Wear Grey for a Day!

Tomorrow (1 October) is “Wear Grey for a Day.” Grey is the colour that is worn in support of brain tumour awareness. This is a matter that is very close to my heart. I have known of a couple of people, through family, that have lost their battle against brain cancer, but the origins of my passion come from my own story.

As most people that are reading my blog already know, I was diagnosed with a brain tumour when I was seventeen years old. While I am always open to share my story, most people probably don’t know the full story. I often don’t share it, not because I don’t like to talk about it, but because people often feel awkward when I do, so they don’t ask. Since tomorrow is Wear Grey for a Day and I want to make sure that everyone knows to wear grey, I’m going to share my story. (I have also shared my story on my previous blog, which can be found at http://caitlin-ccg.blogspot.com.au/2010/10/its-not-rocket-science.html and a blog that my family kept during my surgery can be found at http://getwellcaitlin.blogspot.com.au/)

My story starts sometime between 8^th and 9^th grade. I started getting headaches and being dizzy all the time. I would carry around lollies because I thought that it was from my blood sugar dropping and hunger. The headaches weren’t debilitating, just annoying. They started getting worse as time went on. At times, I would get so dizzy that I would start to lose my vision and have to grab onto a wall. My headaches would get so bad that I had to put my head down until they went away.

The horrible headaches only lasted for a few seconds each, but I wasn’t able to bear them without laying my head down. That’s when I started going to my GP to specifically complain about my headaches and dizziness. I wanted to figure out what was causing them. I went to see her every couple of months because of the same symptoms.

I had blood test after blood test ran. I was tested for all sorts of blood disorders, anaemia, diabetes, you name it. I was also sent to a dietician where I had to keep track of everything that I ate. My GP was pretty sure that it was diet related. All of the tests came back as they should and nothing seemed to be working. My GP finally just told me that it must be typical headaches that every teenager gets from stress. She gave me some neck exercises and told me to try to relax. 

Those didn’t help either. I had been going to see her every couple of months for the past two or so years and nothing was helping. My headaches were getting longer and worse. I NEVER take medicine unless absolutely necessary and I was taking aspirin every day, sometimes multiple times a day. I was sleeping every chance that I could. Sleep was my only escape from the pain. I was so serious about trying to stop these headaches that I even gave up Sprite. I usually drank about three cans a day, so that was huge for me!

Since all I did was sleep, my grades were slipping. I was still doing really well in one of my classes, which was health sciences technology. I took particular interest when we were studying the brain. I had learned about it a year or so before and it was really boring. This time was different. The cerebellum really interested me.

Along with my headaches, I was having a harder time balancing than usual. I always had poor balance, but it was getting worse. I couldn’t balance on my right leg and if I tried to walk in a straight line, I would veer to the right. I would often bump into people or accidentally run into the wall without even realising that I wasn’t going straight until it happened.

One night, just casually, I said to my mom, “What if I have something wrong with my brain? Like a tumour or something.”

I never actually thought that. It’s really only interesting in retrospect. I didn’t give it much further thought and I hadn’t seen my GP between that time and when I did find out the source of my pain.

That day came on Tuesday, 5 February, 2008. I had fallen asleep the night before while trying to study for AP Biology. That was a common occurrence since I had to fight through the pain of my headaches to try to stay awake to study. The pain and urge to sleep always won in the end. I woke up that morning with the worst headache yet. Or at least I’m assuming that it was. I don’t really remember most of the day.

I woke up screaming to my dad, who was on the other side of the house, that I needed him to get me an aspirin. I couldn’t get out of bed without one. He came rushing into my room with a sense of panic. He was looking at me really confused and I was so frustrated that he wouldn’t get me an aspirin. I was in so much pain.

He helped me get out of bed and rushed me to the car, explaining to my mom quickly that he was taking me to the hospital. I don’t remember much of the car ride there or that morning. I do remember waking up a few hours later, admitted to the hospital. I was in the PICU and my parents told me that I had a CT scan and an MRI. They confirmed what I had subconsciously known for a while. I had a brain tumour in my cerebellum.

It wasn’t until after my parents had told me that, that my dad explained what happened that morning. I wasn’t telling him that I wanted an aspirin. I was speaking complete non-sense. It wasn’t even English. He thought that I had a stroke or something and didn’t want to call an ambulance because that would have taken longer than just driving there.

I won’t go into the details of my time in the hospital. I will say that I had surgery the next day. I never thought that I wouldn’t make it out alive. I don’t know if that was the medication speaking, the lack of time to contemplate my mortality, or something about my faith in God telling me that it was going to be alright. I was also not shocked to learn that I had the brain tumour. When my parents told me, it was like it all made sense.

My sisters and their husbands both came up to be with me before my surgery and for a while afterwards. It’s amazing how a tragedy can bring a family so much closer. My sisters both live out of town, but came right away when they heard the news.

I am very blessed to be here today. If you’re going to have a brain tumour, I quite literally had the best kind and location that you can have. It was benign, so the chance of it coming back is the same as the chance of anyone else getting it. (That being said, if I didn’t have the surgery, benign brain tumours can be just as deadly as malignant ones because parts of the brain will die from being squished against each other and the skull.) It was in the cerebellum, which isn’t as vital for a lot of functions as the rest of the brain is, and it is good at reworking its pathways. Plus, the cerebellum is easier to access than much of the brain. My tumour was also well contained so that they could more easily get it all out.

I quickly healed. I was in the hospital for a week. Then I was home for a couple of more weeks before returning to school. I also had some physical therapy for almost two months. One of my nurses when I was in the PICU, said that he’s seen many other cases of people with my surgery and I was healing the quickest. I also have three scars, one of which is a five inch scar on the back of my head/neck.

I was very fortunate that I was able to drop a few classes and still graduate on time. It was the last semester of my senior year of high school. I was also fortunate to be able to go to Australia that summer. It was my first time in Australia and we know how important that was now! (Btw, my neurosurgeon warned my parents then that everyone that he knows that went to Australia to visit now lives there. I guess I just added to that list!)

Anyway, brain tumours and brain cancer are some of the most underfunded areas of medical research. Please show your support by wearing grey tomorrow. Also, feel free to ask me anything you want about my story. I am always open to share my story with anyone who wants to listen.

*Jo laughing hysterically* Jessica: It's really not that funny!

I didn't do anything exciting before going to CIF. I just slept, worked on transcribing my interview, and showered. CIF is always interesting, though. I hadn't seen them in a few weeks because I was on my way to Perth two weeks ago and then last week I was still in Perth. I don't see them outside of CIF, either.

It was nice to see everyone again. Jo was just as crazy as usual. She could not stop laughing. No one knew what she was laughing at, either. It was kind of scary, actually. I don't remember all of the funny things that happened. There were just too many and they were all happening at once! Jo's laughing also gets worse whenever Jessica is around.

When CIF was starting, we were supposed to share gross stories. The talk today was about being unclean and that was kind of the conversation starter for the tables. I shared my story of the maggot in my tomato when I was at Murdoch two years ago. Seriously, it was such a nasty experience. Jo was talking about some point in the movie Slumdog Millionaire, where he slips in a poop lake or something. This caused Jessica to laugh hysterically. We then shared our stories as a whole group. Someone said that his toothbrush fell into the toilet and he still used it. He was declared the winner and then his fiancée was declared the loser! haha

After CIF, people asked me how Perth was or what I did over break. I met someone new today, Illy, and she commented how it must suck to be in a long distance relationship. Then Micaiah mentioned that he thought that she was too. She said, well yeah, but he's just in Brisbane. Apparently that doesn't count. I get what she was saying, though, because it is a lot easier for her to see her boyfriend than it is for me to go to Perth, especially when I was still in America.

Then we had church. First we had announcements. Apparently the global partners of Crossroads that are doing mission work in South East Asia, got their car stolen and so the church raised money to get them a new car. We also watched a video that they created talking to the people at the Bible college where the husband works. One of the girls in the video said that her hope for the future is that she marries an Australian, if that's God's will. It made me laugh.

In church we talked about judgement day. The Mayan calendar does end in December, so it's important! (Note the sarcasm because I don't actually think that the Mayan calendar means anything, but judgement day is actually important, so yeah) We were meant to say something to our neighbours about how we would act differently if we knew that Jesus was returning next weekend. I, along with many others, said that I wouldn't do my assignments. (You know you're a uni student when...) The whole service, I was waiting for them to play my favourite song. It's about judgement day and the passage that was read had the title of the song right in it! (We belong to the day) They finally sang it at the end. It made me happy.

Then I came home. I have to work on my assignment some more before going to bed. Fun times!

Now speak with an Australian accent!

I got to Skype with my sister, Jacki, when I woke up this morning. Actually, I woke up to skype with her. She had said that she wanted to skype the other day. I skype with one family member and then they all want to skype. I'm just so popular! It was funny because Jacki and I both kind of suck at keeping conversations going. There's a reason why we used to have Jacki cooking shows on skype when we used to skype a few years ago.  At one point, Jacki was face-timing with Jillian and the kids so that we could all be skyping. It was rather funny. Only my family would do something that weird. Also, Jacki was trying to get me to talk in an Aussie accent. I can't. I'm trying to do some words. Like banana and the way I say "H." Jacki and John were making fun of me.

After skype, I tried to take a quick nap. Then I put my laundry in. The coin machine wasn't working at first, so luckily I was procrastinating because someone else had gotten someone to come and fix it. Plus during the time that I was waiting, two laundry machines opened up. They were all full, so I would have had to wait anyway. Then I went to IGA to pick up a few things.

When I came back, I checked my mail and all that was there was a contract renewal form for Davey for next year. I am able to just renew it for a semester, so I'm going to stay here. I still have to turn in my form, though. It makes more sense to stay here because it would be a hassle to try to move across campus and it would end up costing me more money because of the move-in costs. I wouldn't save that much per week.

I dropped my stuff off upstairs and then went down to flip my laundry to the dryer. There weren't any empty ones. About half of them were done, though. I just had to sit there while I waited for someone to come pick up their stinking laundry! (stinking as in I was frustrated, not that their laundry smelled...)

Then I went upstairs to eat lunch. I ate the rest of my wings that were cooked. Yum! I've almost eaten all of my b-dubs medium sauce! At least I still have the spicy garlic and most of my Frank's left! I finished watching Survivor while I ate.

Then I did my memo for week 8 for Qualitative. I also did about half of the transcribing of my interview so far. We just have to transcribe 10 minutes of it, but transcribing takes a long time. Hopefully I can get a bit more done, but I'm really tired. That may have to wait until tomorrow.

Also, my phone has decided to randomly start turning off. I have no idea why it is doing that, but I really don't appreciate it. It has a full battery, so I'm not sure what the problem is! I may have to go see Vodafone if it keeps doing that. I think it shut off like five times today. It has been working great up until today, so I'm not sure what's wrong with it now.

Janice's umbrella

I woke up this morning and showered. I was then going to do my laundry, but I found more socks in my drawer! I decided to be lazy and wait until tomorrow to do my laundry. I decided that a nap sounded really good, so I did that instead.

Then I got ready to go to Janice's to study. She called to say that she was on this side of campus. I quickly washed my apple juice bottle and went downstairs. Apparently it wasn't washed well enough because my apple juice tasted like soap. I had to get rid of it. Such a waste of good apple juice!

I went to Janice's to work on our Contemporary papers. Greta came over later so that we could work on them together.

Janice made me dinner afterwards. She made steak, potatoes, and broccoli. She cooked my steak perfectly. Yay! I stayed over at Janice's flat until we went to pick up Bec.

It was raining so much today. I actually got to wear my rainboots! When we first got back, Janice actually showed me her umbrella that she forgot to use. It still had the tags on it! It doesn't rain often, but the one time that it did, she forgot to use it! We went to pick up Bec and she forgot to use it again! She didn't even bring it! Fail, Janice!

Bec went to Sydney yesterday and came back today. Janice and I went to the bus stop place to help her get back. She had her bag and she brought home a bike. It was in a box and needed to be assembled, hence why she called Janice. We put the bike together at the place where we picked her up. Then we went back to Toad.  We stayed at talked to Bec for a few hours. She gave me sour skittles. Yum! She also said that I should have made the title about her so that she could get in the competition between Jo and Janice about who gets referred to more in my blog. I already had my title, though.

I also found out that there is something that I can do that Janice can't. (She seems to have knowledge about how to do everything from cooking to drawing to putting together things like bikes) That thing is sewing! She doesn't know how to sew! I've made quite a few things including some quilts, curtains, a bunny rabbit, a purse, and some puzzle piece pillows for my friends when I moved during high school.

Then I went home. I watched some tv online and now I'm going to go to bed. G'night!

It's called natural selection!

 I had an appointment at the Career Centre this morning. I need to start looking for some kind of opportunity to get involved in health, even if that's just volunteering for now. I need to try to build up my resume and connections so that I can find a job when I graduate. That's kind of important if I want to stay in the country, which of course I do.

The appointment went fine. She told me that it would be more difficult for me because a lot of public health jobs are in government and, since I'm not a citizen or permanent resident, I can't work for the government. She suggested that I look at non-profit organisations and try to at least volunteer for now to be able to put something more relevant on my resume. She gave me some papers with lists of websites to start looking for opportunities. She also gave me a thing about how to write a resume because an Australian one is different than one from America. For starters, I should have two pages instead of the one page limit that the career center at Hope said.

Then I had to go to the bank. I completely forgot until I was almost back to Davey. I had to turn around and go back. My parents had lent me money at the beginning of the semester before my loan had gone through, so that I could pay the upfront costs to enrol. I had to pay them back, so I had to go into the bank to ask them about international money transfers. I could do it online, but it had a cap that was lower than I owed my parents. The lady at the bank was able to change the max for me so that I could do it online since that would be cheaper than having someone at the bank do it.

She also told me that I should really have a savings account. Instead of just getting 0.1% interest, I could be getting 5% interest. Also, my money would be safer if I ever lost my card or anything. I'm not sure why I wasn't told this when I was first setting up my account. I didn't have money at that time, though. Now I have a savings account, so it's all good.

After going to the bank, I came back home. I had sent a message to my mom to see if she was still awake. She sent me a message saying that she wanted to Skype when I got up, forgetting that I had my appointment with the Career Centre today. She was still awake, so we Skyped. It was good talking to my mommy. I don't remember what we talked about. I got to see my "puppy." Apparently he was acting crazy and barking at the couch like there was something under there. My mom lifted it up for him to see if there was a toy or something under there, but he didn't seem interested. He's just a psycho doggy.

I had about an hour between when my mom went to bed and when I had class. I decided to try to take a bit of a nap. That didn't really work. Then Janice called to say she was outside of Davey. We were going to meet at Union Court, but instead she went to Davey. I told her that I would be right down, but I had to get my apple juice, so we ended up being late for class. I keep running late and it is driving me insane. I hate being late.

The first part of class was really boring. Plus I was tired, so luckily I didn't fall asleep. Then we had a break. The second part was pretty interesting. We were talking about how doctors are trained. Karemah and Janice were also telling me later about how interesting it is to them that the states have different laws because they are both from countries that have one law for the whole country. Australia is pretty similar to America in that sense because there are many laws that vary between states. It's just even more exaggerated in the US because we have 50 states + DC, while Australia only has 6 states and 2 territories.

At one point during class, we were talking about the control of tobacco ads and sales and how that would or would not work with alcohol. Of course the US prohibition came up. It was funny because he said that probably no one in our class would actually be behind banning alcohol. I raised my hand and Karemah and another classmate also said that they would. Then people were talking about how people were trying to make their own alcohol and then were dying from it. I say that's just natural selection that they died. If they're dumb enough to do that, they'll just get cleaned out from the gene pool. That may be harsh, but so is nature!

After class, we were going out to dinner. It was Janice, Karemah, Hui, and myself. Greta was going to come, but she felt sick and didn't come to class. Hui isn't in Contemporary, because she's not MPH, so Janice, Karemah, and I went to meet her. Then we went to civic to find food.

We ended up going to Nando's. Big surprise, I know. It's just so good! I got the chicken tenderloins again, but instead of the peri peri chips, I got corn on the cob. It was so good! I was debating whether or not to just get the chips, but I'm so glad that I got the corn. I just stole some of Janice's chips anyway.

It was fun to see Karemah and Hui outside of class. We talked about various things. Then Karemah had to leave to catch a bus. She lives kind of far off campus. We stayed for a little bit longer before going back to campus. It started to rain a little bit on our way back.

Now I'm just writing my blog and finishing watching Survivor.

There are some things that you shouldn't tell Graham!

The first thing that I did today was interview my cousin. I was a lot calmer about it today than I was before we tried to do it yesterday. I think that talking to Rohan last night helped. He somehow manages to get me to calm down. Plus since we skyped I could figure out if my recording thing that I downloaded was working. It was! Yay!

The interview went well. Hopefully I'll be able to write my report easily. I still have to transcribe it, though. That should be fun! *note the sarcasm. At least we only have to transcribe 10 minutes instead of the whole thing. Also, I just want to thank my cousin again for helping me out! (I won't say her name because of confidentiality, though; and I have like 40 first cousins, so saying 'her' doesn't really give anything away.)

Then I had like a half hour to get all my stuff ready for class. I kinda got distracted and was a little late by the time I got there. Oops. Today, Janice remembered my liquorice so she gave that to me when I got there. Isn't she awesome?! It's so good! Just like I remember it from two years ago!

The blog title obviously comes from class. Janice was talking about how her interviewee wanted to go out for drinks after the interview and Graham said he was glad to hear that someone else did that and he wasn't the only one talking about it. The amount of times that he talks about alcohol is kind of ridiculous! Anyway, now he's using her as an example to back up his alcoholism!

During class, we split up into focus groups to practice them and both focus groups actually talked about alcohol. It could have been any topic, so it was interesting that we both chose alcohol. I found out that most of the class doesn't drink, either. There were a couple of other people in my focus group that didn't and then the other group said that most of them didn't drink. I found that interesting because it seems so hard to find other people that don't drink. I kind of wonder if it's because of the cultures that different people come from or if it has to do with us being in the MPH program and alcohol is associated with a lot of health problems.

We also got our grades back for the companion article journal things. I got an HD!!!! Well, barely, but still! I was excited. (A HD is the equivalent to an A back in the US, even though the percent for each cut off is different)

Then I went to my indigenous class. Qualitative ran late, so I miss the lecture entirely. They were on break when I got there. Class was pretty boring, as usual.

I finally realised that I can just go back to Davey through the back entrance. I'm so smart to have just realised this now. It is so much quicker! For some reason, I never realised that the building just further down was the back of Davey.

I was starving when I got back, so I made hot wings. I made them in my oven! Michelle, Rohan's mum, gave me a turbo oven that she had but didn't use any more. It is such an interesting thing because I've never seen a turbo oven before. I kind of wonder if it's just an Australian thing because Janice and my mom have never seen one before either. I've added some pictures of it to flickr. When it is cooking, there is a bright light, so it was hard to take the pictures. http://www.flickr.com/photos/9602956@N05/sets/72157630693955104/

I tried to take a short nap as I was cooking dinner. That didn't really work. The turbo oven cooks things in like half the time. I flipped the wings after 1/2 hour instead of an hour like I do in a normal oven. Also, I have the oven in my room for now, so the light was bright and I didn't want to forget about it. In total, the wings took about 45 minutes instead of 1 hour 30 minutes. I really like this thing. I get to eat wings, cook them in less time, and with no splatter of oil burning my hands!

I watched tv online while I ate dinner. The stupid Dish online thing wasn't working again, so I had to go to another weird site. I also finished moving over all of my important old emails from my Hope account to my gmail account. We no longer get access to our Hope emails about five months after graduation, which puts us around the beginning of October. It's really annoying because I had to change my contact information for a lot of different things because I foolishly listed that email instead of creating an adult email that I could keep four years ago. Oh well, I know now and all of that annoyance is over.

Tonight, Karemah also messaged me to make sure that I was ok and she said that she was praying for me. I have awesome friends! The rest of this semester is going to be really hard on me for a multitude of reasons and it really means a lot that my friends are noticing that I'm having a hard time and that they care about me enough to try to help. I'm lucky to have them.

I even wore purple for the lady with the purple coat!

This morning was stressful. I was supposed to interview my cousin today but that didn't happen. The stupid program that I downloaded to record my skype interview wasn't connecting with skype. I couldn't figure out why it wasn't working and I tried looking it up online. Guess what finally worked that I didn't try until an hour before I had to go to class. That's right. Turning in off and on again. I fail. At that point I had to leave in an hour and the interview is supposed to be more than a hour, so we rescheduled for tomorrow. At least my cousin is understanding of the fact that I just got back from Perth last night, so I didn't have a chance to try out the recording thing first.

Oh, also, my heater still wasn't working. I'm glad that I have my thermal sleeping bag.

At 1, I went to class. I actually talked a bit in class despite not really reading the readings. I skimmed a few pages of one or two like a week ago, but that doesn't really count.

I got to see Janice today! She was really excited to see me. I'm pretty depressed, though. It makes me feel bad about not being excited to see my friends again. I hate depression. This coming month and a half is going to be horrible and combine that with my depression of leaving Rohan again is not a good thing. I'm prone to anxiety and depression so this isn't helping.

After class, Janice and I went to get gelato. We were really hungry and going to get dinner, but I decided that I wouldn't be able to eat. I hadn't really eaten in a while and I can't eat when I am anxious. We just went to get gelato. I had raspberry. We also had some much needed girl talk. Janice definitely helped with my anxiety, so that's for that, Janice!

Janice needed to pick up some things from Big W, so we also went there. They already have the Christmas stuff up! Seriously! It was just starting to get put up, but it seems so early! I guess that they don't have other holidays to celebrate first, like we do in America. No Halloween or Thanksgiving. So sad.

We also went to SupaBarn because I have no food. I didn't want to get anything before I left for Perth because it may have gotten old by the time I got back. I picked up a few things.

Janice stopped over at my flat for a little bit when we got back. I don't remember what we were talking about, though. She did want to see my oven. I remember that much. I also discovered that my heater was working again. It just randomly stops working. Also, Janice said that she was sad that the lady with the purple coat was not in class today. We don't actually know her name, but she always wears a purple coat. She contributes so much to class even though we don't really know what she's talking about half the time. It's way over our heads. Janice is obsessed with her, though. She said that she even wore purple today because of her. Janice is weird.

When Janice left, I decided to take a much needed nap. Like I said, I'm depressed and I don't eat but I sleep when I'm depressed. Plus I didn't sleep as much as usual when I was in Perth and I just like naps. When I woke up, I ate some dinner. I was going to make the wings that I bought, but I decided not to because they would take too long. I just heated up some green beans. I also watched the finale of SYTYCD. My parents got this thing for their DVR so that I can watch what they record online. It is awesome because I don't have to go to dodgy sites to watch my shows, there are no ads, and it doesn't have to buffer for ridiculous amounts of time! (or at least it didn't have to today)

Then I took a shower before talking to Rohan on skype. We had to talk about a few things. Also, since it was skype, I could try out the recording thing. I'm pretty sure that it worked, but I'll have to play it back to make sure that it is right.

Now I need to go through my topic guide for my interview tomorrow and get some sleep. My back is starting to hurt from stress!

Caitlin goes BACK to Canberra

Well today was sad. Goodbyes are hard. That's especially true when you're in a long distance relationship and you've only actually been in the same city for a total of 4-ish weeks of your whole relationship that has been 16 months. (and one-ish additional week before you were dating, which would put the time back to almost 2 years) I know I'll see Rohan again in 2-3 months time. While that's better than before, it still doesn't make it easy at all. I kind of wish I still couldn't cry. For those who don't know, I've suffered from depression since I was 15 and I wasn't able to cry, with one exception that I can think of, until I got home from studying abroad about two years ago. That's because I missed people from NTE and by people from NTE, I mostly mean Rohan. I'll blame him.

Anyway, the actual events from today. Well, I packed my suitcase last night, but I needed to repack it. I took a shower first, though. Then I repacked my suitcase. I don't have an oven at Davey and Rohan's mum knew this. She had an extra turbo oven thingy that she didn't use any more, so she gave it to me to take back. She wasn't sure if it worked, so we'll see soon, I suppose. It was interesting trying to get it in my suitcase. It just fit! And I mean just. It was almost too fat to pull the zipper around. I also had to put some clothes in it, which made me laugh. But really, doesn't everyone bring an oven back with them across the country in a suitcase?

Rohan made an ice coffee and got his stuff for uni packed up. His mum was taking him straight there after I left. I couldn't help but just hug Rohan almost the entire time. I was also petting Jasmine for a bit there. Did I mention that long distance sucks?

Then we went to the airport. I was pretty quiet. I was also shaking from anxiety. Flying makes me anxious. It's not because I think that the plane will crash or anything. I'm just nervous that they'll lose my luggage, I'll lose something, I'll go to the wrong gate, I'll miss my flight, I'll somehow get messed up with something and they'll lock me up for thinking that I was a threat or something. I have a lot of anxiety. Plus this was the first time that I didn't have someone picking me up at the airport. I had to find the taxis to take one home.

When we got to the airport, Rohan's mum went to some cafe thing to get breakfast. I checked my bags and got my boarding passes. Then we went to sit with Rohan's mum until I had to board my plane. They got breakfast to eat, but there was no way that I could have eaten. I had way too much anxiety and I vomit when I get anxious. Luckily I can control it much better than I could a couple of years ago, but just the smell of the food made me nauseated. I was anxious all through breakfast about making my plane, but clearly I wasn't going to leave Rohan before I absolutely had to.

He finished breakfast at about 9:50, so then we went to the departures security check. My flight was boarding at 10. It was good timing. We said our slightly teary goodbyes, as in mine were teary. They weren't quite as bad as they were in January, luckily. At least this time I do have a rough estimate of when I'll see him again. I had no idea then, as I was still applying fror grad school and didn't know if I would get accepted in Australia.

I went through the security check. The dumb person made me take out my laptop. I got the checkpoint friendly laptop case for a reason! At least it's easier to get it in and out of this case anyway. I don't remember what else happened. When I got on the flight, I was really tired. I took several naps. I was in the aisle seat, so I couldn't really get comfortable; even if I can roll myself into a little ball.

Then I got to Melbourne. The layover was annoying because they told me the gate back at Perth when I got my boarding passes, but the flight wasn't listed on the screen by the gate when I got there. There was another flight that was before mine and the list didn't go on further. So I sat down figuring that it was the right gate, but the screens aren't visible from the seating area. I'm not sure why there aren't other screens. It just seemed dumb to me. I kept trying to look at the boarding passes of everyone else that was sitting there to see if they were going to Canberra, too. It took a while until someone was close enough that I could read their boarding pass. It was the right gate. I just have an anxiety problem. Plus they don't usually give you the gate until you're actually at that airport and you need to find it on the tvs. Also, I had to go out and back in to security again because the Melbourne airport is dumb.

The Melbourne to Canberra flight is short. The pilot said it is a 42 minute ride. We got there 10 minutes early, not that it matters. I went downstairs and got my luggage. It was out pretty quickly. I'm glad that it made it, although I've never lost my luggage. *knocks on wood*

Then I had to find out where to get a taxi. Like I said, it was my first time going to the airport and not getting picked up. I didn't actually know what I was doing. Total anxiety. I just followed the signs that said something about taxis. They were all in a row and this guy told me to just go to the first one. I was glad. The only other time that I took a taxi by myself was when I was leaving the flat that my parents were staying at when they were visiting me to go to the Murdoch student village really early (before the buses where running) to get a ride from Steve to go on Bus Trip. Australia really makes me grow up!

Anyway, the taxi ride was fine. No awkward conversations like my taxi ride two years ago, but that's another story! I got home. I cried a bit. Ok, a lot. Well off and on. Also, my heater isn't working. It's so cold! It makes me REALLY glad that I bought that microwavable koala and that I have my thermal sleeping bag. Otherwise it would be a LONG night.

I'm exhausted and I want to go to bed, but I can't. It sucks. I have to finish up some stuff for qualitative so that I can do my interview tomorrow morning. Oh the joys of a postgrad student!

Did you try turning it off and on again?

We went to church this morning. It was just Rohan, his dad, and me that went at that time. Justine was staying home to study and Elise and his mum were already at church. They were part of the music group people.

On our way into the actual church, this kid came up to Rohan and gave him some nerf darts that someone found in the church that apparently got left behind on Friday night. It was funny to me! I also met some more people. Everyone wants to meet me! I'm like a celebrity; it's great!

I actually only knew one of the songs that we sang during church today. The rest were all new to me. Also, the drama club thingy did some skit during the service. I just talked to Rohan about it and I guess that's not normal there. I thought it was weird because I'm not used to that. Growing up in a Catholic church, you would never really see that during Mass. While I don't go to a Catholic church any more, it's still kind of weird to me. Church also apparently ran long because of it.

After church, I was introduced to some more people. Rohan ran after some little kid and then a little girl ran up to him and hugged him. Then we went back to Rohan's house. He started giving me a tour of his room. Seriously, there is so much in there! It's like a dump. That's his wording since I couldn't think of a word and that's what he gave me. I was thinking more of a treasure trove or something.

We were back for a little bit before going to get lunch. We were going to eat it at a park and we were meeting Rohan's grandma there. We went to Munchies to get burgers. Justine and I shared. It is funny because I only like tomato sauce on mine and she doesn't like tomato sauce. We just got it with the sauce on the side and then I picked everything off. It was a really nice day.

When we got back, I started crying. I don't want to leave. Long distance really sucks! At least this time I know that it won't be as long as before. I'll at least be back at some point during Christmas. When I finished crying, we finished the tour of his room. It really took a long time to get through everything. And by everything, I really mean we skimmed and it still took forever. I'm REALLY not sure how he's going to move out! Then I started to write my blog post for yesterday.

Then it was dinner time. We each made a pizza. Rohan asked his mum where the watermelon was. If you don't get that, read my previous post about the watermelon. My pizza had pepperonis and tomato sauce and Frank's and cheese. It was spicy and yummy. We ate dinner while watching Doctor Who. Then Rohan and I watched this show about the cheapest people in Great Britain. He seems to think that it's like me for some reason. haha. I'm cheap, but I'm not quite that cheap.

Now Rohan is playing video games on his computer as I am writing my blog.

The title comes from Rohan, of course. I told him that I still needed a title. He asked me that question and I responded that it wouldn't help me think of a title. Then he responded with, "or would it?!" Yeah, blame him for the weird titles.

Always bring your DnD dice

I slept in. Then I tried on my dress again because I could and I wanted to. Actually it was to make sure that it actually would fit if I was dancing because I hadn't really checked for that when I tried it on when I first got here. I was kind of worried about the halter strap being too big and therefore the top falling too low. It seemed like it would be fine. After trying on my dress, I took a shower and it was noon by the time I was done.

I went out to the rest of the house to find out that only Rohan was home. The rest of the family left to go to Justine's grand final for netball. I sat with Rohan while he played video games on his computer. I didn't feel well, though. Eventually I decided to take a nap. Well, actually, Rohan told me to take nap. I felt better after that.

Then I don't remember what happened before we got ready for the ball. I do remember that Rohan asked me how long it would take me to get ready. I told him not long since I don't even own make-up, let alone know how to put it on, and I don't know how to do my hair. He ended up taking a lot longer than me. Especially if you count the time that I couldn't be getting ready when he was trying to figure out what tie to wear. He tried to wear his 8-bit tie. Technically it was blue, so it matched, but I still said no because of the pictures. A normal tie would look so much better with my dress! But seriously, he took forever. He's always late, though. We'll have to work on that.

While he was getting ready, I was being paraded in front of his mum's friends, Justine's friend, and Elise's friends. I had met Justine's friend the night before at youth group, though. Then Scott and Kate came to pick us up while Rohan was STILL getting ready. When he had finally tied his tie, we could get pictures. We got some of the two of us and then some with Scott and Kate, too. There was also a couple of Scott and Rohan. They have a sort of bromance thing going on and Kate and I were worried that they'd have more pictures of them together throughout the night than they would with their girlfriends. Luckily that didn't happen since Rohan stayed with me the whole night, although I haven't seen anyone else's pictures from the ball yet.

Next we stopped over at Scott's house. He had to go back after picking everyone up because his parents wanted to get pictures. Then we went to the Yacht club. Scott only got a little bit lost. He just drove past it, but luckily that road was a dead end, so he just turned around. Apparently this is an achievement for Scott as he's navigationally challenged. Also, Rohan brought his backpack, but left it in the car. He was trying to figure out what he should bring in. He thought about his DnD dice, which is where the title comes from. I mean what if a game breaks out and you don't have time to go back to the car and get your dice? He didn't actually bring them in, though.

The ball was amazingly fun. I didn't really take pictures at the ball since I wanted to enjoy it and I knew that there were a bunch of other people taking pictures that would end up on facebook anyway. I'm just going to add a bunch of things that happened at the ball, not necessarily in order.

The first song that came on was Gangnam style. I didn't feel well, so I had to sit down for a little bit. Rohan REALLY wanted to dance to that song and was looking forward to it the most. He stayed and sat with me. If that isn't true love, I don't know what is!

Single Ladies came on. Rohan wouldn't let me dance. I thought it was funny because technically I'm single since I'm not married. Whatever, it was funny to me.

Rohan's dancing was really the moves from Just Dance. At least for any song that was on there. He has them all memorized and there were a few that he danced together with Naxtens. One of those also included Scott. It was hilarious.

The veggie skewers actually didn't have veggies on it. At least not in the botanical sense. It had mushrooms (fungi), capsicum (fruit), pineapple, and tomato (fruit). Actually, there was on slice of onion. Just one slice.

Rohan didn't know Mmmbop. I'm disappointed.

I didn't remember the song Teenage Dirtbag. Apparently that's weird. We were also outside at that point because I wanted to sit down and those were the only chairs. Rohan played it again for me today (as I'm writing this on Sunday) and it kind of sounds familiar. Rohan says he is "disappoint."

I knew every word to Everybody/Backstreet's Back. Rohan thought this was weird. It's on my zune, though. Plus as a child of the 90s, I feel like it's my duty to know it and I saw them in concert last summer.

Party in the USA played. It was funny because we aren't in the USA. Also, because I'm American. A funny story about that song is that it was the last song that played on my zune before landing in Sydney for my semester abroad at Murdoch two years ago.

We had fun acting out some of the songs. The ones that come into mind particularly are Love Story by Taylor Swift and Forget You.

I made Rohan do that Macarena. He said that he refuses to dance it and as soon as they started playing it, he ran to sit down. Then I started dancing it in front of him and he joined me. Mwahahaha.

The theme was a night at the races, so there was a race contest. There was one guy selected from each uni to compete in a race in high heels. I think that the guy from Murdoch won. Ben was the representative from Curtin. I don't think he actually left the start line before everyone else was back.

Rohan sang One Direction's What Makes You Beautiful to me as we were dancing. Actually he also sang One Thing but that was only kind of since it was on when we were outside.

Rohan chased some food down at times. It was funny when he realised that there was ice cream outside. He ran and kept asking people where it was.

Some guy that we didn't know before was trying to steal Rohan away. It didn't work.

Rohan kept trying to convince me again that a beard is the most manly thing ever. It failed when he tried to ask that question to Naxtens and that random guy.

There was one guy that showed up looking like Matt Smith, who currently plays The Doctor on Doctor Who.

The last song that they played for the night was Gangnam Style again. I'm glad that Rohan got to dance to it. There were also a couple of guys that learned the whole dance and dressed to try to look like the guy from the video. It was funny.

It was definitely an amazing night. I'm so glad that I was able to come. I was also happy that my dress fit so perfectly and there was no wardrobe malfunction. Yay! Plus I think that my fascinator looked awesome with my dress. Thanks again for making it, Janice!

After the ball, Scott dropped Rohan and me back off at Rohan's house. We had an interesting conversation on the way back regarding how long you'd be able to live if you could only eat your own body, assuming that any cuts you made were clean cuts that didn't get infected or lose copious amounts of blood. That evolved to how long it would take for you to die if enclosed in a room that didn't have air flow and other strange things. Rohan has a twisted mind. When we got to Rohan's house, we stayed up and talked for a while before going to bed.

Pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/9602956@N05/sets/72157631555342863/

The Curries do weird things with watermelons...

Rohan and I got up pretty early this morning because we were going to Skype with my favourite nephew, Austin. Well, he's my only nephew, but that's beside the point. He's been obsessed with Rohan ever since he met him when Rohan came over for Christmas. When I skyped with Jillian and her family the first time when I was back in Australia, the first thing Austin asked me was "where's Rohan?" To which I had to explain that he still lives far away and that we'd skype with him when I went to visit. That I did. I'm such a good aunt. It was nice to see Jillian and the family. My niece and nephew are so cute!

Then Rohan had to go to uni for a few hours. I decided that I was still tired, so I took a bit of a nap. After my nap, I then wrote my blog post from yesterday. Then it was time for lunch. Elise came and got me. They had picked up a roast chicken for us to eat. They all put it on bread and ate it as a sandwich. I just got some bread on my plate to eat by itself but I ate the chicken with some Frank's RedHot. Rohan still has that bottle that I sent him like a year ago.

A bit after lunch, Rohan's mum went to go pick him up even though he was supposed to cycle home. Then we played some games. Rohan's dad, Justine, Elise, Rohan, and I played Citadel. I totally kicked butt! Some how amazingly! It's a type of card game where you pick a character each round and then you buy different cards to make districts.  Not only was I the first to build eight districts, but I also had all of the different colours. They were actually aiming to kill me or steal from me for a couple of rounds to prevent me from winning. It didn't work.

Then we played another game, which I forget the name of. The object of the game was that the letters were lined up along the centre of the board. Each team picks a card on their turn and then comes up with one word that fits the category. Then you spell that word by moving over the letters toward you. If the letter moves more than two places, your team gets to keep that letter. Elise and Rohan's dad were on one team and Rohan and I were on the other. Justine was supposed to be studying, but she was half on Rohan and my team. Once one team thought up watermelon, we tried to use that for multiple things. I can't remember them all now, but I know that one was for the category of pizza toppings. I don't know what kind of pizza Rohan eats!

After the game, Rohan and I took Jas for a walk. I seriously love his dog. She's so cute! Anyway, Rohan kept trying to run. Yeah, I don't do running. We got to a park and it started raining. Rohan said we could have run to a friend's house that was nearby, but instead we just went under a tree. Then we walked back to his house. He left me in the back with Jas and he went back out to literally run to the store because he had to pick up something for his mum. I took that opportunity to have a photoshoot of his dog. So cute!

Then Rohan came back. I'm guessing that it was then time for dinner. We had some chicken wrap things. Apparently they were supposed to be spicy. Haha that's funny. I put Frank's on it. Then Rohan got picked up by Scott to go to Youth Group. They are leaders and had to go early. I spent a while with the family and then decided to go with Justine to Youth Group. Rohan said that technically he wasn't allowed to invite me, so I was Justine's friend for the night. I just followed Justine around that nighgt. I actually told people that I was Rohan's girlfriend, though. It was fun to tell people that I was Rohan's girlfriend. I actually exist! Someone told me that they thought it was a joke when he changed his relationship status on facebook.

It was funny because today's theme was romantic relationships. How ironic! First they played the games. Rohan was in charge of the games. There was a complicated assortment of nerf games that ended in an ultimate battle. Justine was the second to last person in the game. She was just eight seconds away from the end. So close! and she took out so many guys by herself after her team mates had all died.

Then they split up into boys and girls groups since the topic was romantic relationships. They actually did it differently where the guy leaders talked to the girls and the female leaders talked to the boys. There was actually some interesting conversations going on, but I won't go into details.

After the talks, everyone went out into the foyer and just talked, ate, or played around. I talked to some people. Then we played Just Dance. So there's this one song that Rohan and his friend, Naxtens, started to dance to a while back that was actually a couple's dance song. They didn't know that until it started, though. Then they played a bit of gay chicken, but ended up finishing the song. They then kept trying to get Scott and his girlfriend to do the dance. Scott always refused. Rohan told me about this and that we have to do it so that he can forever hold that over Scott's head. Also I apparently have little dignity and so I wouldn't care if I made a fool of myself. I guess that's true since I did it. It really wasn't that embarrassing. I got Justine to take pictures. Rohan gets me to do the dance; I get pictures of him! Great plan. I now kind of wish we had a video, though. Oh well.

Then Rohan, Scott, and Naxtens did a dance before I joined in on the fun again. I got someone to take pictures again. Yay! We danced to a couple of songs before packing up. At one point, I failed miserably at throwing a football. Yes, they had an American football there. Then Scott asked what country I was from again. (jokingly, of course) Then he added, Canada? Ohhecksno! (imagine I said that in a ghetto voice) That's so offensive! I do not play hockey or say 'eh.' Rohan then proceeded to call me Canadian for quite a while after that. Bad, Rohan. I had to up my American-ness by holding one of the really big nerf guns. Americans like guns, right? Rohan was also singing this weird song from youtube about wanting to be Canadian, so I started singing God Bless America. We have a weird relationship.

When we got home, the gate was broken and Rohan had to screw it back on. Really exciting, I know. Then something else evidently happened and now I am writing my blog before I go to bed. Instead of making me tired, dancing wakes me up! Hence why I am writing the blog now instead of sleeping.

Don't kill the unicorn!

Sorry I keep posting a day late! I keep forgetting to write them until I am going to bed, by which time I am too tired and just want to sleep.

We spent the morning and early afternoon in Mandurah. Mandurah is a town about an hour away from here. It's the last stop on the transperth train line. According to Rohan, the whole town is a retirement village. His mum grew up there, isn't he so sweet?

When we first got there, we went to an English lollies store. Rohan's parents had to get something for his sisters since they were jealous that we were going to Mandurah when they couldn't. They had some interesting things in that store. Rohan was showing me the strange flavours of crisps they have. Apparently they have worcestershire flavoured crisps! They also have some lolly called rock or something. I'm not really sure what it is, but that's what Rohan's mum got for me. He picked it out, but I haven't eaten it yet.

Next we went to lunch. We went to the Italian place called Paparazzi. I joked with Rohan that it meant that I got to take lots of pictures. I didn't though. I need to remember to start taking some! I ordered the beef fillet. Rohan and his mum each got a dish and split them while his dad got his own. One of the dishes they split was the gnocchi, which Rohan made me try. It was alright. Normally, I love potato, but I wasn't a huge fan of gnocchi.

Then we went to Simmo's, which is an ice cream place. Another place with which Rohan is obsessed. They didn't have his favourite flavour, which is apple pie, but he still enjoyed it. I got some raspberry sorbet.

After ice cream, we started to go back to Rohan's house. We stopped at some kind of farm or something on the way. His parents picked up some various fruits and veggies, including big containers of strawberries. I kept falling asleep on the way back. I was tired.

When we got back, we had a few minutes to grab stuff before leaving for uni. Rohan had one class that was supposed to be an hour and then DnD. (That's Dungeons and Dragons for those not up on geek lingo.) I didn't bring my laptop since it was just an hour class, so instead I just played angry birds on my phone. Well, his class ended up going late. An hour late.

When he came back, he grabbed some food from the cafe outside of the library. He had to get in line three times. First, he got in line. Then, he forgot to go get money out of the ATM first, so he had to get in line again when he got the money. Finally, he decided to buy something else after he had already bought that. Of course there were like five people in line each time he had to go to the back. Oh, Rohan! Anyway, he got this rice ball thing that looked like maggots. That's just for you and your comment on my last blog post, mom!

Then we went to DnD and I got to meet some more of his friends. Rohan forgot to bring my dice. FAIL! and you can't blame me because I never even touched them. Not even at the store. DnD was so interesting. Perhaps that's my inner sociologist speaking. I really had no idea what was going on, but I was intrigued all the same. I guess that Rohan is the Dungeon Master because he seemed to be making up the story. I don't really understand where the making stuff up v. rolling the dice v. using the board game pieces v. the spreadsheet thingy all come into play. It's too complicated for me. It was very interesting, though. The title comes from the fact that one of Rohan's friends has a unicorn in the game and almost everyone else wants to try to kill it. Don't they know that if you slain anything so pure you live a half life, a cursed life? (Yes, I did just throw in a Harry Potter quote/reference. What's your point?)

After DnD we got a ride back to Rohan's house. I sat with him while he played video games. That probably would have been a smart time to blog, but I was happy just sitting there. Is that weird that I like just watching people play games? I've kind of always been that way and I never really thought it was that weird until Rohan just pointed it out last night.

He also said to me last night, "you know why you have to go back, right?" to which I answered, "because I have class..." to which he replied, "no. because Janice misses you." She and Bec had been posting on my wall saying that they missed me and telling me to come back. I have a feeling that Rohan will miss me when I'm gone too. At least I know I'll be back at some point for Christmas. That's a much shorter time than it has been before.

20 minutes and counting...

Firstly I want to start off with saying how awesome Janice is. I completely forgot to talk about her in yesterday's post and she was sad. I got a call from her yesterday morning. She (and a bunch of my other friends from ANU) went to Floriade. She got me raspberry liquorice from Sweet and Sour. They don't sell them at the store and they only have a few of the flavours online. I first had them at the Perth Royal Show about two years ago and they are so freaking good. I looked them up online and they said that they would have a booth at Floriade. They only sell them at fairs and such. Hopefully I'll go to Floriade and buy some too, but Janice bought me some when they went yesterday. She's awesome!

Ok, back to today. Rohan had to get up REALLY early today to get to uni for a meeting at 7. Yeah, I stayed here and slept in. I got dressed and came out to the tv room. I watched tv for a bit and then Rohan's mum gave me a ride to uni because Rohan was done with class at 10 and then had a big break.

When I got to uni, we first walked to the store area thingy by uni. I'm not really sure why, but whatever. Rohan got some weird fried squid tentacle thing on a stick from some Singaporean place there. It was kinda weird.

Then we went back to uni and sat in the library. I wrote my blog for yesterday since I was too tired to write it last night. Sorry again, Janice!

Then at noon we went to WBT, which is Wednesday Bible Talk. It's part of Curtin Christian Union. It was cool to see people that I haven't seen it almost two years. It was kind of weird too. I met some of Rohan's friends that I didn't know before, too. I do exist outside of a computer! In the announcements, they were talking about bus trip. It's that time of year again! Rohan's friend, Naxtens was telling everyone the announcements and asked who had gone on bus trip before, and of course I had to raise my hand. Then when Brad gave the talk, he gave a shout out to me. I'm so special! haha

After, Rohan was freaking out about there not being food. He went to go investigate. Then I talked to some girls that were sitting in front of me. Then Rohan found food and was chasing it as it moved around the room. Then he came back and I went with him to talk to some of his friends. Then Rohan made a hat out of the oreos box. Then it fell off of his head and he put it on his shoe. He then proceeded to move around the floor like it was an ice skate. Scott warned me that it would only get worse if I married him. Oh boy!

Then we all had lunch with everyone. Rohan had the tabouleh thingy from dinner last night. They quite literally took the remaining stuff off of each plate and put it in a take away container for him. He's weird. Anyway, we talked to a bunch of people then, too.

Everyone had to go to class after that except for Rohan. He didn't have class until 4. We then went back to the library. I started to read some of my stuff for class, but I was too tired and they were putting me to sleep. Plus I read that Pottermore opened up five more chapters for Chamber of Secrets, so I had to start reading those. I also started to transfer all of my important emails from my Hope email account into my gmail. It's so annoying because our access to it ends approximately 1 October and there is no simple way to transfer them. I have to do it manually. It sucks!

At 4, Rohan had to go to class. He called Elise to come pick me up since he was riding his bike home, anyway. He instructed me to just follow the path to the car park. I didn't get lost! Well, it was quite literally just following the path and then going to the back of the maths building, but still!

When I got back, I went on Pottermore and transferred some more emails. Then I took a nap. It was great. Then I finished the new stuff on Pottermore and transferred a few more emails until Rohan got back and said it was time for dinner.

The whole family ate dinner together. Apparently I messed things up because Rohan is a lefty and wasn't sitting on the left side so he kept hitting Elise. He always has to be difficult. haha

After dinner, Rohan went to help Justine with studying for her exam tomorrow. I watched tv with his parents. Then everyone came back to watch White Collar. We also ate Caramello ice cream that was left over from our picnic on Monday. It was yummy.

Then we watched some youtube videos on their tv. They were from comedians, including my dad's favourite, Tim Minchin. Just ask my dad about Tim Minchin sometime. Then everyone else went to bed, Rohan is doing some homework, and I'm writing my blog post. Rohan also went on today's xkcd comic (http://xkcd.com/1110/) and spent over 20 minutes trying to find the edges of the drawing in the last panel. That's where the title of the post comes from. I told him to think of a title and that's the best one he gave me. The other option was just the word 'cake' like 17 times.

Except there's no rainbow and we're already in Oz...

Sorry this is late. I was really tired by the time I went to bed and couldn't be bothered writing it then.

Rohan and I spent the day in the city. He worked two days last week so that he could have today off to spend with me. His mum dropped us off at the train station and then we took the train into the centre of Perth and walked around all day. I used my transPerth card from when I was here two years ago. I still had over $5 left. Score!

I don't remember the order of the things that we did, so I'm just going to write about various things as I remember them.

Rohan got three bubble teas during the course of the day. Yes, three! From three different places. He had to have one from all the places. *rolls eyes. He also got bubble tea for his mum and Justine at the last place. He's such a good son and brother!

It was raining on and off, so we had take cover. I took advantage of one of those times to take pictures. Rohan wouldn't smile so that just gave me an excuse to take lots more pictures! He seems to be annoyed with my incessant picture taking. When will he learn to just smile so that I don't have to keep taking pictures? Oh well, I got a photo shoot out of it.

Rohan took me to a geek store that sells a bunch of Dungeons and Dragons stuff. I'm going with him to DnD this week, so he got me my own set of dice. Does that mean I'm officially really nerdy? I hope so! Anyway, the dice are green. Also, the store was interesting because it was underground. We had to go down a dodgy stairway to get there.

For lunch we went to a place called Pepper Lunch. It's an interesting place. They bring out your food on these hot iron plates and then you mix it up and cook it yourself. Apparently it's Japanese and it's a very interesting concept. The food was good, too.

The blog title comes from me sometime during the day. Rohan started leading me in a zig zag, so I asked him where he was taking me. He started singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." I stopped him after 'somewhere' and told him that there was no rainbow and we were already in Oz/Aus. True Story. Then we had some other conversation about who the Wizard of Oz, in the Australian sense, is. I still say it's Julia Gillard, the Prime Minister, but he said that the wizard was the defacto leader, so it didn't make sense.

When we started walking back to the train station, I noticed some kangaroo statues. Rohan said he purposely walked on the other side of the street so that we didn't have to take pictures. Seriously, when will he learn? I made him go back and cross the street with me to take pictures. Mwahaha. He said he'd take one picture where he was smiling. Since he was on the left, he took the picture. He decided to angle it so nicely. *note the sarcasm. I made him take another. The flash wasn't on, so he just kept pressing the button and I ended up with two pictures. Hehehe

Then we got back to the train station and his mum picked us up. He took a break and played video games before Justine asked him for help with her exams this week. He's such a good big brother! He helped her until we went out to dinner.

The Curries took me out to dinner. First we picked up his grandma, who Rohan calls grandmama and everyone else calls g-ma. We went to a Lebanese place called Elies tent. I was glad that his parents just decided to order a bunch of things for us to share. I took one look at the menu and was confused. I had never eaten Lebanese and I didn't even know where it was in the world. Then Rohan told me the middle east and I felt stupid because it is one of the countries that is part of my project for Contemporary. I'm dumb.

Anyway, the food was pretty good, even though I have no idea what I ate. We also had dessert. Rohan had me get the Turkish delight. They were all shocked that I've never had it before. The only reason that I know what it is is because of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe movie. It was alright. I had a lemon and a rose flavoured one. The rose was better than the lemon one.

Then Rohan and his dad got Lebanese coffee. Rohan went crazy over it. It was kind of scary. He was obsessed. I thought they had put some other kind of drug in it besides just caffeine. Seriously, I cannot explain the magnitude of his craziness over that stuff!

Also, I'd just like to add that I love seeing his family interact. It's so funny to me. I love my sisters, but because of the big age difference, we missed out on a lot of the siblingness of growing up. It's so funny to watch Rohan and his sisters!

After dinner, we got back to his house and he played games while I sat next to him and played Angry Birds. Then he had to do some assignment before going to sleep.

A jammed pack day and no nap makes for a very tired Caitlin, so I couldn't blog last night. Hope you enjoy reading it now!

Perth album: http://www.flickr.com/photos/9602956@N05/sets/72157631555342863/

The entire animal kingdom was harmed in the making of the outfits on The X Factor!

I woke up. I had some difficulty falling asleep because of the excitement of finally getting here, but I slept fine after that. I originally woke up at 7:30ish because of the sun, but thought that was silly, so I went back to sleep until my alarm went off about an hour later.

Then I got dressed and stuff and went out to meet Rohan at the breakfast table. His mum was trying to offer me breakfast, but I had to explain that I don't usually eat. Apparently they also got apple juice specially for me since Rohan told them I like it. What is it with me and apple juice? I swear I'll drink other things! Rohan was getting ready for his Bible study and I was petting Jasmine during breakfast. We left to go to Curtin uni at around 10. Rohan's parents gave us a lift.

When we got there, we went to get him an iced coffee. He didn't even have to order. They just knew. Then it was time for our weekly Bible study. We got to have it in person this week. Weird. That meant that I couldn't get distracted by facebook because he could actually see my laptop. Curses! During our Bible study, this lady at the table next to ours asked us if we were having a Bible study. She thought that it was pretty cool.

After our Bible study, Rohan took me on a tour around campus. I thought that it was a lot bigger than ANU when we first got there, but when he took me around, I don't think it is. I'm too lazy to actually look up the sizes online. They had some interesting places around campus. They had the place in the library where two Xboxes are set up. They also had these cool tables that were computers! Curtin also has a lot of really pretty greenery. It was fun to get a tour from Rohan. He showed me where he works, the building were most of his classes are, the school of public health, and his favourite section of the library. It's where all of the maths books are located. He's such a nerd! I love it! Also, the architecture building is very stupidly designed and has staircases that lead absolutely no where and is kind of zig-zaggy.

Then he dropped me off at the library's lounge because he had some group Bible study. He said that I shouldn't go because of something about the group dynamics. I didn't know what that meant and I thought it was weird, too. I just went on my computer and talked to Caitlin, my old roommate, on facebook while I waited for him.

When he came back, he said let's go to lunch. We started walking out of the library. He said that he didn't have any food on him so we could go back to the cafe or we could just go to the conveniently laid out picnic in the courtyard. He's such a trouble maker! Apparently he had this planned since last week. He had gotten the food and then kept some of it at work. Then some of it his friend was bringing him during the Bible study, hence the real reason that I couldn't go. He was also making the sandwiches during the Bible study that he was supposed to be leading. Like I said, he's a trouble maker!

We had sandwiches, which I normally don't eat, but he made sure to make what I would like. It was just chicken, mayo, and lettuce. There was also sparkling apple juice. Again with the apple juice! It was actually pretty chilly out at that time because the wind was blowing. (It was really sunny and hot all morning) And by chilly, of course I mean to my standards. Rohan tried to block the wind to keep me warm. Then the wind changed directions. Stupid wind! Rohan also had ice cream in that mysterious picnic basket. Not just any ice cream, but Caramello ice cream! I was too cold to eat it, though, but he still ate it.

Another thing came out of that basket. My birthday present! Yeah, just a few (almost four) months late... There's a story for that. He had it, but he kept putting off when he was going to send it. Then it got complicated because soon after my birthday, I was going to be in Sandusky, OH for a month, then I was going to North Carolina for a week, then I was leaving for Australia. I told him to save on the postage and wait until I got to Australia rather than trying to send it to Ohio. Then I'm not really sure why he didn't send it to me in Canberra. My present consisted of two shirts from different events that he attended, Nerds (the candy), Starburst gummies (my favourites), a pink fluffy unicorns dancing on rainbows magnet (it has significance for the start of our relationship after I got back to the US after we met), and a Zelda game for my 3DS so that I can play with him.

Oh and I just remembered that today we saw two people that I hadn't seen in almost two years. They were two guys from the bus trip that stayed at the same house as me (along with three other girls and two other guys) when we first got to Canberra before NTE. It's so weird seeing people that I haven't seen in that long. When I don't see or talk to a person in a long time I feel like they aren't actually in existence until I see or talk to them again. It's weird, I know.

Anyway, after the picnic, we went back to the library lounge. We hung out there for a while until Rohan had class. Then I just stayed there while I waited for him. Again, I wasn't particularly productive.

He got back after class and then we got a lift back to his house from his sister, Elise. Rohan quickly made a stop at home before heading off the Boy's Brigade, during which, I stayed back at his house. I played with Jasmine for a while. Then we ate dinner while watching The X Factor.

It was great! His sisters make fun of the contestants so much. It was hilarious! They also all had really weird outfits. There were people with cheetah pattern, leopard pattern, and dalmatian-looking patterns on their clothes, hence the title. Oh, there was also a guy with MC Hammer pants. Yeah, so cool!

Rohan came back home with about a half hour left of the show. He sat by me and watched it for about twenty minutes before leaving. He couldn't handle it any more, even though there was just one act left. He went to his computer, which is in the other room since I've kicked him out of his room. I joined him after the show.

Then basically it was bed time so I wrote this. I'm so glad to be back in Perth!

All of my pictures from this week will go in this album: http://www.flickr.com/photos/9602956@N05/sets/72157631555342863/

Caitlin goes to Perth!

That was the title of my countdown to today’s date since Rohan and I booked the tickets. I like it since my blog’s title is Caitlin goes to Canberra.

I woke up this morning without too much hassle. That’s because I was getting up to go see Rohan!!! I finished packing up all of my crap that I couldn’t pack the night before, ie my toothpaste and Bapp. I also washed my glass from the middle of the night and threw out my trash. Then I texted Janice to see if she was coming over. Last night she said that she wanted to see me off.

She came over at around 10:50 and we went to the bus stop. There is a stop for the airport express just like two streets over from Davey. There wasn’t really a sign at the bus stop that said the airport express went there, but there were two benches, so we sat at the one that wasn’t for taxis. We were talking for a while when someone else came for the airport express, too. That always makes me feel better about being in the correct place.

Then the bus came and I said goodbye to Janice. I gave the bus driver my receipt that I had printed from when I preordered my bus ticket online. Apparently that wasn’t the correct thing because it didn’t say what date/time I had paid for. Luckily I checked my phone and found the correct email in there. He said that was fine.

Then I got to the Canberra airport. It’s pretty nice because it is really small. There wasn’t that hectic-ness of checking in at the Sydney airport. That’s horrible. I didn’t have to wait at all to check my luggage and then he gave me the terminal and it was easy to find. How could it be hard? There’s only like 12 terminals! Or at least that’s all I saw.

I had to wait quite a while because the last bus before my flight was at 11:38 and my flight was at 3:15. Plus Canberra is such a small airport that I could get to my terminal within just a few minutes. I just played angry birds and listened to my zune to pass the time. I also did some people-watching. By that I mostly mean I looked at the cute little kids and babies. There was this one baby boy that was sitting next to me that was a little wiggle worm! He was so cute and he loved it when I was making faces at him.

When I got on the plane, I sat in my assigned seat. A girl from a couple rows up kept talking to her friend who was sitting next to me. She asked if I would switch with her, which I did. The flight from Canberra to Melbourne is so short! I think that they said it was like 40-50minutes in the air. I just listened to my zune. They also gave us a snack of cheese and crackers and a juice.

We arrived to Melbourne really early. I think it was like 20 minutes early. I went to find my next terminal and evidently it was the opposite direction from most of them. I actually had to go out of the security point and then go through a different security point to get to the correct terminal. It seemed kind of silly to me. My time between those flights actually wasn’t that long. They started boarding a little bit early.

The flight to Perth was good. The plane had the individual video monitors, so I got to watch some movies. I watched Brave, The Sapphires, and (all but the last 5-10 minutes of) What to Expect When You’re Expecting. It is less than a four hour flight, so I didn’t have time to watch all of the third movie. The Sapphires is a movie about an Aboriginal girl group that sang for the troops in Vietnam during the Vietnam war. It was really good. In the middle of the flight, they asked if there were any doctors on board. I’m not sure what happened, but when we finally landed in Perth, we didn’t leave the plane for a while. I saw some people rush to the back with medical kits. I hope whoever it was is alright now!

I could barely contain my enthusiasm when we landed. I was so smiley and I was walking quickly to the exits. (I don’t run unless it’s a really desperate situation) We had to go downstairs to get to the baggage claim, so I was trying to find Rohan over the balcony. I finally found him as I was getting down the escalator. I was so happy! I was actually a little shaky because of the amount of joy. It has been over 8 months since I last saw him in person! Eight months! That’s early January, people!

Then we waited for my luggage to come out on the conveyor belt. Then we left the airport and went to the carpark pick-up area so that his mum and Justine could pick us up. They were out waiting in the car.

We then went to his house. I got to see Jasmine! She is his Samoyed and she is the cutest puppy ever! (She isn’t really a puppy, but I call all dogs puppies. Also, I have to say that Buddy is the cutest because he’s my baby, but Jasmine is a REALLY close second!) Seriously, SO FLUFFY!

Anyway, I’ve kicked Rohan out of his room this week. Mwahaha. I dropped my stuff off into his room. I also got to see my dress for the ball. It’s so pretty, but I haven’t tried it on yet to make sure it fits. Also, his room just baffles me. He has so many random things! He also cleaned for me because I can see the floor! Crazy stuff!

Then his whole family watched Doctor Who. It was the first time that I’ve ever seen it. I was more than a little confused, but it was pretty good. In this episode, they went to Murica. (Murica is America; it’s just how hicks say it and I’ve started calling it that now, well when I’m making fun of it) It was kind of ironic that that was the episode when I am here.

Afterwards, Rohan got all of the stuff that he needs out of his room and put it in the room where he is staying. Then he went to bed and I started writing this post. They’ll probably be later than usual this week because Perth is two hours behind Canberra.

So what's your title going to be today?

That's a recurring question whenever I spend time with Janice. People always want to know what the title will be, not just her. It's like a game. Janice and Jo seem to be in a competition over who gets the most titles credited to them.

So today was a "get ready for Perth" day. I went online while I ate my breakfast. Then I decided that it was time to start being productive. I was going to do my laundry first. I went to pull it out from under my bed. I just kind of throw it under there instead of actually putting it in my dirty clothes bag. I made a big pile and then my stomach started to hurt again. I just laid back on the pile. Next thing I knew, I was waking up. I literally fell asleep on my floor without knowing it!

After my unintentional nap, I was facebook messaging with Caitlin (my Hope roommate) and with Janice. Janice said that she was going to Civic. I decided to go as well because I needed to get headphones because my old ones were shocking me whenever I used them. I kind of needed headphones if I was going to go on a long flight tomorrow. (Well most people would consider it long. It is my first domestic flight. I've only ever flown to Spain or Australia from America before. It's significantly shorter than those trips!) I could have just had her pick some up for me, but I had to go out to get apple juice and go to the ATM anyway.

I took down my laundry before I met up with her. Then I turned in my vacation form to UniLodge to let them know that I'll be gone for a week in case of emergency and I checked my mail. I FINALLY got my "This is Public Health" stickers. I was so happy. I think you can sense my excitement from the picture below.

First we went to find an ATM at Civic. It just happened to be by a hat store and the fascinators caught my eye. For those that don't know, fascinators are those feathery/flowery things that British women wear for special occasions, like the Royal Wedding or to horse races. The theme of the CU Ball is "A Night at the Races" so I kinda wanted to get a fascinator. The ones at that store were pretty expensive and they didn't have one in silver, which is the colour that I wanted to match my dress and jewellery better.

Janice and I decided to look other places in Canberra Centre to find one. We went to David Jones, a department store, and found a flower along with the fascinators. Then Janice said that she could make me one if I bought that. The price tag said that it was reduced to $5 so why not? Then I got a headband for it. When I went to buy it, the flower was $2.97. I love when things are unexpectedly on sale, or a further sale in this case! It's an amazing feeling! We also went around different places to find craft stuff to make it prettier. We ended up finding the other stuff at Top Bargain. I also got a sketch book there. Yay! I'm so excited to be able to draw when I get overly stressed!

Somewhere in there, we also went to Big W and I started feeling sick again. I felt hot and my stomach was in pain. We quickly finished our shopping there so that I could go get something to drink and sit down. We went somewhere right outside of SupaBarn and I got a strawberry smoothie. It was good, but my stomach still hurt. Janice is worried that I may get stomach ulcers. Then Janice went into SupaBarn to get apple juice for me. We also went to the craft store so that she could buy a hot glue gun. She wanted to get one before, and I finally gave her an excuse to buy one.

After our adventures in Civic, we went back to Davey. I gave Janice my key to get into my room while I flipped my laundry to the dryer. When I got upstairs, she had already started on my fascinator. It is so pretty! She tried to get me to help by cutting some of the jewels, but I didn't do a very good job. I suck at fine motor skills. I blame my brain tumour/surgery. Anyway, my fascinator is beautiful, but I'm not going to post a picture of it until I post my pictures from the Ball. It's a surprise! But I have been wearing it for almost the whole night since she finished it. Don't judge! It makes me feel British!

Then Janice went to stop by Toad to see Bec for a bit and then go home because Burgmann was having a pizza party. I went to go get my laundry, but it was still wet, so I had to run the dryer again. Grr. I also went to print my boarding pass, itinerary, and the receipt for the bus to the airport tomorrow. I also started packing, but that was hard when I didn't have my clothes washed and I can't pack my shower stuff until after I shower, obviously.

Then I made dinner. I cooked my potatoes because earlier Janice said that they were still good and they might not be when I get back. It was the first time that I've made real mashed potatoes! I just cut them small and boiled them. It was so easy! Then I added milk, butter, crushed cayenne pepper, and garlic powder. They're so good! I had four pretty big potatoes, but I made them all because they would probably just go bad if I didn't eat them. The potatoes were overwhelming my plate, but I actually ate most of them. What can I say? I love potatoes! I also had the rest of the burgers that I had cooked.

Now I'm just writing my blog. I've also decided to create a post that I'll continuously update that lists the things that I've learned from Janice. She teaches me so much! I just can't remember them all because it's so late in the semester. Why didn't I think of this earlier? Anyway, I still have to shower, finish packing, and do my dishes from dinner. I better get going so that I will be able to get to bed at a reasonable time!