so much fun! We walked around, talked, laughed, had a perchuga (sno-cone, but much better), and maví (a drink made from root). We had sushi at a Japanese restaurant and got drunk on sake. Ahh, we did some random stuff and had a lot of fun. I was so mad though- we couldn't take pictures together because my camera had broken the day before =( Te amo amiga!

PICTURES:
http://www.photobucket.com/will_parucki

RIP

Yes, someone I know died. I was watching the news today (a few minutes ago actually) and someone from my work (a fellow cashier) got hit by a school bus and died. It's so sad. It's so weird knowing someone died after seeing them a few days earlier. God...

Colors/Discrimination/Censorship/Magazines/Kings

Ok, so I have a few social topics and two random topics to complain about today. Ready?

Colors:
Boys wear blue, girls wear pink. Why? Why is it like that? Today at work a little boy asked for a pink balloon, but his mom said 'why do you want a pink balloon? Pink is a girl color' Not really, it's just a color, it's just society who have it in their minds that colors belong to a certain gender. I think I'm going to have a son and make him wear pink just to piss people off.

Discrimination:
We all know that it's illegal or taboo to discrimate people based on sex, skin color, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, religion, etc. But what about age? Pretty much everyone I know has, I'm guilty too, said something bad about old people 'I don't want to talk to him, he's an old man!' Or, when they're walking behind an old person who's walking slow, people will say 'move grandma!' You never hear anyone say 'Move n*gger!' Being old is something you can help and is noticeable like all the other stuff I mentioned, so isn't discriminating against them the same thing?

Censorship:
Censorship is something that really annoys me. In US there's censorship all over the media, but hardly ever in Europe. Sex scenes are covered up/shortened, swear words are beaped out, and body parts are covered. I've watched some of the same stuff in Europe and saw/heard the real stuff, they even show boobs on commerials. Why? We already know what's being said/shown and boobs/butts/penises, they're just body parts aren't they?

Magazines:
So, I was in line at a store and saw one of those magazines that always have captions on the front page that say 'have great sex with your man!' and stuff like that. I've seen covers of gay/lesbian magazines and never seen stuff like that. My theory is that since a guy/girl know someone of the same sex's body so they don't need magazines to tell them to have good sex :P

Kings:
I just finished watching the premier of a new show. It seems pretty interesting. It's called kings, it's about a king and his kingdom and people and stuff, but it takes place in the modern world. In other words, imagine today's US, France, UK but ruled by an absolute monarchy. Hmm. Anyway, the fictional country's at war and there's a soldier who saved the king's son who was a hostage and the soldier gets famous and the king eventually uses him. The soldier and the king's son are hooooot. The soldier so was looking at the prince like 'I want that bitch'. I think they should have sex. There needs to be more random gay characters in tv shows and in books. Just think 'he put a gun to the guy's head and then they had sex' Now wouldn't that be a good book? :P