I'm gonna kayak home

Nothing makes a girl feel sexier than getting hollered at by a cab driver while walking home.
I just have one question . . . if you take me to dinner, do I have to pay you when we get there?

A few weeks ago I sent our landlords an email with this picture. I wanted to emphasize how ridiculously dirty our common area was. I also mentioned that we each had to pay a $50 fee for cleaning when we moved in . . . Well pictures speak louder than words. This morning as I was gettin ready to head to campus, I heard a knock at the door. I waited to see if one of the guys would answer, but of course they didn't. I was delighted to find two guys ready and willing to deep clean our carpets. I am currently sitting on our couch in the living room, with my bare feet on the floor. :) Great Success!!

Now, onto what I've been doing the past few days. One word: school. I thought with having been in school for 18 years of my life, this whole graduate certificate wouldn't be that hard. Well, its proving to be pretty hard. Not because the material is hard, but because I have presentations in three classes, I have two midterms and ridiculously long and time consuming final projects in all 4 classes. Plus, I'm in Australia and I'm trying to see and experience as much as I can. Its daunting, but I guess I could use a good challenge.

I also want to give a shoutout to my girls. Even though I am 14 hours ahead and thousands of miles away, we still pretty much talk daily. I wanted to figure out exactly how many miles away I am so I google mapped North Carolina to Brisbane, Australia. Here is what I got:

I might need to train a little for #29. Hahaha. Gotta love that people at Google have such a good sense of humor.

As for the weekend, its shaping up to be pretty exciting. Friday I'll probably stay in and get some studying done for my test on Monday (blah). But Saturday, in the afternoon I'm heading over to XXXX Brewery for a brewery tour, lunch and tasting with a few of the guys. Then Saturday night is the last home game for the Brisbane Lions, a rugby team whose stadium is less than 10 minute walk from our house. We already bought our tickets and have a huge group going together. Stadium style rugby and pregaming . . . woot woot!

Lastly, I need to vent . . .

The other night the guys and I were discussing our last names and what they mean. The most interesting story would be Ivar. There are 5 people in his immediate family, and they have 4 last names. They are all named in Icelandic tradition. So, Ivar's last name is Boson because he is the son of Bo. His sister is Bo(some word that means daughter), etc.

And now for Eiler. My last name was originally from a medieval given name, composed of the elements AGIL (edge, point of a weapon) and HARD (brave, hardy and strong). It was a name given to a warrior or soldier. It was also a named used by Jews, meaning 'husband.' Awesome, mom and dad. Not only did you give me a predominantly male first name, I also have a manly last name and a deep voice that probes doctors to ask if I'm sick or if I always sound like that. Thank god for my womanly curves cause you didn't give me much else to work with. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my name. But, it does get a little annoying when you get letters threatening you for not signing up for the draft and emails addresssed to Mr. Eiler. Not to mention my high school nickname of "Barry White." True story.