Land Down Under

On the Art of Bruise-Making (And Other Random News)

As anyone who has lived with me can tell you, I am an expert at bruising myself. Usually it's my bum or hips that seem to protrude a bit too far and bump nice sharp corners of various furniture, occasionally my legs or arms begin to feel left out until they meet the edge of a desk or table. Earlier this semester my forehead wanted in on the action, and promptly met its doom on Steve's doorframe. This week though, has been a record of clumsiness.

Monday morning Mel and I were walking down the stairs at 8:30--the first day we managed to get ready in time to get to class promptly. It was a beautiful morning, and it went without a hitch. That is, until the last half-flight of concrete steps. Can't have a Monday morning without some sort of mishap. My left flip flop went just an inch too far on the concrete, and slid down the rest of the four stairs. This caused my right leg to bend at the knee underneath me, and my bum slid down those stairs on top of my shin and ankle. Luckily I was holding on to the railing, because it eventually stopped my slide. I sat there on the step thinking to myself, "OH MY GOODNESS THAT HURT LIKE NOTHING ELSE" and managed to squeak out "ouch!" as my eyes filled with tears. However, I showed my true dedication to my social work class when, three minutes later, I limped to catch the tram. It ran away from us though, and we were forced to wait for the next one. We did end up getting to class a whole minute early, which was good. What's not good is the swollen ankle I had all day, and the bruise that covers half my shin and my ankle. I quickly decided that being careful on the stairs would be in order for the future.

Apparently that didn't last long. This morning I was coming back from breakfast, holding my lunch in a brown paper bag, and thinking how wonderful it was that I was a whole thirty minutes early. I got all the way up to the first (American second) floor....and tripped up the stairs. My bag's bottom tore out, and the sandwich, apple juice, and chocolate bar went everywhere. My pears went through the cracks and managed to find their way into the garden in the middle of the donut, so I just picked up the sandwich, juice, and chocolate and huffed up the remaining stairs with a scraped hand and bruised ego.

Note to self: the common factor in both incidents was being early. (I suppose that another common factor would be my propensity for being a clutz, but we'll ignore that one). Tomorrow I won't have that issue, because I have nowhere to be early for: Wednesdays are a glorious day off from class.


In other news, Fiji is really happening!! I officially changed my airfare, and booked the hostel and cruise. The only thing that changed a bit is the timing: I leave Melbourne November 28th at midnight, so I get to Fiji rediculously early in the morning on the 29th, and then I leave there on the 3rd, and get home at 5AM on the 4th. I'm really excited about it.


I've been searching for summer jobs recently. (Can you tell that it's the end of school?) So far I have two decent options: Camp Wediko or Cross-Cultural Solutions. Camp Wediko is a summer camp in New Hampshire for children with mental disorders and behavioral problems. I've been told that it would look excellent on a resume, and gives valuable hands-on experience with populations I want to work with eventually (once I'm old and grey and finally have all the necessary degrees!). The only downside (other than it being in NH) is that it doesn't pay much: they offer "compensation" (whatever that means) and a $1250 scholarship to be used within seven years. I have a feeling that since they give the scholarship, their "compensation" isn't much to brag about. The other option, Cross-Cultural Solutions, is an internship/volunteer program that's basically all over the world, doing many different things. I would most likely either go to Costa Rica or Peru, and work for three weeks caring for infants and children that are at-risk. The downside to this one is that not only would I not get paid, I'd have to pay $3000 to go! And that's not including airfare. I don't know what I would do with the rest of my summer if I did that, but I don't really want to work at the bookstore again. I have registered with Sittercity.com as a baby/pet/house sitter, so I'll give that a trial-run in December and January when I'm home and see how much I make and decide whether I can do that in the summer along with the South America internship. Both things would look good on a resume, but the camp would be more suited in the long-run. Any thoughts?

I'm turning into Mom again. I have a huge corkboard on the wall next to my desk--it's about four feet high and three feet wide. It's covered in papelitos. Even if I took off the Bible verses and pictures I've got on it, it's still covered, and they've encroached onto the frame around it too. I've got little foot-shaped papelitos with Arbonne orders, doctor's appointments that need to be made (ugh more shots again-- I've had more shots this year (5!) than ever!), summer opportunities, gift lists so I don't forget and buy 10 things for one person and nothing for others, one with Aunt Lily's sister's information on it...and then I've got the only two pieces of mail I've received while I've been here up there (a graduation announcement from Robyn and a card from Carynne), two phone cards, maps, grade conversion tables, a form I was supposed to mail back to Williams after I registered for classes (oops), emergency contact information....

At least my desk is clean!

posted by Christina @ 10:43 PM