Winding Up to Wind Down

Alright hello everyone! Sorry that my blog posts have been sporadic and lame lately, my life has been quite the whirlwind as I enter the last week of my time here in Australia. But now that I have a second to catch my breath, let me tell you about what I've been up to :)

Garden Talk

So this week marked my last days at Lucas Gardens :( But before I get to the sad reflective stuff, I shall talk about the events of our final week.

On Wednesday, Lucas Gardens had the first of their many Christmas parties. Literally, this school celebrates Christmas like six times. Anyways, this party was held at a restaurant on a nearby golf course that is owned by one of the teachers at the school. A woman's golf group puts on the party for the kids every year and they absolutely love it. In order to get all of the kids to the restaurant, girls from the high school down the street came to help push the students so that we didn't have to make multiple trips. Once we all made it there safely and the high schoolers left (not gunna lie I was nervous that all my kids were going to start liking them more than they like me) we were served bowls upon bowls of hot chips (french fries) and the feast began. Side note, most of the students are not able to eat solid food or are tube fed so the majority of these hot chips were eaten by Kaitlyn and I. I'm fat. After the chips came the lasagna for the kids and we quickly fell back into our classroom duties of helping to feed students and catering to their individual eating needs. When they were done eating, the staff was served lunch (whoo!) and we got to indulge in the same lasagna as the kiddos. It was delicious, probably the closest thing I've had to a home cooked meal since I've been here. Besides the meals that I actually cook at home. You know what I mean. After all the eating, the Christmas Fairy made an appearance (not a thing in Australia or America, just a random old lady from the golf club dressed as a giant pink fairy) and then you know who, Mr. Santa Claus himself, paid the kids a visit. The. Kids. Love. Santa. The smiles on all of their faces when he walked into the room were absolutely radiant and I don't think Santa has ever gotten so many hugs.

Santa then began the process of giving out Christmas presents to each kid which was just ugh so adorable. The teachers had previously given gift ideas to the ladies of the golf club, so each student was gifted something that they like or needed. There were firetrucks, socks, CDs, hats, toy keyboards and everything in between. I just can't get over how adorable this whole Christmas party was. All the kids looked so stinkin' cute in their little reindeer antlers and I just seriously have grown way too attached to them.

Christmas at Lucas Gardens definitely ranks as one of my top three days at work and I'm so happy that I was able to experience it. Thank goodness Christmas celebrations begin so early in Australia! (there's no Thanksgiving to mark the beginning of the Christmas season)

On Friday, our last day, all of the teachers threw Kaitlyn and I an Aussie themed goodbye party with enough cookies, cake, and lollies (candy) for the staff of five schools. Everything there was exclusively Australian and we were even sent home with a package of TimTams each (major score!). Of course, out of gratitude to the staff, we had brought in a giant cake for everyone to share so there were sweets coming out of the roof at Lucas Gardens that day. I didn't hate it. I think being all hyped up on sweets numbed me up a little bit and made the goodbyes just a tad less painful. I managed to choke back all my tears as I waved goodbye to my favorite kids for the last time so you could say it was a successful day. And I know you're not supposed to have favorites but can you blame me?

Okay now for the sappy part.

We're in love, it's fine

I don't even know where to begin when describing the immense impact that Lucas Gardens has had on my life. I am so grateful for the experience of working with all of the amazing students and teachers at LG and I could not have asked for more out of my internship site. I have learned so much about working with children, disabilities, physical therapy, and my own strengths and weaknesses. But most of all, I have come to love all of my Lucas Gardens munchkins. Not only are they the cutest kids in the world, but these kids hold more strength and determination in their little bodies than any person, child or adult, that I've ever met. Everyday I left school feeling like I cheated the students because I know that they taught me way more than I ever taught them. They have shown me that nothing is impossible and that there really are no limits to the things that you can achieve. They have given me a completely new perspective on people with disabilities. They have proven to me that learning is always possible and that with a little creativity, tasks that appear difficult become attainable. They have taught me to never, ever give up. Because taking one step or being able to press a switch or make a choice between two objects may seem like a small feat, but it in fact means the world. I know that these kids will have such bright futures because of the great work that everyone at Lucas Gardens does. I am beyond thankful to all of the teachers and staff at the school for dealing with Kaitlyn and I for the past seven weeks and for making our experience in Australia truly unforgettable. I'm honestly surprised that I was able to come up with this much to say about LG because my time there has literally left me at a loss for words. So to sum it up, thank you, Lucas Gardens, for changing my life in more ways than you can know.

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Wow alright, once everyone is done wiping their tears, aka me, I suppose we can move on to the next part of the blog!

*Nothing interesting happened from Monday to Wednesday*

Thursday was Thanksgiving! Yay for celebrating an American holiday while in Australia! Except not really because it doesn't feel like Thanksgiving here at all (where are the changing leaves and annoying Black Friday commercials?) and not having a gigantic home cooked meal really defeats the purpose of the holiday. And no leftovers! It's a true travesty. Anyways, BU threw us a Thanksgiving dinner party on Thursday night and it was a ton of fun. We had turkey (it was kind of weird, but turkey nonetheless), cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, salad, rolls, and stuffing (the stuffing was gross though) and we all ate and were merry. Did I mention that they had unlimited wine? A very fun night indeed. Towards the end of the party, there was a slideshow of pictures from the whole semester that all of us had submitted and of course, I cried. Reflecting on how unbelievably amazing this semester has been while being thankful on Thanksgiving really just got to me. Alas. Oh yeah! I won $40 because one of my pictures took first place in the "best landscape" category! I'm really liking this whole 'BU gives me money when I win things' thing that keeps happening here...

On Friday after I got home from an emotional day at work, I decided to head off to the Royal Botanical Gardens to do some reading and soak up the view. This was a good decision.

When I arrived back at our apartment, plans for the night began to take shape. Sidra, Natalie, Ruthie, and I along with our friend Danielle decided that we wanted to spend the night on the beach and then wake up for the sunrise and all of its beauty. So that's what we did. At 10 pm we headed off to Bondi Beach carrying enough bags to resemble homeless people and create quite the debacle on the bus, but we eventually made it onto the almost deserted beach. We set up camp (quite literally, we had blankets and basically everything you could possibly need to camp besides a tent) and settled in to stargaze and discuss the wonders of life. Observation: the ocean is a lot warmer at night than you would expect it to be. Also the sand is COLD. Cold was basically the theme of our night. Haha I'm laughing just thinking about it. We were bundled to the extreme but that ocean breeze really cuts right through you. Regardless, we are five tough girls and we made it to sunrise. So take that, night beach, we conquered you!

 After stuffing our faces with a delicious breakfast at Bondi, we plopped right back down on the beach for a much warmer nap. In total, we spent 16 hours at the beach that day and it was 16 of the sandiest hours of my life. I think there's still sand coming off of my body from it. But so totally worth every grain.

When we returned from the beach, we all took much needed showers (we basically turned our shower into our own private beach due to all of the sand) and then crashed into a deep oblivion of sleep. Groggy and confused, we awoke two hours later and pretty much forced ourselves to get dressed and go out for a casual night on the town. We can't waste a single second, there's so little time left here! We ended up at the Opera Kitchen, a bar/restaurant underneath the Opera House. We got drinks and just had a relaxing night that obviously involved a photo shoot with the Opera House and it's surrounding beauty.


On Sunday we ventured to Balmoral Beach, one of the many beaches along the Sydney Harbor. As all of the beaches here are, it was beautiful and a perfect relaxing end to our busy weekend.

Repping Green Day Construction. You're welcome Dad

The best part of Sunday though was coming home to Facetime with all of my ridiculously crazy and amazing friends (the crazy is referring to you Jessie)(is that an acceptable shoutout for you?) as they were all at home hanging out WITHOUT ME :((( But that's okay, I'll be home with them soon enough. I can't wait to be reunited with you guys! Love you all! Oh, and a special birthday shoutout to Kelsey! You rock my socks :)

Don't fear, my Sunday story isn't over yet.

Tori this part is for you.

My Sunday night adventure involved going to the main campus of Hillsong Church with Kaitlyn, a place we have been wanting to go for a while. Last weekend we attended a service at one of the regional campuses, but as this was our last opportunity to check out all of the hype, we decided to make the trek out to Balkham Hills for Sunday night service. Let me give you some background on this church. Like Willow Creek, my church at home, Hillsong is a modern style Christian church which, for lack of a better word, could be referred to as a mega-church. They play pop-style music and the venue is quite large. Hillsong's claim to fame is their worship team, as they have come out with tons of albums and their band is currently touring all over the world. Everyone at the church gets super into singing and worship and there's actually a mini mosh pit that happens during the beginning songs. It's crazy, I've never seen anything like it. Being at the services is really energizing and tons of fun. Anyways, the real story lies in our journey to Hillsong. Here's a play by play for you all.

4:00 pm. Kaityln and I depart the BU SAC and head to the bus stop

4:04 pm. I should have eaten more before this...

4:05 pm. Ugh I forgot my waterbottle #foreverthirsty

4:10 pm. Two busses pull up in front of us. One says 607, the other says 610. We get on the 610.

4:32 pm. Kaitlyn and I spend a lot of time on busses together...is that all our friendship consists of?

4:44 pm. We drive over the Harbor Bridge! Check that off my bucket list

5:06 pm. Hmm I wonder when we're supposed to get off the bus

5:08 pm. Kaityln goes to ask the bus driver if he will tell us to get off when we get to the correct stop

5:09 pm. The bus driver informs her that we are in fact on the wrong bus, that we just missed the bus that would have fixed our predicament, and that he would attempt to fix the situation in a different way. Fun fact we were supposed to take the 607 bus that was literally right in front of us when we got onto the 610. Cool. Confusion ensues.

5:11 pm. The bus driver tells us to get off the bus. We talk with him for a minute to try to figure out where to go from there, but his suggestion involves us waiting 40 minutes for the next bus. Being impatient and trying to make a 6 pm service, we opt for a different route that we found online.

5:15 pm. It starts to rain

5:16 pm. We get on a new bus. This bus is super new and fancy. We praise the Sydney suburbs for having great public transportation and begin getting excited for the service at Hillsong.

5:22 pm. Kaitlyn again goes to ask the bus driver if she will inform us when to get off the bus (notice how I never am the one to ask anything, public confrontation is not my area of expertise). Again, the bus driver tells us that we are on the wrong bus and that we should get off at the next stop and catch one of the other busses that stops there.

5:23 pm. It's still raining. No busses in sight

5:30 pm. 30 minutes until church starts.

5:35 pm. The bus comes! This bus is probably the weirdest bus I've ever been on, the seats were gray and leathery and we were 2 of 4 people on the bus.

5:37 pm. WE'RE ON THE WRONG BUS AGAIN

5:39 pm. Still raining. Picture two girls in dresses standing on the side of the road in the suburbs, soaking wet, looking lost. That was us. We're just trying to get to church.

5:41 pm. Executive decision to take a cab to Hillsong

5:44 pm. No cabs anywhere. Getting wetter by the second.

5:45 pm. Why won't anyone pick us up and take us to church? I thought church people were supposed to be nice. The rain is getting to us. Copious amounts of laughter begin.

5:46 pm. I call a cab

5:51 pm. Cab shows up after what feels like an hour. We get in completely soaking wet, looking like lab rats, and smelling like wet dog. The cab driver looks at us with a very quizzical expression and asks us why we were walking to church. We simply say that we suck at directions. He understands.

5:59 and 48 seconds. We pull up to the church!! WE MADE IT!! I don't think I've ever been so happy to see a building in my whole entire life.

6:02 pm. We find seats and try not to touch anyone as to not get them wet. My hair continues to drip water down my neck for the entire duration of the service.

8:00 pm. Service ends and everyone is ushered outside for the Christmas lights ceremony and fireworks. Like what church sets off fireworks? Thankfully we were handed ponchos because it was still raining (although it wouldn't have made a difference, I was still sopping wet from earlier) and found a spot on the lawn outside of the church.

8:10 pm. This happened.

8:20 pm. The fireworks finish and everyone is just in a great mood. We begin to wonder how we're going to get home.

8:23 pm. We decide to ask one of the security people the quickest way to get back to Sydney on public transportation and he tells us to take a bus to the train station and then take a train back to the CBD. This is exciting to us because we love the trains. 

8:24 pm. We get a second opinion on how to get home from another church employee. She says that we have to walk 20 minutes down the road to the nearest T-way station to catch a bus back. Of course the two people we asked had different opinions. SOMEONE PLEASE JUST GIVE US A RIDE.

8:27 pm. Alright, we're going to trust the woman's directions because she seemed a lot more confident. 

8:28 pm. Is everyone positive that they don't want to give us a ride home? 

8:30 pm. We begin the dreaded walk to the T-way in the rain. Thank God for those ponchos. Literally. 

8:36 pm. I hate this part right here...

8:50 pm. Salvation! We've found the T-way stop! I'm either crying tears of joy or there's just a lot of rain water on my face, I can't tell. 

8:55 pm. We get on the bus, the right one this time (yay go us!), and it is the warmest, most amazing feeling. 

10:00 pm. Finally back at the BU SAC. Never riding a bus with Kaitlyn again. 

 

So yeah, I guess that's my week! I'm going to go enjoy my last few days left in Australia (aka watch Nashville while eating TimTams) and indulge in the sun and 18 year old drinking age. See you back in the States!

A Thanksgiving Reflection

With less than a week left, we've began to reflect on our time here in Australia. Thanks to Sidra, Natalie, and Ruthie for helping me to make this list!

Things I miss about home (in no particular order)

• Family
• Friends
• My puppies
• Junior
• My bed
• My shower
• Portillos/Chipotle/Panera/Jimmy Johns/Sonic
• Lou Malnati's (this get's it's own bullet for obvious reasons)
• Doing crafts
• Driving
• Not paying for food/having someone cook for me
• Ice cream
• A fridge that makes ice cubes for you
• The gym
• Dollar menus
• The radio
• Netflix
• Wifi that functions properly
• Thanksgiving
• American style breakfast aka bacon

Things I'm going to miss about Oz (this list might get long)

• Endless summer 
• Beaches
• Koalas
• Aussie accents
• Gelato
• Being legal (ugh 8 more months til I'm 21)
• Not doing real school work
• LUCAS GARDENS :(((((((((
• Seeing the Opera House/Harbor Bridge on the reg
• Fresh seafood
• The Great Barrier Reef
• Traveling and doing amazingly fun activities
• TIMTAMS HOLY COW I DON'T KNOW HOW THIS WASN'T THE FIRST THING ON THE LIST
• Henry the vacuum cleaner
• The Aboriginal people that play digeridoo music at Circular Quay
• All of the markets that happen all around Sydney
• Did I mention beaches and endless summer?
• Trying to explain to people how cold Boston gets in the winter
• $2 sushi
• Pancakes on the Rocks
• The trains
  
• Coffee (Sidra and Natalie added this one)
• Kangaroo - for eating and for petting
• Being in a city that gives you personal space
• Botanical Gardens
• Jacaranda trees
• Living with Sid, Nat, and Ruthie
• Jasmine plants
• The fruit here (it's seriously way better than America's)
• The wonderfully amazing people that are on this program with me
• Airports with minimal security
• The nice, welcoming, laid back attitude of everyone around
• Our sofa bed
• Aussie slang (particularly the words dingledangle, how ya goin', and ta)
• The smell of the ocean
• The Blue Mountains 
• Doing extreme sports
• Writing this blog
• Ruthie's sheepskin boa
• Eating really poorly and not exercising because I think I'm on vacation
• The Sydney skyline
• Taking the ferry
• The rich, interesting history of Australia
• Being mistaken for Aboriginal
• Multicolored money (it's waterproof and fireproof too)
• The large selection of bakeries/cafes
• Carmelo Koalas
• The Aboriginal man at Paddy's 
• Getting drinks with teachers
• The little family that we've created here - you guys are all so amazing!

Things I won't miss about Sydney

• Not knowing appropriate restaurant protocol
• Being a loud American in a foreign country
• Really expensive alcohol
• Washing dishes
• Lecture Room 1
• Walking the tunnel to Central Station
• Super high prices
• The flies
• The alarm that goes off outside our building every night at 9 pm sharp
• Cold showers
• The lack of ice water
• The fear of bed bugs/any other type of bugs
• Needing to use an adapter every time you want to plug something in
• Paying a bajillion dollars for sunscreen
• Carrying around huge amounts of change
• Having an Asian woman ask me if I want a massage every time I walk down the street

And that's just the start of it. I'm sure that these lists could go on forever but I will spare you all. 

Today I'm feeling especially thankful for the opportunity of studying here in Australia and being able to experience all of those things listed above (even the ones I won't miss). This amazingly beautiful, wonderful, crazily eye opening trip has been more than I could have ever dreamed it to be and I cannot thank the people that made this possible enough.  So, Happy Thanksgiving everyone! There's so much to be thankful for :)

A special shoutout to these goofballs because they mean more to me than words can describe. Love you guys and I can't wait to be reunited with you all!!!

AHHHH

ONLY 9 DAYS LEFT THERE'S NO TIME FOR BLOGGING

Here's some pictures of my week

Monday: Bronte Beach, class, BU BBQ

Wednesday: Called in sick to work (sorry not sorry), Bondi Beach

Bondi Beach 

Friday: Marquee for Caroline's birthday

Saturday: Shopping at the Rocks, walking around Circular Quay

Obligatory selfie with Opera House

Saturday: Sidra makes the ferry by the skin of her teeth, North Sydney Olympic Pool

Saturday: nap time

Saturday: N2 Extreme Gelato

They freeze the gelato with liquid nitrogen

Sunday: Attempt to go to the nude beach, it was filled with old men, we turned around

Sunday: Camp Cove Beach

 CURRENTLY FREAKING OUT BECAUSE I LEAVE SO SOON. THERE'S NOT ENOUGH TIME

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I Swear I'm Not a Tourist

h.e.l.l.o. e.a.r.t.h.l.i.n.g.s.

Only three weeks left so I'm trying to cram in all of the things on my bucket list before I leave Sydney. Which makes for a busy week and hopefully an interesting blog! 

Garden Talk

While this week at Lucas Gardens was pretty mundane, it was a great one. On Tuesday, we celebrated Remembrance Day, which is a memorial day formed to remember the members of the armed forces who have died in the line of duty. Remembrance Day is observed on November 11th to recall the end of hostilities of World War I on that date in 1918. In line with Australian tradition, all of the staff and students wore pieces of rosemary and made red poppies out of tissue paper. The poppies have become an emblem of Remembrance Day because they bloomed across some of the worst battlefields of World War I. The school even held an assembly in which each class made a wreath of flowers and red poppies that sat in the main courtyard of the school for the rest of the day. It was really cool to be a part of a big Australian tradition that has such deep roots in Australian history. I can be a real Aussie now!

The rest of the week was fairly normal, there weren't even any excursions (yay!). All of the teachers are beginning to make plans for the new school that is going to be built over the holiday, so everyone is pretty excited about that. They are knocking down the entire existing school and building a completely new one, equipped with better technology, more classrooms, and extensive resources for the teachers and students. I'm sad that I'm not going to be there to see it :(

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Alright now for the fun parts of my week! Not that LG isn't exciting, because it is. You guys know what I mean.

 As I mentioned in my last post, Sid's brother, Ben, came to visit so we spent a lot of the week doing things with him. It was pretty cool to watch another American experience Australian culture (aka TimTams) for the first time and be able to explain the Aussie way based on my own experiences here. Like, am I Australian yet?

On Tuesday, we made dinner for Ben in our apartment because you know he was dying to try our delicious cooking. But here comes the best part. After dinner, we went to get gelato at Cow and Moon, a local gelateria that has recently been named THE BEST GELATO IN THE WORLD. And holy cow (pun intended), it lived up to its name. I would attempt to explain it to you but I think that that would make me start salivating on my computer and that could end badly. My tastebuds are singing just thinking about it.

On Wednesday, we embarked on a journey to do one of the most touristy things that Sydney has to offer, the Harbour Bridge Climb. We had signed up for a night climb so we nervously made our way to the base of the bridge after a quick dinner. Once we had signed all of the necessary waiver forms, we were outfitted in the most attractive jumpsuits you've ever seen and equipped with a sweatshirt, a headlamp, a beanie, and even a handkerchief for any possible runny noses. All of these things were conveniently clipped onto our jumpsuits so that they would not plummet down into the six lanes of traffic below (probably a good idea). After a quick tutorial on how to climb up the bridge ladders and some motivational words from our guide, we finally made our way onto the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Lemme just give you some background on this bridge real quick: Under the direction of Dr. J.J.C. Bradfield, the Harbour Bridge was opened in 1932 as a bridge that carries rail, vehicular, bicycle, and pedestrian traffic across Sydney Harbour, from the Sydney CBD to the North Shore. At 160 ft wide and 440 ft high, the bridge is the sixth longest spanning-arch bridge and the tallest steel arch bridge in the world. Pretty magnificent if you ask me. So anyways, we climbed and climbed and climbed, stopping at various points along the way to take pictures and hear history lessons from our guide, until we finally reached the top. Once we finally got to the top, the view was absolutely breathtaking. On one side, you could see the Opera House and the harbour, and on the other side was the city skyline, illuminated against the night sky. If I didn't already want to move to Sydney, that view sure was convincing. Our time on the bridge lasted about an hour and half and we all went home exhausted.

Thursday night added to my terrific week, as I spent the night meeting Madison's mom and her two aunts (I'm sure you all remember Madison from the Tasmania blog) and eating boatloads of appetizers. That's pretty much as good as it gets. Her family was super nice and I'm so glad that I got to meet them! Again, it was fun to have visitors and talk to them about the differences between Australian and American culture. Also I'm starting to sense a trend of peoples' families visiting them...(cough cough Dad what the heck) (even just send the dogs over, that would be sufficient).

By Friday night, we were all exhausted from our busy week so we decided to just get dinner and call it an early night. We got dinner with Ben at a yummy Italian place not too far away from our apartment and I feasted on some seafood marinara. Thinking back, I suppose this is where my seafood craving of the week began, because I ended up eating seafood everyday for the rest of the week. Continue reading if you love to hear about my horrible eating habits.

yum

On Saturday afternoon, Ruthie (whose name for some reason always autocorrects to ruthiechen on my phone) and I headed off to the world's third largest fish market, the Sydney Fish Market. There we were met with a working fish port, a wholesale fish market, a fresh seafood retail market, a sushi bar, a bakery, a fruit and veggie market, and even a seafood cooking school, all for our consumption. Dream. Come. True. There was seafood galore and I was literally in heaven. It was so overwhelming to decide what to eat, I just wanted it all. Imagine being in an ice cream shop with every flavor ever made, and it's all completely fresh. That's the decision I had to make, but like 20 times harder. Ruthie and I ended up getting grilled lobster, stuffed scallops, and oysters to share. You could say I was hooked. Everything tasted so fresh and wasn't even that expensive! This could be one of my new favorite places in Sydney. Major yum points.

yum 

yum

yum

yum

With happy tummies, Ruthie and I, along with our two other friends Kaitlyn and Jennia, headed off to take a gander at the Sydney Olympic Park, the home of the 2000 Summer Olympic Games. Let me just say that although I was only in kindergarten at the time, the Sydney Olympics were and still are my favorite Olympics of all time. So to stand on the ground where it all happened was pretty amazing. Olympic Park is basically built in the middle of nowhere, so when we got there we were surrounded by the Olympic atmosphere. One of the first things that we saw were a bunch of poles constructed outside of the main stadium, each one listing information varying from the names of every volunteer to the gold medal time of multiple track events. There were even two Appelt's that volunteered at the Olympics!

Don't worry, it gets cooler. We got to swim in the Olympic pool! Michael Phelps peed in there. It was such a surreal experience to be swimming in the same pool as world famous athletes, nonetheless the stage of my favorite sporting event. 

Michael's hands and feet...HUGE

I'm basically Debbie Phelps. Go Michael!

Then to end the day like we started (aka with food), Ruthie and I strolled into Chinatown and picked up some more baos because we love those little meat filled buns so much. Yum yum yum. 

Sunday morning, the roomies and I made our way to the Glebe Street Fair, which was basically just a giant outdoor market craft fair type event. I didn't get anything because I was saving my money for MORE FISH MARKETS. Muhaha you heard right. This time I accompanied Sid and Nat to the Fish Markets and gobbled down some salmon and chips that really hit the spot. I'm pretty sure you're sick of hearing about me eating now, you're welcome. 

After our scrumptious lunch, we walked down to Darling Harbour to pay a visit to the Chinese Garden of Friendship. Sounds like my kind of place, right? The garden basically looked like they cut a little chunk out of China and shipped it over to Australia and plopped it down right in the middle of the city. The contrast between the hustle and bustle of the city and the serenity of the gardens was personally what made the gardens so enjoyable to me, although the beautiful gardens and ability to rent an entire Chinese outfit for $10 were good bonuses. 

Oh hey Mulan

I guess this means I have to be friends with them for life...ugh <3

Alright well I guess that's it for my week! See you all next week for my second to last post! That's actually so sad, I'm going to go cry now. Peace. Out.