It's been ages...

... since I last wrote on this blog!!! I do apologize!

Traveling with my parents to New Zealand will take me hours to write about, so I think I will wait for tomorrow (or another day) on that one.  

There has been a lot happening in the last month and so I figured I'd start small coming back into this "blog" stuff and just give a little update... :)

After my parents left to go back to the States, my friend, Kim, and I had a week long slumber party at her apartment. My housing here on campus made me move out for the 2-week long break unless I was willing to pay them a ridiculous amount of money per night. Outrageous. Luckily, Kim had an extra bed and she was a very welcoming host! The weather was crap, so it was a lot of staying indoors, but the company was great. We snacked on Girl Scout Cookies (thanks, Mom!) while watching movies and ridiculous episodes of Dr.Phil. Of course, we were definitely kept busy with the daily "Cabaret" rehearsals.

Speaking of Cabaret, the show opens this Friday night and runs for 6 nights until Saturday, May 16th! It's been exhausting, frustrating (sometimes), but mostly just a lot of fun and quite the experience. Dancing around for +3 hours in high heels does a number on my feet... who wants to give me a foot massage? I was actually approached by a little old lady at the shoe store when I was buying them who went into great detail about what high heeled shoes can do to someone's feet and then proceeded to take off her shoe and show Kim & I her toes that literally looked like they belonged to an alien baby. I screamed a little bit and then informed her of the actual reasoning for me buying such "deadly shoes". She smiled, laughed a little bit, and walked out of the store.

Needless to say, I am very grateful that my height allows me to wear flats and still be taller than a majority of my friends. No alien toes for moi, praise the Lord...

I've also come to the conclusion that I am going to church everyday for a year when the show is over. I really need God's forgiveness for acting like a prostitute during the last 2 months of my life. :)

I am really struggling on when I want to leave for home. It seems as though I'm actually really really starting to like it here. It's not that I haven't been enjoying myself here... it's just that I'm finally feeling more comfortable as the days go on. All of a sudden, I want to take complete FULL advantage of every moment I have left in this country. 

NOTE: ***No worries... I think everyone back at home and here knows how much I love and miss home/Butler and I will definitely be happily returning to Chicago by June 25th. :) The question is just whether or not I will change my flight to a week earlier since I am finished with finals earlier than expected***

Just making sure everyone understands that I will not be moving to Australia... :)

My friend, Anna, is SUCH an inspiration, I swear. She is honestly living it up here and traveling the entire continent. Seriously, every last inch! On Saturday, she handed me a travel brochure with a whole bunch of 1 to 21 day tours available around various parts of Australia, NZ, and Tasmania. I was mesmerized! I am dying to visit Melbourne to experience the famous "Great Ocean Road" tour and, if time, I'd love to see Tasmania. With the musical taking over plenty of weekends to travel, it's looking like the 3-week Final Exam period is the only time to visit these places. 

I obviously have some thinking, discussing, and planning to do.

Derek will be visiting in 22 days from right now and I cannot wait!! It seems like we've been waiting so long to see one another and all of a sudden he will be here in 3 short weeks!!! I'm being sappy, I KNOW, but I can't help it! It will great to see him and I'm starting to think we won't have time to sleep or blink with everything we have planned and everywhere we plan to visit...

*A day at Bondi Beach

*A Tribute to Louis Armstrong concert at the Sydney Opera House

*A trip to the Blue Mountains

*Featherdale Zoo

*Sydney's Olympic Park

*Anna's play :) 

and...

*3-day vacation with snorkeling, sailing, and walking through the rain forest in Cairns

... there will be plenty more small things, I am sure! I am especially excited about the concert at the Opera House. I have yet to see anything there, and I feel like being a music major and staying in Sydney for +4 months without actually going there would just be sinful. 

Being in the musical and eating bad junk snacks during the short breaks has helped me discover SHAPES "Chicken Crimpy" flavoured crackers and the wonderfulness of "Cheezels". They are basically like cheetos, but even more delicious and still just as bad for you. Try them (and Tim Tams) if you ever visit! 

That was scary. I put a 'u' in "flavored" and didn't even notice until I re-read that sentence and saw the little red line under it. WOW... am I turning Australian or what!?

Time to attack this World Music outline about India's "Hindi" music. I get to research the culture of India, while also talking about the soundtrack from the movie "Slumdog Millionaire". It should actually be kind of cool! I just have to actually get in that "study mode" :)

I love you all & look out for a NZ update hopefully coming sometime soon.

xoxo,

Carly