I was sitting at my desk and sucked in my breath and suddenly felt like I was back in Sydney. Being on exchange is weird, you know? Because you forget that it's temporary, but other people don't, and their perspectives of you are informed by that. You realise it when they introduce you to other people, "This is Audrey from New Zealand, she's here on exchange for a semester." And I think some people don't get as close to you as they would otherwise, and it's entirely unconscious, but it's in the back of their minds. It's unsettling, "You're only here for two more months!" and they're looking at it objectively, from the outside, but you're completely immersed, looking at it from the inside, so for you it's about the person and not the time. You like this person, you enjoy his or her company, you enjoy it in that moment, and you're happy. Same situation; different frames of mind.

Halloween's coming up, I'm excited, I have a costume, it's American, it subscribes to the 'Sexy Something' line of thinking, it will be fun, you will be fun, we will be fun!

Edit: Just remembered, Dad, I had a beef kabob platter last night and it made me super excited about visiting you :D

Before I begin, I would like to make special mention of James Cush, because he is narcissistic and visited this blog purely to look for his own name.

(I was going to put a picture of him here because I'm a creep but my computer is too slow)

I'm giving myself 7 minutes to write this entry. Time is of the essence, my babies!

Quick (and late) rundown: upon arrival in Philly, I met an amazing guy in an elevator, Ted. Darling Sharath (from Jersey) made us become friends in that short, awkward ride, and we exchanged numbers. A couple of days later, I met the gorgeous Madeleine while getting the internet set up on my laptop, and we also exchanged numbers.

After settling in, I texted Ted later in the week to inform him that I had no friends, so we went to paint his friend's room, then went for drinks at his other friend's place, affectionately called 233. I met all his homie gs, found out that Madeleine is one of their closest friends, and the rest is history. They introduced me to more and more people, none of whom have a bad bone in their bodies, and now I have a very, very skewed perspective that Penn is filled with beautiful, beautiful people. Which it is.

America's changing me; I've actually uploaded some photos to Facebook. ? I'm even thinking of doing a status update?

3 minutes left! I guess I've left things far too late to give you a blow-by-blow account of everything that I've done here. Suffice to say, it's a lot, and it's all been wonderful. Although Facebook photos aren't representative in the least, they'll maybe give you a slice of my Penn pie.

FALL BREAK THIS WEEKEND.
I'M GOING TO NEW YORK AND FINALLY GETTING TO SEE ASHGAVS+JEN. I'm so excited!

Talk soon but probably not. Although, Chloe and Siobhan, email me when you're free and we'll do a Skype sesh, I completely forgot about our missions! :)

xx

P.S. I took 15 minutes to write this.

I chilled with Uzi Tenenbaum on some guy's roof and saw the Super Mash Bros all within the space of 24 hours

People here say 'sicknasty.' As one word. "Dude, that's sicknasty." Exquisite! But is it bad? Is it good?

Sometimes I get a bit sad here. I miss you, Mum :(

I'll give you a detailed account of just what's gone down at JewPenn since I got here later, I promise I will. I will I will I will.

But quick summary! So, first week and a half was just one big party. It was NSO (New Student Orientation) and everybody was SO FRIENDLY and AWESOME. It was top notch. Frat parties are frat parties, for sure. Classes started on the 9th. Classes are a bit weird, all my classes are seminars, just like they were in Sydney, except there's no free-flowing conversation here... so nobody talks over another, everybody raises their hand to speak, and it's more like a question-and-answer session, rather than higher-level thinking. However, the workload is MASSIVE. An unending amount of readings, which sucks. The 'work hard, play hard' policy is intense here. I've hardly taken any photos because I suck (but also because when I was getting to know people, I didn't want to be like HAY I WANT A PHOTO OF YOU). The few I have taken, I'll put up... later. But yup, the parties and the people are fun and chill and make me shake my iron fist at the lack of a university culture back home.

I've joined shit! I'm part of the biz staff of the only all-female comedy group in the nation, Bloomers, and the girls are just wonderful. I did a Habitat for Humanity build last Saturday, joined the Service Community of my dorm (because they give you free candy), and I'm doing Publicity for a theatre production, No Exit. All these roles supposedly require you to do jack. This makes me happy. I also did not actively join these things, per se... rather, I'm learning that knowing the right people gets you into stuff with minimal effort in this great corrupt land. America is so cool.

I WENT TO REGINA'S CONCERT LAST NIGHT AND IT WAS SO WONDERFUL

I have friends! I'm uber happy! I'm at home here! Mark my words, plenty can go wrong and probably will. Murphy's Law!

Love from above xx

P.S. Leah, you disappoint me.

Unreliability is highly unbecoming of me. But I kinda don't care. So, photos from the rest of my Jersey trip. Half are from when we went to NYC and half from Hooters.

( Photos )

I love Penn and I love America and I'm presently too tired to post photos or stories.

I also love you.

xx

(It's exactly like the movies)

I'M AT PENN! Omgosh so exciting.

Will quickly finish recording my Jersey trip to you. This is going to be really bad fast writing 'cause I have to go out now. So, went to NYC on Thursday but never made it to Central Park, instead met up with Sherin's friend Jain who lives on Staten Island, we went to Jamba Juice where I had a Mega Mango smoothie then went to Gray's Papaya on the recommendation of Gomez where we had haat dawgs (sound it out) and this awful papaya drink which we threw away then we got mad at Gomez because he said it was like amazing but found out later we ordered the wrong thing then we went shopping and I bought some stuff then we went to Max Brenner where we devoured a banana split waffle in like 10 seconds then went to Staten Island where everybody speaks repulsively New Yorkish like cawfee and Bawston and we hung out at Jain's and I ate my first slice of New York pizza which was too cheesy for me pleasey. Friday I went round to Pete's place and hung out there all day where we watched Serendipity because it's his favourite movie (CUTE, YES?) then the guys took me to Hooters where we had their amazing buffalo wings and cheese fries and some cheesecake and watched all dem fyne chicks. Then Saturday we helped Sherin move into college (Rutgers - Go-hard goes there, Clo and Siobhan!) and Saturday night Jeff and I went round to Pete's and hung out there where we watched Dazed and Confused (classic, watch it). Then Sunday I CAME TO PHILLY AND NOW I AM HERE.

I'll explain what I've done in Philly so far later. Photos later as well. Just wanted to let you know I'm here!

Love you all!

xx

Thinking (of life & love & you) x










 

I'm still in Jersey.

I was madly trying to contact Ash from Saturday through to Monday about arriving at her place, whether she could pick me up from Times Square, etc. So I'm freaking out 'cause this girly wasn't responding. I was like HOT DAMN I'M BEING JACKED. I finally got a call from her on Monday at like 3pm. Turns out she had fallen and was in hospital getting staples in her head. THANK GOODNESS. Not for her, obviously. I hope Ash recuperates okay :-/ What a horrible thing to happen! Anyway, she's unable to take me in for the week, which is fine as Jessy is happy for me to stay here instead. As Ash goes to uni at Bryn Mawr, which is 20 mins away from my uni, she said she'll pick me up during the semester and we'll hit up NY one weekend =)

Monday, Sherin took me to Panera Bread which is a yummy little restaurant, and went to the mall again that night, where I got 3 tanks for $10 :-O and a pink striped shirt which goes fabulously with my NY belt. Yesterday, we went out to Overpeck Park where I sweat bullets in the ABOMINABLE HEAT and did some exercising and music-listening, and then went to the mall again because Sherin had to return some stuff. Last night I went round to Pete's place with the other guys and we smoked hookah. (Don't worry, Mum, it's perfectly safe.)

Tomorrow, I'm going to NY to have a picnic in NY in Central Park.

No photos this time because I'm not sure I have any on my camera slash I'm too lazy to go upstairs and get it.

Oh yeah! On Sunday night I encountered a stressful situation. Right, so I haven't been checking my UPenn email because I was under the STUPIDLY MISGUIDED impression that it was all being sent to my gmail account. Wrong. So I decided to check my UPenn email, just 'cause, and found emails from over a month ago. Two of them regarding Early Move-In. And they were all, "If you want to move in before Sep 5th, you have to register before Aug 10th. YOU HAVE TO OR YOU WILL DIE." Of course, I hadn't registered. So I flipped out. Rang my mother, rang Gurbani, panicked to Sherin and Jessy, and emailed the housing office with the words URGENT slapped all over the email and a desperate plea to be allowed to stay from the 31st. Luckily they emailed back almost immediately saying "Okay."

BY THE WAY! DID I TELL YOU that the other day I talked to my sis/Mum/Gran on Skype, and I ALSO talked to Chloe and Sam on Skype, and then Chloe and Siobhan on Skype? WELL I DID. AND IT WAS WONDERFUL. I miss you all :( And it was lovely hearing gossip about people I know. Furthermore, I honestly have not heard NZ/Australian accents in so long (except for this really stupid ad on TV advertising the Outback Steakhouse where they're all "COME AND HAVE OUR AUSSIE STEAKS GRILLED ON THE BARBIE LOL") and I didn't think I'd miss them but I do.

I feel like I'm becoming stupid because I haven't done anything remotely intellectual in over 2 months. I haven't even read any of the texts I'll be studying this semester and it's got me v. worried.

So. Thinking of you all. WORD
xx