au revoir sydney

Tonight is my last night in Sydney. After two whole years of studying here I'm kinda sad to leave. I'm always happy to go home, but tonight I know I won't be back in Sydney for the next 8 months or so, and I know I'm going to miss it terribly. I've settled pretty well here, its not much but I like my life here. Today I had lunch for Natania, went shopping in Paddington, went to the city, walked through Hyde Park, had dinner in Newtown with Kalai and her friends at a Cafe with a live band, and bought a gelato at the best gelato place in the whole city. I will miss you, my Sydney.

the sparks that fly are lighting up the sky

Taking a break from studying for my very last paper, and I'm distracted by all the things I am gonna do when I finally finish this semester and leave Sydney. I'm going to

▲ read as many books as I can ▲

▲ watch more movies and especially foreign films ▲

▲ play with my dogs every day ▲

▲ swim every week in my own under-used pool ▲

▲ clean out my room (especially this!!!) ▲

▲take photos with all my poor neglected film cameras ▲

▲actually send the film in for developing ▲

▲wake up just in time for brunch and not a second earlier or later ▲

▲re-read the Sandman and maybe Lucifer if I have time ▲

▲spend less time on the internet ▲

▲explore Singapore more, Heartlands here I come! ▲

Just another 4 days to freedom!

tangerine trees and marmalade skies

I'm so glad I went to Fiji, and I'm so grateful that my parents let me make the trip (thanks mom and dad you da bomb!) The people are beyond friendly and even though their lifestyles are all so simple they seem genuinely happy. This world is beautiful and we have to keep it that way.

Things I did this trip which I've never done before:

1. Swam under a waterfall

2. Swam in a real stone based river, which had river eels in it!!

3. Ate a banana

(okay not never, but not in about 5 or 10 years)

4. Seen the most amazing sunset ever

These were taken when it was low tide!! Water is unbelievably clear.

My camera died after this (insert sad-but-serves-me-right-for-not-bringing-my-charger-face here) so I stole some photos from Deborah and Yvette, who use the "same same but different" camera (Lumix & Leica respectively).

Yvette's photos

Deb's photos

I hate bananas, but its rude to not eat something since they offered it to me. The last time I ate a banana whole was probably when I was 10 or something.

♡♡♡♡

bula fiji, you were good to me

FIJI

So the last time I blogged, I lied. I knew I would be able to get through the heater-less winter, because my friends and I had planned a little getaway since summer! Yes, off to Fiji we went. Once Uni was officially over with the end of classes last week, the three of us (Deb and Yvette) packed off to Fiji for some R&R. We flew VAustralia, which I must say was rather nice, not all dodgy like VirginBlue, and the inflight entertainment system was a touchscreen, and you could chat seat to seat, which was pretty neat. So after a four hour flight we got a taxi, which was one of those yellow things which looked as if it came straight out of the 1970s, and I half suspect it was, and began our winding 1.5hr ride to Viti Levu on the mainland, where our resort was. The first day was cloudy and the sun was already setting as we got to our rooms, so there wasn't much impact upon first sight, but the next morning was clear and absolutely glorious! We did a bit of kayaking and some snorkelling (where I cut my foot on some coral because I was panicky the first day in the water), and left the resort for a village tour, and ate lovely meals. It was a perfect holiday, if only just to get away from the cold and rain in Sydney and the idea of impending doom in the form of exams.

Breakfast! Everyday was pretty much the same spread, but we stuffed our faces so we wouldn't have to eat lunch heehee

Resort was pretty kid-friendly! I called this McGonagall's chess set <:

Self timer semi-fail. This was still pretty early maybe about 10am and cloudyyyy

Watch out for Deborah's poses. She does the funniest poses!!!

So after snorkelling we kinda beached ourselves and just bummed around and read our books/magazines. They wanted full exposure to the sun and they got it! Have no clue what deb is doing here....

I have been well trained by my mother in avoiding the sun (sun spots and skin cancer, she says) so I hid in this cabana which was a swing and was really creaky.

I am obviously, the fairest of them all! (Pun fully intended)

Moved to a hammock, which I fell out of not long after because hammocks are evil things.

Got a bit bored so we went handicraft shopping at a settlement nearby.

Bought me a sarong from this lady, because I needed it for the village tour anyway.

Got my hair braided-- your typical tropical tourist

By then the heat was killing us so we went back to snorkelling and doing dumb stuff.

Played Bula Bula Bingo!!!

Alright my fingers are freezing, its a sign to stop blogging! More photos soon xx