I’m already one day away from being in Australia for 8 months! Where is the time going?! This is literally the fastest year that I’ve ever been a part of!! So.. what have I been up to since the beginning of August? Well, quite a lot actually! First of all, I actually went on my first online date in Melbourne. Yes, I set up a new dating app called Bumble, which is apparently
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First AFL game! |
the new, hip dating app since the girls have to make the first move. I wasn’t a huge fan... Anyway, I went out for drinks with a doctor from Aus who seemed nice, but you know that vibe/connection that I always say that I look for when I meet someone? Yeah, I didn’t get that from him… So, I said no to a second date and I think I just came to the conclusion that online dating isn’t really my thing. I always meet the best people randomly, especially when I’m travelling so I guess I’ll leave it up to fate! That weekend was also the first weekend I went out in Melbourne. First, I went to a restaurant called Borsch, Vodka, & Tears with a couple of the Canadian girls (Sabriena and Jess) so that we could have some well-deserved perogies! The food was actually really good, so we’ll definitely be back again. After dinner, we paid $30 for two hours of unlimited cocktails at another bar, so we met up with some more people and got started. I stupidly thought that my alcohol tolerance would still be at the same level as it was in London, but I should have known better since I hadn’t actually gone out since I was in Saskatoon seven months ago. Therefore, as you can imagine, I had only realized that I

had gone too far once it was already too late. I got one of my friends to request an Uber on my phone but (unbeknownst to me), he had put in the wrong address. Therefore, when I got in my Uber, he said we were going to Richmond, and I said I lived in St Kilda East. He asked me for the address, I spelled it for him, closed my eyes, and fully concentrated on keeping all bodily fluids inside of me until I safely exited the vehicle. A few minutes later, he asked if we were at the right place and I asked if there was a church (because I live across the street from a church). “A what?” “Nevermind, I’ll get out…” I got out and realized I didn’t know where I was. I got out my phone and realized that I was on the right street, but I didn’t know which direction I had to go. I started walking, felt like I was going to be sick, and let it all out on the sidewalk. At the same time, three men walked by and one asked if I was okay. I said I was fine, told them to keep walking, and thankfully they did. I sat down on the sidewalk so I could figure out where I needed to go, and realized that I had been walking in the wrong direction. Anyway, I ended up waking up at 6 in the morning fully clothed in bed, with my contacts still in so I got up, got ready for bed, and went back to sleep. I don’t think it’ll come as a surprise that I haven’t
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The Air Canada Tram :) |
had another crazy night out since that night (up until this past weekend). I know things could have been a lot worse, and I’m lucky to have made it back okay. Anyway, that day was when I first started feeling sick and since then, I’ve still been sick on and off, so it’s been a long journey! The next day, I went to my first AFL (Australian Football League) game with Breann. Aussie Football is not like American football nor is it like soccer. It’s kind of like a mix between soccer and rugby, but with a whole bunch of other rules mixed in. We happened to randomly sit on the winning team’s side, so it was fun being in the crowd! The next morning, I met up with a few of the girls that I had went out with on Friday, and we checked out the St. Kilda Market and wandered the area.
The next week, I ended up not going to work on Wednesday cause I still wasn’t feeling very well. I made pumpkin cupcakes on Friday and then on Saturday, I went to Warragul for Viola’s birthday. Allen wanted me to come as a surprise, so she didn’t know that I was coming until they picked me up in Melbourne! It was so nice to see them again since it had already been a month. All of my flatmates from my first place in Warragul were there as well, and most people would be finishing at the tomato farm within the next couple of weeks (technically my 6-month contract would have finished the day before Viola’s birthday). We ordered pizza and watched a couple of movies, and Allen even drove me all the way home at the end of the night, which was so nice of him because otherwise I would have been on the train for two hours. The next week, I ended up working at a K-9 school and the organizer asked all of the substitutes if anyone knew any music. When I said that I
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Me, Allen, and Viola |
had played piano since I was 5, she asked if I’d want to take a music teacher position for the next four weeks, starting on Monday. I wasn’t too sure what to say, since I had just arrived that morning and I had no idea what the school was like. She told me to see how the day went, and then to let her know at lunch. I still wasn’t sure because I didn’t want to commit to four weeks, especially when I’d be responsible for making sure all of the students get their work done during that time. I ended up working the first week there but by the end of the week, I decided that I wouldn’t want to do the full four weeks. However, when my agent called, she convinced me to stay one more week and then she said she’d find someone else to do the last two weeks. On the Monday, I wasn’t feeling very good at all - I felt shaky, I had a major headache, and I was so tired. I just thought it was because I didn’t get enough sleep the night before, and I ignored it. On Tuesday morning, I knew I wouldn’t be able to go in - I kept going back and forth between the shakes and the sweats all night, and I still had the worst headache, as well as a really bad sore throat. I didn’t have any cold symptoms though, which was weird to me. I called in sick, went back to bed, and ended up sleeping for over 12 hours. The next day, the same thing happened. I went back to bed and ended up sleeping for another 12 hours. I was still so exhausted but my throat hurt so bad, so I went to the clinic. After spending $100 to find out it was just a throat infection, I went back home to spend the rest of the day in bed. My agency called me right when I got back and said that the school didn’t want me to come back for the rest of the week because I had already missed the last two days.
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Anzuk event |
The agent figured that the school was just looking into it too much, and they made it sound like I was just calling in because I didn’t want to go there. I ended up feeling even worse because that obviously wasn’t what my intentions were, so I wrote my agent and asked if there was anything else I should do or follow up on with the school, and she said she’d look into it but never ended up getting back to me. While now I look back and I don’t care, at the time it really made me feel horrible.
The weekend before I got sick was pretty eventful (which is why I thought I was feeling bad on the Monday - I didn’t think it was virus-related). On Friday, my agency hosted an event for all of the international teachers. Most of the people who I met were Canadian, but I also met a few English and Irish people as well. It was fun being able to chat with other people in the same situation, and I met quite a few new people. A group of us went out dancing afterwards, and it was a lot of fun! On Saturday, we had Canadian Trivia Night. One of the bars in central Melbourne had put it on, and it was quite popular! There were 22 teams and we did amazing the first three rounds - we stayed in 6th position the entire time. However, we completely lost our place during the fourth round :( One of the Saskatchewan guys who I met at the Anzuk event the night before (Matthias) was there and he brought his other friend from Saskatchewan (Ryan), so now I have some friends who know what a bunnyhug is! After the event, a few of us stayed for more drinks since the bar had a special deal on their Molson Canadian (they had over-ordered back in July for Canada Day so they were trying to get rid of it all). After we noticed that we were the only ones left in the bar and the bartenders were cleaning up, we decided we should probably leave. However, when Sarah and I were about to walk out, the bartender asked, “You’re not going to stay for more drinks?” He
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My super-awesome 3-person sweater! |
grabbed some more beers for us (on the house), so we sat at the bar and chatted with the bartenders while they were closing up. I asked what they’d be doing with their leftover Clamato juice and when he said that it would get poured down the sink, I was NOT impressed. “Do you want some...?“ Of course I did! So he grabbed some jugs and refilled them for us to take home, yay! I was also able to talk one of the bartenders into giving me a three-person sweater, which was one of the prizes for Canadian trivia. So no, we didn’t win trivia, but I still won in my heart 😀 On Sunday, we celebrated Sabriena’s birthday by having bottomless brunch. We got unlimited mimosas and Bloody Mary’s, as well as an assortment of pastries. As usual when we go to a bottomless brunch, we stayed out for 5 or 6 hours. This was the day that I really started feeling tired and was the very beginning of the throat infection that I would suffer for the next week. On Monday evening, I went out for dinner with Breann and her parents. Breann’s time in Australia was nearly finished, so her parents came to visit so that they could do some travelling together before going back to Canada. Therefore, I got to meet some more cousins! It’s so weird how they don’t know who
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The bartender looking so happy to bring me my Clamato! |
my dad is and vice versa but upon meeting them, I could definitely tell that Breann’s dad was part of the Achtymichuk family. It was so nice to meet them, and put faces to the names of people who I had been writing to! For the rest of the week, I had to cancel all of my plans cause I literally felt like I was dying in my bed. And that brings me to the end of August, yay!
Recently, my excessive use of exclamation points has been brought up to me multiple times. Before Justin was about to pick me up before my photoshoot, apparently my exclamation point number went from 1 to 2 to 3, and when he came to pick me up, he asked if everything was okay. He was concerned because he thought I was feeling overwhelmed and stressed with the amount of exclamation points I was using. I had to explain to him that I’m just an avid exclamation point (over)user. I’ve realised that I really appreciate someone who takes the time to press that extra button to put a ! in their message. There’s something that really annoys me when someone’s like “that’s fun.” or “that’s exciting.” Like...is it, though?! It doesn’t SOUND exciting when you say it like that… I’m someone who edits other people's text messages when they’re sent to me (in my head, obviously) and I look into the punctuation and use of words. Don’t ask me why, I just do. Maybe it’s the
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Me and my cousins! (Breann, Ty, and Corinne) |
teacher in me. If I’m annoyed or upset with someone, my amount of exclamation points will decrease. I don’t think anyone notices, but now I guess everyone knows! So beware of fewer exclamation points… I had this discussion with a couple of friends and I was saying that maybe I should type like everyone else, but they said that I type in a way that I would speak, and it makes me sound more enthusiastic. So I will continue with my grammatically correct text messages (and blog posts) with excessive exclamation points, whether people like it or not!!! (3 exclamation points for emphasis).
Anyway, I will write about September later - I just wanted to post about August now because I’ll be starting my 2-week holiday tomorrow! Therefore, I’ll have even MORE to write about once I come back. Hope everyone’s doing well! Love always
Window - MAGIC GIANT