Being Yourself

I very reluctantly call myself an "ex-pat" but I guess I am one. And I bet my other fellow ex-pats encounter some of the same issues I do. 

In my group of friends here, I am the only American. This combined with an Australian boyfriend sometimes makes me feel like I am losing things about me that are American.

Mr Aussie loves pointing out things I say that are most definitely Australian and that I have definitely picked up from him. One habit I have formed is the Australians' weird habit of saying similes without actually finishing them. Example: "Today was sweet as!" Sweet as what?! You'll never know. 

Other things that are different:

Lollies = candy

Jug = Pitcher

Biscuit = Cookie

Mince meat = ground meat

I love living here but I don't want to lose who I am. At the core, obviously my morals and beliefs are the same, but the little things like phrases are what differentiate all the English speaking countries and that's what I don't want to change! But at the same time I need to just accept that I am going to pick up Australian habits. Australian policies and way of life are changing me too. I definitely have a different outlook on a lot of things since living here.

It's like I am a new "you". My "you" is now mostly American with a dash of Australian. Some days I feel like I am losing my identity but really I am not - I just have a new identity! And really, this doesn't just apply to living in another country. As we get older life is constantly changing right? We're constantly having experiences that change us and so we've got a new identity!

Are there changes in your life that are making you feel like you're losing some of what makes you, you?

P.S. don't worry - I still say "y'all" constantly. Not sure that will EVER change.  

Cycle of Rude

Alright y'all, I have a theory in which I call the "Cycle of Rude". 

I am sure you all know what I am talking about: a stranger/friend is rude to you, which in turn you are rude to someone else and then they are rude to someone else and so on and so on. It's a horrible horrible cycle.

I can deal with a friend being rude to me, everyone has their days, so that doesn't set me into the cycle. It's the crazy rude strangers that just set me off like a bottle rocket. And unfortunately, yesterday I had TWO rude strangers.

It all started in a parking lot. Mr. Aussie was driving and we were stopped because this new driver was being an absolute idiot and we had no idea what was going on. Then there were other cars pulling out and such so he was just easing along in the parking lot, hardly moving. Then this car that we were directly behind started pulling out of their spot so naturally he honked. No big deal, right? WRONG. The crazies were out.

Once we reached a spot, I jumped out of the car to get the clothes for dry cleaning and right as I shut the door the man we honked at pulls up. He starts with, "I couldn't really see out of my car because the angle was hard". And I just said "Oh ok, well we figured you just didn't see us so that's why we honked." THEN the man starts going on a rampage about how we were flying through the flying the parking lot. WHAT? So of course I responded with "uhhh we weren't even moving!" Then he just kept yelling at me and sped off. 

SERIOUSLY?! Was that even necessary at all? You are such an awesome 50 year old guy to be sitting in your little station wagon yelling at a young lady you don't even know. I envy your life.

Then we went to go get new wiper blades. We weren't sure what we needed so we asked this lady for some help. She came back with just the little rubber bits of the blade which are apparently called refills (never heard of before in my LIFE). She instructed us to cut them and put them on. I turned to Mr. Aussie and I was like uh I don't think this is right, I have never had to cut anything for new blades before, we need the whole thing. He said the same thing. So I turned to her and told her "I don't think this is what we are after, we need the whole blade, we've never just gotten these little bits to cut before."

This salesperson of the year's response, in a rude condescending tone, was, "You just have to cut. Ya know, get some scissors and cut it." And did this stupid motion of cutting in the air and looked at us like morons.

Oh THANK YOU OLD WISE ONE, I had no idea how to cut things. 

I responded with, "I am aware of how to cut it, there is no reason to talk to me like that".

Then Mr. Aussie made the executive decision that we were not purchasing anything from this rude woman and we just walked out the store.

Both these people put me in quite a sour mood. Luckily Mr. Aussie was the only person who got the butt of it but if any innocent bystander had crossed my path after these two nemrods, it would not have been pretty. 

Real Talk

I haven't blogged in awhile, and I have really been meaning to but life got hectic. 

The idea behind this post stems from one over at Mornings at Pannikin. 

Plans. What would life be without plans? Actually I'd probably be working at my childhood vacation spot in the US Virgin Islands called Maho Bay. That's probably what my life would be without plans. That doesn't look too bad either. 

As I have mentioned, I am in law school. With law school comes a certain level of anxiety that I have never had in my life. I am not an anxious or paranoid person typically, but law school has made me one.

Now comes Real Talk, I have no idea what I want to do after I graduate from law school. I think I know the area of law I want to go into, but not entirely sure. And I have not actually admitted this out loud to anyone (so why not say it to the global internet world), but at this point I am not even sure I want to be a lawyer. YIKES. 

I have no definitive plan. I want to graduate, complete my PLTs, move out of this weirdo place I live to an actual city with my wonderful boyfriend, get a job, and someday get married and have kiddos. I guess that's a plan, albeit a very vague and generic one. Truth be told, sometimes I have freak outs that I have no plan and feel like everyone else around me has it all figured out. But ya know what I have learned, things look shinier when you only see tidbits on a Facebook profile or blog.

I have also noticed, when I listen very closely to my friends both at home and here in law school, I hear them quietly freaking out  as well. 

So this is what I have learned: No one has it all figured out.

And why should we? We're only in our 20s for the love of Moses. So I am going to keep trudging along, trying to figure out what the big PLAN is. That's what the 20s are all about right? 

The Tassie Tigers

Ok so I have formed an obsession with a show here in Australia called My Kitchen Rules. Basically there are teams of two from each state (plus New Zealand this year) and this season they have two sets of 6 teams and the bottom from each are now going against each other. 

Last night (Wednesday) the Tassies were up to bat in this round and let me just add, I love this couple! 

They’re friendly, they have an obvious passion for food and they are fair sports in this game. Unlike others – *cough* THOMAS *cough*

Carla insulted Hobart within the first like 30 seconds of the other contestants being on the show. This duo of “just friends” (what the heck is that?) already annoy the crap out of me but COME ON CARLA. I thought part of the show was going to the teams’ home states to appreciate the local food and way of life, yada yada. BUT I FORGET – Carla seems to have the brain of a gold fish (there’s not much there). 

I don’t know, I just found it very rude and an unnecessary snarky comment. Australia already hates you, try and not dig a deeper hole missy.

And Thomas – come on, get a new look. Seriously, Thomas always looks like he is about to cry or is constipated or something. He always makes this face just sitting at the table, talking about a dish and everything else involved with this show. 

Thomas and Carla’s very transparent plan to sabotage other contestants by sending negative comments into the air to maybe persuade others was so pathetic and low. Thank the food gods all the other contestants are way smarter than the two of them. 

Alright I’ll shut up – I’m just really sick of them. 

O my pink shirts, I love Peter and Gary!! Even if Peter can be so obnoxiously arrogant sometimes. And I find it very humorous that Peter has on an Abercrombie and Fitch shirt. Cracks me up. 

I also find it extremely comical that 7 gives most team headline names based on their relationship – ooo but not Peter and Gary, they’re just “doctor and lawyer”. 

I especially love when Gary called out that Thomas needs to maybe actually learn something about food. TRUTH. Homeboy didn’t even know how to explain crackling. And somehow he thought scallops and crackling were SIMPLE to do?! I bet you’d screw it up in a heartbeat, Thomas. 

Anyways, I am so happy the Tassies did well. Their food looked great to me, except the dessert. I am not a cheesecake fan to begin with and then that one just looked SO HEAVY. Too intense and sweet sounding for my taste buds. 

It’s kind of hard to see in this picture, but I am soooo obsessed with Pete’s eyes. Mr. Aussie totally got huffy puffy when I commented on their blueness since he is very proud of his own very blue eyes. But ah they’re gorgeous!

Anyone else out there watch this show?!

Healthy Competition

I stumbled across this at design darling and it made me think about competitiveness and law school and the legal profession as a whole. I am more competitive than your average Jane and I know that competing with myself is essentially more important than competing with others. However, I’m in LAW SCHOOL. 

I think law school is where they created the idea of competition. I’m serious. Especially since in my law school they have decided to use the bell curve for grades (STUPID) which makes people INSANE.

But how much competition is too much competition? When do we cross the line? I know med schools in the US are taking measures in the admission process to weed out potentially self-harming people because of the competitiveness. Some are even making grades only pass-fail to lighten the psychoticness of it all. There’s talk on implementing the same ideas in law schools now. 

I know these are good ideas, but at the same time, how much is it actually going to help? Competition comes with the legal profession. People are power hungry. People are obsessed with having what others don’t have.

So how do they help students that are one day going to be in this profession? I think students need to be reminded that YOU ARE NOT YOUR GRADES. Grades are arbitrary. I don’t care what anyone says, they are. Especially when you add a bell curve into the mix. Law schools also need to show students how to BALANCE life. Studying is obviously important, but so is living life. Make yourself work out, make yourself eat real meals and make yourself enjoy a couple nights a week with friends.

What’s your take on competition? What’s the healthy level?

Awards and Waterfalls

Feb 9 - Front door - Well, I didn't take a picture of a front door because all the ones I encountered during the day were so boring. So instead, I went the cheesey route and took this picture at my boyfriend's award ceremony for his super awesome grades. He ended up going back to school a couple years ago and he has done so well and I'm so proud of him! Going back to school can be so hard. So this is just showing "opening the front door" to new opportunities!

Feb 10 - Self portrait - took this during the ride to our little getaway today! 

And just wanted to share some of the sights from today...

Series of photos

So for Feb 5 - 10 AM, I was trying desperately to beat this level. I took awhile.

Feb 6 - Dinner - I was out that night and just completely forgot to snap a shot. I'm bummed because the food looked and tasted yummy, would have been a good pic! But I went and got a pic from the website of the restaurant to show some of what I was having:

Feb 7 - Buttons - These are buttons on a dress that I love:

 

Feb 8 - Sun - It's very warm and nice right now, but lots of clouds too, so I got the sun behind a big cloud.