welcome to our humble abode.

we signed our on friday, picked up the keys and went back to the house to look over our PRIZE. that's what the rental application process kind of feels like. like we've won a contest or a lottery. ;p

i snapped some quick pictures of the house. it's unfurnished. we've started moving stuff in & i will post up more pics in the near future once things get settle down.

house from the outside.


this is the downstairs area with kitchen & entrance from the back yard. this is also susan's space.


stairs leading up to the second floor.


upstairs common room & kitchen. lots & lots of space.


back balcony.


hallway with bookshelves leading to the upstairs bedrooms. in clockwise order starting from the left... alan's room, me, laura & matt.


view of our driveway and front balcony from my room.


our driveway from the front balcony.

i love this place. pictures just don't do this place justice.
can't wait to get the bbq set up. need some protein!!

yes! we have a home!

our rental application was FINALLY approved. YAY! it took them nearly 4 business days to process the darn thing. geez. any longer and you'd think they were building a house from scratch! but all's well that ends well. it's the house that we wanted. i will post pictures up soon but it's this new brick house (not a queenslander) with 4 bedrooms, kitchen, 2 bath - all upstairs and then another self-contained unit with kitchen, bath & laundry facilities downstairs. yay!! we should be moving in this weekend.

in other news...
been watching a fair bit of tennis lately. only because the australian open is on practically 24 hours of the day. watched Roger Federer's 5 set win over Janko Tipsarevic. that was nerve-wracking. i don't think i've ever seen federer so shaky, his game seemed so... incomplete.
also watched Ana Ivanovic beat Katarina Srebotnik a couple of nights ago. a couple of things i've noticed about ana:
1. she's a cutie ;)
2. she always bounces the ball 4 times before her first serve and 5 times before her second serve. yes. we counted.

speaking of women's tennis, i have a question for the female tennis players out there. when a female tennis player takes 2 tennis balls before her first serve, they usually put one under their skirt. now where does this ball go? and what keeps it from falling out? do they have a little clip for the tennis ball? are their panties made out of velcro so that the tennis ball sticks to it? does it get tucked UNDER their underwear? where? where does it go?!?!

i finished The Time Traveler's Wife. it was good. really good. but if you haven't read it yet, don't. it's good but oh-so-sad. ok. so maybe i'm just being a big sap. so many parts of this book reminded me of... well, me.

round two. ding ding!

had our second year orientation today.
it was good to see everyone again. it'll be nice to get started.

still looking...

i'm still looking for a permanent home. it's been frustrating but hopefully we'll find something that we like. something that'll fit us all. did i mention we're a party of 5? yep. 5. matt, susan, laura, alan and myself. and that's where the problem lies. its been tough finding something with 5 bedrooms, at least 2 bathrooms and a carpark. i hate to admit it but it might soon be time for us to "break-up" and find smaller places.

i'm also still looking for new aussie slang to share with you. here's a few that i've come across since i've gotten back.
1. canteen - cafeteria. this dude walks up to me on campus the other day and asks - "where's your canteen?" and i'm thinking... well, i don't have a canteen. do i look like i'm a soldier or a camper? i have a water bottle but not a canteen. and why does this guy want to see my canteen anyway???

2. baby capsule - baby car seats. we were passing by this fire hall and it read: "baby capsule adjustments & fittings". which obviously was referring to making sure that your baby car seat is appropriately sized and fitted in your back seat. however, for a split second i imagined some sort of fire-proof capsule that you place your baby in, in case of emergency or fire! hahaha.

3. solarium - tanning bed/tanning salon. a local paper headline read: "solariums double cancer risk". i thought they were talking about planetariums, and thought "my goodness! all those school children taking day trips! THINK of the CHILDREN!!" *shriek* but no. it's just all the paris hiltons and nicole ritchies of the world. in that case... i guess it's kind of like natural selection then right? OUCH!

4. talent - slang for girls (or boys). the english equivalent would be "meat".
me: you gonna go to the internationals bbq?
matt: hm... probably not.
me: but what about the free food and the fresh talent!
haha!

and lastly... T.O. is still looking for his first superbowl ring. i was disappointed to find out this morning that my cowboys lost to the giants. and who said T.O. never had any heart. just watch the first 2 minutes or so...

go Pats!

warning: monster post ahead.

picked up a few books from a girl who just finished her intern year and was looking to get rid of her textbook stash. i managed to pick up...
-o'callaghan and brenner's kidney at a glance
-rohen's color atlas of anatomy and
-davidson's priciples & practice of medicine.

all for $50. some of them are slightly older editions but $50! i'm happy.

i then walked around the CBD (central business district) with a camera in hand, looking like a major tourist. i don't think i've ever put up any pictures of downtown brisbane. have i? well here are a few...

WAIT! before i get to the CBD, i don't think i've ever posted up a picture of the med school either...

from there i jumped on the busway and headed towards the city.

first things first. this is my favorite gelato place in brisbane. probably just as good as "hollywood gelato" on bayview in toronto.

the gelato place is just across the street from brisbane city hall and the museum of brisbane.

this stately looking building USED to be the state treasury building. it now houses brisbane's conrad treasury casino & hotel. oh well.

queen street is probably the equivalent of yonge street back in toronto. however it's a pedestrian-only street. it's kind of cool. there are restaurants down the middle of the street with stores lined up on either side. there's always at least 1 street performer trying to make a living. today there were 2. one guy that climbed poles and did hand-stands on them...

and another playing a didgeridoo.

ok. that's the end of our brisbane tour for the day.

i know. i know. this is my 4th post in 4 days.
a blogging friend says that she blogs when she's bored or upset. i blog when i'm bored, when i need to procrastinate, when i just want to share something and sometimes - just sometimes, when i'm homesick. like when i post about what i'd like to eat and stuff like that. don't worry. i'm not homesick now.

homesickness - such a weird thing. kind of like lovesickness. it comes and goes in waves. one moment you're fine and then BAM! suddenly it hits you. like last night, i was watching the movie "man of the year" with robin williams. good movie. it was shot in toronto. no doubt about that, you can see UTS, king college circle, metro toronto convention centre, what looks like the gym of leaside high school, what used to be a ford dealership on lawrence & birchmount... i love watching movies that are shot in toronto & trying to figure out exactly where they shot it. everyone knows "good will hunting" has severals scenes in one of the lecture halls of MP (McLennan Physical Laboratories) at UofT. you can see forest hill p.s. and its lawn in vin diesel's "pacifier". adam brody's "in the land of women" - not a particularly good movie by the way, has a scene in yorkdale's food court. ok. i'm getting carried away. what i was gonna say was that while watching that movie, i got strangely homesick. seeing all those toronto sites, kind of made me miss home. weird. that's never happened before...

in other news... of course now that i'm abroad, i find myself visiting, tsn, the globe & mail, the star and the like more frequently. and it's not just me. other friends that are away from toronto confess to taking greater interest in what's going on in toronto than they did while they were living there! is it just because we don't want to be completely disconnected? again, i'm getting distracted. what i actually wanted to direct your attention to was this article. crazy no? sounds like something out of some wacky korean drama!

oh! one more thing. finished coupland's "the gum thief". if you haven't read it yet, don't bother. seriously. now "the time traveler's wife" on the other hand is fantastic. i've just started it. i should have picked it up when she first recommended it.

john pinette.

this guy is WAY too funny.

first few days back.

this is my home for the next week or so. just until i find some permanent digs.

yes, it's true. i have not unpacked. why would i? i'm gonna be moving in a few days again!

typical dorm room really. there's a kitchen downstairs and a washroom/shower just down the hall. the best thing is that there's a room cleaning service - they change your sheets, vacuum the floor and empty out your garbage. better enjoy it while i can. don't think any of my future roommates will be too keen to vacuum my bedroom once a week for the upcoming year!

let's see. what else. just finished "the memory keeper's daughter" by kim edwards. i really enjoyed it. sad, but a really great book.
next up is either douglas coupland's The Gum Thief or audrey niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife. hm... there's really no fair way to pick. so...
eenie---meenie---minie---mo!
looks like it's coupland first.

in oz.

so in case you didn't know, i'm in brisbane now. arrived a few days ago.
my apologies to those that i didn't get a chance to say a proper goodbye to. i will see y'all next november. maybe. ;)

the flight here was pretty straight forward. toronto to vancouver, vancouver to taipei, taipei to brisbane. no major delays, cancelled flights, or lost baggage. win-win.

i did have a massive stopover in taipei though. i think it was about 17 hours long. thankfully the government of the republic of china (not the people's republic of china, there's a difference!) provides a free 1/2 day tour for those that have a stopover of more than 7 hours long. so i jumped on and took a little tour...

first stop was the Longshan Temple. it's apparently the oldest and most famous temple in taipei. it was impressive. not necessarily because of it's size or architecture but the fact that there was this temple right in the middle of the city.

if i remember correctly, these people on the left are praying to the god of "study". there were also gods for health, business, fertility and matchmaking. haha. if anyone wants to make requests, i will say a prayer for them to the matchmaker god the next time i'm in taipei.

next was the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, also known as National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall. My (limited) understanding is that Chiang Kai-Shek played a very key role in forming Taiwan into a democratic country and not a communist one like it's "big brother".

the stairs in this picture... there are 89 steps. why 89? that's because Chiang was 89 when he passed away! duh! silly! isn't that obvious?!?!

the third step was this place called Martyrs' Shrine. it's a shrine dedicated to the soldiers of china's wars.

now at the main entrance and closer to the shrine itself there are guards. kind of like our mounties, these guards aren't allowed to move. however, they have these little minions.

guess what this guy's job is.
that's right. his sole purpose is to wipe the sweat off of the guards faces!

and finally, we had a quick photo-stop in front of Taipei 101.

the tallest building in the world. it cost nearly $2 billion dollars to construct and even has double decker elevators! how cool is that??? however, it's soon expected to be overtaken by the Burj, Dubai which stands at 141 floors.

and then it was back to the airport. after another 4 hours, i was on the plane to brisbane. i enjoyed taipei. definitely a place i'd like to revisit some time.

happy new year!

so on top of my yearly new years resolutions of:
1. exercise more often
2. read more/study harder
3. abolish world hunger
and 4. procure world peace,
this year, i have a 5th resolution. may seem silly but it's an honest one.

5. stop biting my nails! i don't bite my nails all the time. just when i'm bored or nervous or when i'm studying. i know it's a disgusting habit - not as disgusting as smoking, but still. so the next time you catch me with one of my fingernails in my teeth feel free to give me a good smack across the head. but not too hard.
;)

happy new year everyone. wish you all the best in 2008.