Sapporo

Last minute packing, minimal to no sleep (because it always seemed like a good idea at the time) and airport food is the proper way to begin any travel out of the country. This time, I'm somehow wedged between seven other friends, sitting on a bus at 3am, wondering why on earth am I ever allowed to go anywhere without parental supervision, especially if the places I'm going to does not consider English as their national language.

And yet somehow, about 18 hours later, there I was running up and down the corridors of a hotel in Tokyo ringing doorbells then running off to hide behind a vending machine while struggling to breathe and laugh at the same time with Desiree. And another number of hours, plane flight and bus ride later, there we were in Sapporo. And it was snowing a ridiculous amount. Trudging through the snow with our luggages must've looked miserable to the locals.

I spent the next day exploring Sapporo with Jenna. Reading maps with a bunch of Japanese characters was difficult so we decided to just go wherever. Our first stop was the Sapporo Snow Festival. How can a bunch of frozen water be sculpted so perfectly and precisely in such a grand scale?! We also could not help but ogle at all the little kids bundled in clothes like little penguins wobbling around in groups waiting to go on the ice slides. SO. CUTE.

Then we went shopping and the shopping centres felt so endless. Everything was so bright and colourful and the workers there kept greeting us and saying something we didn't understand every few seconds to the point where we didn't know whether they were talking to us so I kept awkwardly side eyeing them, not knowing whether to acknowledge them over and over or not. Everyone here is so nice and friendly though.

Evenings in Sapporo looks so magical. Nights in Sapporo during winter aren't as magical (to me) because of the amount of the bloody snow that fell and coated us. Wearing a parka with a hoodie that literally covers half my face was only slightly advantageous in this weather. I've never wanted to be indoors more than I did in that moment. And yet I still wanted to buy a small tub of ice cream from the convenience store. How could I say no to trying sakura flavoured ice cream?! (And I also could not say no when Jellee demanded me to get out of the shower so I could try her rose flavoured ice cream...)

Even though we technically only had one full day to get ourselves acquainted with Sapporo, I think it was enough for me because snow is so bloody cold to the point where my body temperature dropped so low that when snow fell on me, it actually stuck to my skin and did not melt. I do love winter, but I guess I found my limit of what's considered a pleasant kind of cold.

PS. I know this is a very delayed post and I haven't posted anything in a while. New uni and course happened so I've been super busy. I have a lot of travelling posts to catch up with and books I've been reading so stay tuned, I suppose?

Nitor

For someone who claims to despise the beach, WHY HAS MY FOOT MADE CONTACT WITH SAND THREE TIMES THIS YEAR? THIS IS NOT OKAY. I was on the verge of threatening to shave all my hair off because I was eating my own hair due to the wind whipping it into my mouth. My temper level is at an all time high when I'm at the beach.

I busied myself taking photos, which I ran out of things to photograph. I busied myself penny boarding, which I gave up on because of the brick-like cracks everywhere. I busied myself reading, which I also gave up on because of the goddamned wind in my face and book. Then came the flecks of rain and I just gave up on everything and wrapped myself in a towel, counting down the minutes till our Korean BBQ buffet.

Highlight at the Korean BBQ buffet would be Vivienne's odd creations - Grilling watermelon and mixing ice cream and yoghurt together. It was strangely... nice. Then we drove around looking at houses covered in Christmas lights. There were these two particular houses that were insane. Their lights and decorations were flashing in sync to songs played on a radio station. All nine of us sat in a row, on the curb, watching for a long time with sleep washing over my eyes. It was a nice moment, minus the mosquitoes.

While driving to all these places, I got to be pick the car music. I realised that my friends haven't heard of the kind of music I usually listen to, which made me think, Australian indie pop/rock and alternative bands don't get enough recognition, both in and out of the country. So here is a playlist of my favourites. There will be bias involved because I saw The Jungle Giants a couple of months ago.

▶ It's Nice To Be Alive by Ball Park Music
▶ Plans by Birds Of Tokyo
▶ This Fire by Birds Of Tokyo
▶ When The Night Falls Quiet by Birds Of Tokyo
▶ Time And Place by Last Dinosaurs
▶ Weekend by Last Dinosaurs
▶ Rocket Ship by San Cisco
▶ Fred Astaire by San Cisco
▶ Wild Things by San Cisco
▶ Mr Polite by The Jungle Giants
▶ She's A Riot by The Jungle Giants
▶ I Am What You Want Me To Be by The Jungle Giants
▶ Come And Be Alone With Me by The Jungle Giants
▶ Young by The Paper Kites

Tantillus

It is strange that one day you are considered a teenager and the next, you are not, according to the orbit of the Earth around the Sun hitting the same point of when you were born however many years ago. I still get nervous driving without parental supervision, still think eating gum in class makes me a badass, still laugh till I'm gasping for air at Nickelodeon shows and I still can't cook (unless instant noodles and premix pancakes count as cooking).

So for my birthday, I had breakfast with my group at The Chalkboard Cafe. I had the breakfast tasting platter, which had a bit of everything. It all tasted really good and was worth the trek there early in the morning.

Afterwards we went shopping for a bit around the city then two hours of karaoke. It was a nice catch up with everyone after the aftermath of uni exams and assessments. Now two months of no responsibilities before flying across the Pacific Ocean with a majority of this lot. I'll try make the most of the summer break being as unattached to the air conditioning in my bedroom as possible. Which means I have to go outside and do things in the heat. Help.

Aureus

How cool would it be if you could see bokeh in real life? Like you're lying on some patch of grass, where a dog has probably chucked a dump on before, staring off into the distance and there's these light coloured dancing balls hiding in the trees. (If you can't tell, I'm obsessing over the bokeh in these photos all taken by Andy.)

So I finally hung out with Andy and Annie at Newtown after uni. We explored the main street a bit, got accosted by RSPCA recruiters ("What did I tell you about smiling at strangers?"), ate at Black Star Pastry and Guzman y Gomez, saw Janice Lee (known as 'jayesslee' on YouTube) with her husband eating at a Thai restaurant and kept walking back and forth wishing the window that separated us would disappear like for the snake at London Zoo in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

We went back to uni and chilled on the grass for a while, watching people at the quad graduate and rooting for a guy to drop his laptop on his face. It makes me wonder if that'll be me one day. Not the dropping laptop on face part (been there, done that), but the graduating part. The things I want now, and the things I want for my future are two completely different conflicting things. Yeah... Anyway, then I played in the ball pit and it was all fun and games until I saw a booger looking thing stuck on a ball and had to get out of there ASAP.

Coogee

My favourite kind of beach is the one I’m not in. I don’t like the feel of salt and water stuck all over me. I don’t like the change rooms and bathrooms there. I don’t like the thick and sticky feel of sunscreen. I don’t like how the beach air turns my hair into twigs. I don't like waves smacking into me, determined to knock me over. I don’t like how the sand makes it twice the effort to walk - I’ve already gone out of bed and made the effort to come all the way out here, why would you make it more difficult for my willpower to walk?

But I went to the beach with Trang anyway, because I have been a potato for far too long.

The only thing I liked was the rock pool. The lack of sand and fortress of rocks made me forget I was at the beach for a moment. There were also little crabs and fishes. I tried to google "how to hold a crab at the beach" so I wouldn't get snipped, but all I could find were instructions to dig holes for crabs to fall into. Thanks, wikiHow.

I came home and excitedly told dad that I saw crabs and his first reaction was "DID YOU CATCH ONE" then quickly became sensible and told me it's illegal to take them home. IT'S LIKE HE KNEW MY INTENTIONS.

Chinta Ria

Food coma night out with the group at restaurants that make our wallets cry in mercy. We had dinner at Chinta Ria, which is a Malaysian and Chinese restaurant. A big laughing Buddha statue greeted us at the door. I found the food there really ordinary and the dishes were really small and not worth it. The highlights would be the roti and vegetarian curry, and I'm not a vegetable person so it was that good. But I would just go find a local restaurant for those dishes next time because it's not really worth going back.

For dessert, we went to Lindt Chocolat Café. We got "share" platters that I could've probably finished myself.

SO MUCH KEK. MY HEART SAYS NO, BUT MY STOMACH SAYS YES.

Ficus

After living in this city for my whole life, I've never been to the Royal Botanic Gardens nor knew of its whereabouts. Fiona and I came across it when we decided to randomly get off at Wynyard station to explore. I was kind of expecting flowers and colours exploding in my face. It was mainly all greenery and every plant looked the same.

You'd think that I'd know how many campuses there are for my uni, but I don't. I had to go home and google "castle royal botanic gardens sydney" and found nothing because the supposed castle is a part of the University of Sydney for music students. I still prefer to think of it as my castle, but instead of horses, we have unicorns.

This guy was drawing this massive artwork of Spongebob and Patrick at Circular Quay. It's supposed to look 3D once it's finished. I can imagine business people rushing towards the station at peak hour, hoping to get a seat, and having to stop for a few seconds to turn back and curiously look over at this artwork, and maybe even give up a little more time to peer through the lens. I like little surprises like this.

Volatilis

END OF SECOND YEAR SEMESTER ONE WHAT UP. It still feels like I've only just started my second year. Time flies when you've done minimal work throughout the semester and realise how screwed you are for your final exams and have to reteach yourself 13 weeks of content for more than one subject.

There are so many situations where I laugh at how Vivienne and I have contrasting personalities. Tonight she was running in and out of her room like a tornado throwing things around and asking for opinions on what she should wear while I was just sitting there experimenting with her elegant electric keyboard (with one finger going tock-tock-tock like an elderly with a computer keyboard). Then 15 minutes later, she whisked me out of her room and threw four massive bags at me to carry for her, knocking over her modem in the process and letting out a "oh SHIT", then was somehow sitting at the back of her car in a minute. Can we get a hell yeah for making it on time to the station to meet up with everyone else?

We had dinner at Din Tai Fung for Vivienne's birthday, which I don't have anything good or bad to say about it besides that it is overrated. I think it is one of those places where you go three times, at maximum, in your life.

Vivid Sydney is on again this year, but half the group wanted to go home because of the crowds. At least Elaine and I got something out of it by pretending to be a contemptuous lesbian couple on a date dodging crowds and the slow paced queue of walkers behind a family with a massive pram. How romantic, right?

I really am not bothered to study. At this rate, I’m going to win an Oscar for the best impersonation of a potato chip.

Hilaris

For any student, there is nothing quite like the feeling of closing multiple tabs and windows then submitting your assignment after completion. For the Rebecca kind of student, there is nothing quite like the feeling of closing multiple tabs and windows, clearing her history, throwing her laptop out the window then cleansing her soul.

Froyo runs after uni always involve abs inducing stories from laughing at weird people and encounters at uni. Catching up with the whole group at Holy Basil was just as fun with more stories to tell. ("Cologne is pronounced as colone? I thought it was colognog!") I think it's going to be a tradition now to take polaroid photos then display them "artistically" to take a photo of the photo so everyone can have a copy.

Jellee: Old couples are so cute.
Me: Will I still be cute if I'm old, obese and alone?
Jellee: If you're still that white then...

PETITION TO STOP THE WIDESPREAD OF RACISM. Sign here (with the option of including your number).

Schola

Guys, hold onto the reins of your horses (or your power cord - whichever is readily available) because I have the most ridiculous news to tell. Okay, so you know how this is my second year of uni? I actually have been enjoying the past two weeks of it. UM WHAT WHO SAID THAT? The impossible has occurred. May this be written in the history books.

So in between slipping into deep comas during my lectures, I've been having a good balance between studying and a social life. I still need to work in decent hours of sleep (and maybe a job) into my invisible pie graph.

After an entire year of being accosted by Christians, I finally gave in and decided to see what a Catholic society was like since Teresa runs it, and it seemed like the good mannered thing to do by going. I walked into a room full of Catholics with a Buddhist charm around my neck then had a panic attack from awkwardness. The next two hours was just awkwardly pretending to be a social butterfly and fake laughing. And then I came home with the most relieving ranting session. (Although I don't think we've "purified" our souls after all that bitching.)

I also met the nicest bunch of people through a really hipster friend I've recently met. I barely knew any of them, but they were all so welcoming and being their mental selves rather than pretending to be normal.

"How would you describe your last poop using a movie title?"
"Fast and Furious."
"The Hulk."
"The Longest Yard."
"Blood Diamond."

So far, it looks like it's going to be a good semester. My future self is probably going to punch my present self in the face for saying this.

Duodecim

The buzz of O-week with all the little hipster first years swarming the main uni campus is my first sign back to reality. I don't exactly feel happy to be back. My withdrawal symptoms always leaves me feeling like I've lost myself in a different city. Adjusting to somewhere I've lived for nineteen years compared to somewhere I've been in for one month makes me wonder whether I am destined to leave this city. WHY ISN'T MY LIFE A MOVIE WHERE I COULD JUST DITCH EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE BEHIND AND START AFRESH?

You can tell I haven't been adjusting very well...

• "OH GOD. OH GOD. WE'RE GOING TO CRASH." — Me in cars and trains every time I realise we're on the left side of the road/track whenever I see a car/train coming at me from the opposite direction.
• "WHAT ARE YOU DOING WALKING UP AN ESCALATOR WHEN IT GOES DOWN?" — Me giving strangers confused looks and almost going down the wrong escalator.
• "HAH YOU'RE ONLY GETTING A DOLLAR FOR NOT SUCKING UP TO US." — Me wondering how much to tip a waiter then remembering that Australians don't tip so they don't need to say anything at all besides, "Are you ready to order?"
• "SINCE WHEN WERE COINS MADE OF NIBBLER'S DUNG?" — Me dead lifting Australian coins out of my wallet after a month of using tiny and thin coins.

I went to see the group after an absence of them for six weeks. It was also the first time in a year or so that the dozen of us were all there together. It was a good night in of insulting people on TV and playing Pictionary.

Maroubra

The perfect way to start a year? All nighter then drive through the quiet city at dawn towards the beach to watch the sun rise with a group of your closest people. Did I just describe the perfect date? My friends are too romantic and symbolic for their own good. Especially Desiree who made it her mission to kiss everyone.

Sadly, we couldn't really see the sun rise because it was too cloudy and overcast. We could just see everything get brighter and brighter. We also shared our New Year's resolutions. Yep, my friends are definitely corny. Happy 2013!