As long as it hasn’t sold yet, I’ll be calling the car dealership tomorrow to tell them I want the Prius. I still maintain I’m terrible at making decisions.

Other than that, my main excitement of the day came  vicariously through my sister who saw Jason Segal at Rite Aid in LA. (Me=supremely jealous.) When asked for details,  my sister said only “he was getting a prescription and then looked at Easter Candy.” Good to know.

And back from my week in LA. Going there is starting to feel like going home, as it seems I’ve pretty much been going back and forth between LA and Boston for the last year and a half – plus the fact that most of my friends currently live or will be living there in the coming months (including, my lovely sister.)

I’m still mildly out of it, after getting up at 5AM Pacific time for the last three days (for a school visit, then an airplane ride, and then work…) and I still haven’t unpacked or uploaded pictures (two very necessary and logical next steps to returning from a trip.)

All I’ve done is find a JACKPOT of books in the basement my sister left behind in her many moves, many of which I’ve come very close to buying in the last few months, because I didn’t know where her copies were. I now have SO MUCH READING to accomplish before June between the rest of the Teach for America reading (I’m halfway done!) and all these books I’ve found.

Here’s a semi-complete book list. Any thoughts on what I should read first:

Cat’s Cradle – Kurt Vonnegut
The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
The Jane Austen Book Club – Karen Joy Fowler
Little Children – Tom Perrotta
IV – Chuck Klosterman
Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
The Post Birthday World – Lionel Shriver 
Me Talk Pretty One Day – David Sedaris (Technically, I would be reading this for the second time…) 

And of course, one teaching book: The Essential 55 – Ron Clark (Yes, of the wonderfully amazing TV movie “The Ron Clark Story.” And it’s signed!)

Coming up next: a small trip recap with pictures!

In an attempt to counteract my general laziness of late, I’m going to try to cram the rest of my Australia trip into one post, or I fear it will never be recorded for posterity. This is going to be epic. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

(To read my first two recaps click on over to here and then here.)

After Sydney, we headed down to Sarah’s parent’s beach house on the Mornington Peninsula. (It’s like Cape Cod for Australians!) We made a quick stop at her mom’s work to FINALLY meet the famous Helen. She was, of course, 100 times lovelier than I could have hoped and quickly became my Australian mother. After a quick lunch we finally headed to the house, which was adorable! It was covered in amazing flowers and trees, with an oasis of a backyard and a huge screened in porch. It was beachy and homey and just absolutely fabulous.

That night was Christmas Eve so we settled in to watch Carols by Candlelight, a Melbourne tradition of famous Australians singing every Christmas Carol known to man. We danced to High Five and cried at Silent Night and then settled into bed. Christmas morning was a little emotionally overwhelming. First, we opened presents! Sarah’s parents got me an Aussie Bar-B-Q cook book along with some other fine Australian items (chocolates, Tim Tims, Australian ice-molds, etc.), which was ridiculously sweet of them. Despite my amazing trip thus far, I ended up calling my family and getting choked up that I wasn’t with them. It was the first time I’d ever been away from my Dad’s side of the family on Christmas, and even though I’m Jewish, it’s still a big time of year for my family. Sarah’s mom gave me a big hug and all was alright, espeically when we got dressed up, and drove down the coast for an amazing five course Christmas meal complete with ocean views and party poppers filled with paper crowns and plastic mustaches.

The rest of the Christmas and Boxing Day was a blur of enjoying Entourage marathons, playing with Sarah’s dogs Jackson and Griffen, pushing our way through crowded Boxing Day sales at the mall and generally relaxing.

Sharon and Jackson on the beach

Saturday, the day after Boxing Day, Sarah’s parents had a big Bar-B-Q with all their friends and family. It was great to meet more of Sarah’s friends and talk with some more real Australians about our trip. Sharon and I figured out at the end of the day that we ate for 5 straight hours – starting out with meatballs, meat pies, sausage rolls, and other hors devours and ending with grilled lamb, chicken, and anything else you can think of. I’ve never been more full but it was completely worth every bite.

Sunday, we had another shopping excursion on Chapel Street, meeting up with Sarah’s friend Taff, who looks like an Australian Lauren Conrad but way nicer. We shopped and ate (sadly, at TGI Fridays…why must these thing spread?) and ended the day seeing Slumdog Millionaire, which Sarah and I then talked about the rest of the night. (Seriously, if you have not seen this movie, stop reading immediately and buy yourself a ticket. Right now.)

Things get a little blurry in my time line here…I believe the next day Sharon and I took off on our own to take in the Melbourne Aquarium. My favorite part was probably seeing all the real life Finding Nemo characters and convincing Sharon to face her fear of sharks in the Shark exhibit.

Nemo!

Monday night things got a little interesting – We decided to take in Melboune by night, which we hadn’t done yet and which was beautiful. After walking around a bit, Sharon decided she wanted to hit up the Casino along the Yarra River, since she’d never been gambling before. After taking in the Casino’s spectacular light show (note the intense sarcasm) we made our way over the slot machines. Having both been to Vegas before, Sarah and I explained to Sharon how to play the slots then sat by and watched. After a few rounds, some chairs down the row opened up and we decided to play a few rounds ourselves while we waited for Sharon. I put in a $2 coin that quickly ran out then put in another, figuring that would be my final bet as Sharon was going down quickly. Then, Sarah had some luck and won $8! We were excited to be able to pay for a cab ride home. On my end, I was down to my final 2 cents and bet it all on one last go. I was about to get up, when the guy next to me shouted “Oo, you are doing so well!” I was confused, but then I saw that my last bet had turned into one of those mini-games that comes up sometimes. The guy next to me seemed super excited about it,  but I had no idea what it meant. It reminded me of the game that came up when I won $15 in Vegas, so I figured maybe I’d add to our cab fund. The game involved flipping over cards, like in a memory game. I started picking cards randomly, because honestly, slot machines make little to no sense to me. But then the cards kept matching and the guy next to me kept getting more and more excited, until I turned over one last card and everything started flashing. The guy pointed to the top of the game yelling ” You won big! You won big!” I thought for a second he was pointing to the $64 prize, and I was pretty pleased with myself. Then Sarah noted that the big prize was flashing…the $1850 prize. Yep, I won the big jackpot. On my final 2 cent bet. Sarah and I started absolutely freaking out! People came over to congratulate me. A woman from the casino came and made me sign a slip of paper then brought me out cash in a locked black box. All the while, I looked like this:

I still can’t believe I won. I also can’t believe people asked me if I was going to keep playing. Hell no! I took that cash and ran. I really wanted to go out and get drinks, but Sharon was a little miffed about my winning when I didn’t really want to go gambling in the first place, so I settled for going home and attempting to explain to my dad in a 4 minute phone call what had just happened. I’m currently saving my winnings (which are sadly much less in US dollars) to buy my new MacBook!

After the excitement of the casino, I was glad to be headed back to the beach on Tuesday to stay at a huge vacation house with 20 of Sarah’s closest friends for New Years. Looking back, I think our three days at the beach house were some of my favorite days of the whole trip. For three days, we watched the boys play their own weird “catch” game based on cricket (complete with beer and cigarettes in every hand that wasn’t holding a bat or a ball), played cards (I totally kicked ass at poker), watched movies, played drinking games, lounged on the beach, and talked and talked and talked.

The boys playing "cricket"

Everyone hanging out our first night at the house

Hanging out with Sarah’s friends added so much to my trip. I wasn’t just a tourist in Australia. I got to talk to all these people my own age about their lives, their views, their jobs, and about things of absolutely no importance. I loved seeing how they saw America and vice versa. They were also unbelievably accommodating  and friendly and so much fun. I wish I could be friends with them all the time! New Year’s Eve was especially entertaining as everyone got mildly ridiculous and I got an excellent Australian New Year’s kiss (or pash as Sarah would say.) I was more than a little sad to say good-bye to everyone come Thursday.

Luckily, Friday was filled with the excitement of Sharon and my tour to Phillip’s Island. Basically, we got on a bus in the morning, and headed to an Australian winery, then to a wildlife park where we got to feed Kangaroos and pet a baby Koala. (Sadly in the state of Victoria, you can’t hold the koalas. Fail.)

Sharon and the Kangaroos!

The day ended on Phillip’s Island with the world famous Penguin Parade, which is this huge tourist attraction where you go watch the tiny penguins come up the shore and into the dunes on the beaches every night. It was amazing – all these little penguins waddling together in giant packs up the beach and into the hills, all like they knew exactly where they were going, totally unbothered by the mass of spectators there. I recommend it if you think you can resist grabbing a tiny penguin and running home with it.

Saturday, we had another outing with Sarah’s parents, who by this point were officially our Australian parents. They took us to a place called Soverign Hill, which is an old west type town from Australia’s gold rush. They had horse drawn carriage rides, gold panning, and amazingly cheesy street performers, including a little old man who played the accordion and told us he had a niece who was a gynocologist in Kentucky. “Maybe you know her!”

Us with some (we assume) struggling Australian actors

This man was AMAZING

Sarah’s dad entertained us by buying a large walking stick and showing off his color guard moves. All in all, a lovely day.

Sunday was mildly depressing, as Sarah had to leave us. During the course of the trip, Sarah and I realized we are truly soul mates. I didn’t think I could feel much closer to her, but I can definitely say she is and will probably always be one of my best friends, despite the fact that a 20 hour plane ride separates us. She completely understands me (my love of staying in and watching television, my love of Nikon digital cameras, my love of adorable Australian boys…the list goes on and on) and provided me with a once in a life-time trip. Saying good-bye to her was definitely the only downside to the whole experience.

Sharon and I attempted to cheer ourselves up with last minute shopping, and later that night, Sarah’s friend Nick (who may or may not have been my New Year’s kiss…) surprised us by renting Pineapple Express and taking us out for our final dinner. (I told you Sarah’s friends were freakishly nice!)

Monday Sharon and I, somehow miraculously, packed up all our stuff and headed to the airport to fly back to the good old U.S. of A.

Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean

I ended up staying in LA for the next week, catching up with my best friends from the LA program, Grace and Patrick, hanging out with my sister, shopping with some sorority friends, and showing my future LA roommate Josh around the area I hope we end up living in. I, of course, hit up Joan’s on Third and had a major celebrity sighting (Jennifer Anniston, Courtney Cox, and David Arquette had dinner where we were getting drinks then walked RIGHT BY US out the back door and into a swarm of paparazzi. Total LA moment.) The whole time, though, all I could talk about was Australia.

I sincerely hope I get to go back one day.

"Victoria - THE place to be" - I couldn't agree more.

After a ridiculously fun and exciting month away, I’m back! I can’t believe that my trip is over, and I’m still a little jet-lagged, but I want to get everything I can down about the trip before it all starts to slip away. I don’t know how I’m even going to begin to tackle this, but I think it’s all still fresh enough to recount to my satisfaction. And to Sarah’s, as she’s told me she is looking forward to my recap, and I don’t want to disappoint! 

But a quick note before I do: I want to thank my lovely sister, Stephanie, for keeping my blog company while I was gone. She’s currently loving LA and getting closer and closer to getting a job everyday. She’s definitely doing much better than she’d been doing in NYC, so I’m happy for her!

And one more note: I wanted to make this recap complete with amazing pictures, but unfortunately, I’m the forgetful type who leaves cameras and iPods in my sister’s car before getting on plane rides home…so no pictures as they are currently traveling home through the kindness of UPS. Fail. 

So…here we go. 

On Tuesday, December 16th, I left my house at 4AM (painful, I know) and traveled to LA. I ran into my American camp BFF, Sharon’s, arms around 2PM Cali time, and we proceeded to spend a ridiculous EIGHT hours in LAX, waiting for our flight. (My dad wanted to pad my flight time, just in case…they wouldn’t even let us check our bags until 6!) It seemed an endless wait. Finally, at 10PM, we boarded our 15 hour flight (economy seating surrounded by 4, yes FOUR, babies…for 15 hours.) Luckily, I’d been up for about 22 hours at that point, so I fell asleep halfway through Mamma Mia, which I couldn’t even see as in economy, the only screen you get is a giant projection at the front of the section, which short people can’t see. Again, fail. 

But when we got off the plane in Melbourne, it was totally and completely worth it. We walked out of baggage claim, and standing in the middle of a huge crowd of people, was Sarah’s smiling face. She screamed. We all ran to each other and hugged, and I instantly felt somehow at home, halfway around the world. 

That was instantly tested when we got in the car, which if you don’t know, is doing the whole other side of the road thing, which you don’t think will be that weird, but it totally is! Every time Sarah made a quick left turn, I had a heart attack. On the drive, Sarah pointed out some landmarks to us as we drove through the heart of Melbourne, and I could tell how excited she was to tell us about the city. 

Sarah warned us that the first day would seem like a blur, and she was definitely right. I know we got back to Sarah’s apartment in a very posh neighborhood on the cutest street ever, before heading out to explore the city. We walked around one of the big shopping streets then met Sarah’s dad for lunch (who, over the course of the trip, became one of my favorite people ever), but the whole time, I just felt weird. I thought jetlag was just tiredness, but it was really just an off-feeling. It was bizarre. 

That night, I somehow pulled it together enough to make a good first impression on all Sarah’s friends at their favorite pub, the Knott. We (Sharon and I) got a Pot and Parma (pot of beer and chicken parmesan - omg, so delicious!), and met some fabulous people – Anna, Katie, Taryn, Sheeho, Dan, Steve – I didn’t know it then, but many of them, too, would soon become some of my favorite people. I should have expected that Sarah would have amazing friends – I mean, she’s friends with me! – but I was surprised by how welcoming they were and how genuinely excited they were to meet us. Sadly by nine, the jetlag got the best of us, and we had to head home. 

Friday we hit the ground running. We drove about an hour outside Melbourne to hit the first of many elementary field trip-like  attractions we would visit on our trip. Seriously, everyone we told about this outing had the same reaction – Oh  my god! Puffing Billy! I haven’t been there since I was four/three/two! (The age somehow always got younger.) Basically, the Puffing Billy is a historic steam train in the Dandenong Mountains. It’s tradition for kids to sit on the railings with their feet hanging over the side of the train (affectionately know to us later as sitting “Puffing Billy style”) We thought we would go for a half an hour ride (courtesy of Sarah’s dad – a big wig in the tourism industry who, along with Sarah, a force herself in the industry, got us tickets to EVERYTHING.) We got on and enjoyed the ridiculously beautiful views of the countryside. When we got to the first stop, however, we were ready to head back. Unfortunately, we were told we had tickets to the next stop then an hour “layover” of sorts until the train went back the other way. We made the best of things and decided to get lunch at the little snack stand, which we were told was the only place to eat. We ate outside, where Sharon and I had our first sighting of a magpie, a freaky looking bird who got entirely too close to my sausage roll. (I also tried my first bite of meat pie!) We then walked around the area to look at some more animals when we discovered an actual restaurant with indoor seats and non-microwaved food. Thanks Puffing Billy workers for that tidbit of information. Oh well. We had fun. On the way back, we got an indoor “private” car, since it was a bit chilly, and had some…interesting conversations until a couple got in the car behind us and proceeded to make out the entire ride back! 

We then rode back into town to meet Sarah’s work friends for drinks, but not before stopping at her office and taking some ridiculous photos. (They’re coming, I promise!) Sarah’s work friends were lovely, again not surprising, but also not surprising, jet-lag kicked my ass again around 6, and we had to head home before I fell asleep at the bar. 

And, now I have to go get ready to go grocery shopping with my mom. This recap is going to take longer than expected…luckily, nothing interesting is happening to me at all right now, so I feel like I have time to do this trip justice. 

On one more note: class starts today at my college, and for the first time in four years, I’m not there. I’m trying to ignore this fact t0 the best of my ability.

Amanda got to Australia safe and sound, after about three straight days of traveling. Apparently the flight was bumpy 75% if the time. Her words to me were, “I don’t think you would have lasted.” She also said she tried not to think about Lost too much. ::shudder:: I’m going to need some pills before I fly to California. 

 In other good news, the deposit check from my new subletter is in my hand. Well, sitting on my desk next to me. 

So, it’s official! I am free of this apartment and ready to get the heck out of New York City. Glee. Sure, its 8 months after I should have been out there in the first place, but whatevski. I’m happy. 

Tonight I will be attending the New York TV Festival Christmas party, as my last official New York social event. Fitting, since my first day of interning for them, I helped set up for and work a cocktail party for them, which was my first official New York social event. Should be fun. I have a supercute new dress to wear. There will be alcohol and people I haven’t seen in awhile. Maybe I can ask them if they have an California hookups. 

I was going to go home tomorrow, but apparently a historic blizzard is going to hit overnight and for the next two days. So maybe I’ll be stranded in this apartment even longer. Goodie. The weather always seems to get in my way.

Three more days of semi-packing and watching The West Wing on Surfthechannel. What could be better? Meh.

My giant suitcase is packed. My to-do list is all checked off. I’m officially ready to get up tomorrow at 4Am to catch my 6:30Am flight to LA and then sit around LAX until 10:30PM when I’ll board my 15 hour flight to Melbourne. Yep, that’s about 36 hours of straight travel, but hopefully I’ll be in a Tylenol PM induced sleep for the better part of that 15 hour flight, and at the end of it, I’ll be able to see Sarah’s lovely, smiling face waiting for me at the airport Love Actually style. (This is for real: Sarah told me the Melbourne Airport has big double doors like at the end of Love Actually. I told her I’d sing God Only Knows to get the full effect.) Plus, most of the sitting around time at LAX will be with Sharon, so we can keep each other excited. 

Don’t worry, though. I’m not leaving you all here high and dry. My sister will be blogging in my place  for the next few weeks. She’s attempted to blog a few times at her own little space, but she is hoping this will motivate her to start doing it regularly. She’s pretty much my twin, so you might not even notice a difference. Right now, she is also in the midst of moving to LA, but to pursue a job in television (just like I used to be doing!) So..yeah, be nice to her.

I may try to post a bit while I’m gone, but I don’t know what my schedule or computer access will be like, so I don’t want to promise anything. Don’t blog too much while I’m gone, or I may  have a google reader related breakdown when I get back! Happy Holidays!

Today, after getting one last email from an LA program director, I went online and clicked the confirm button.

I’m now officially a member of the 2009 Teach for America – Los Angeles corps. 

It’s going to be a crazy two years.

LA bloggers: you better have as good of get-togethers as the Boston Bloggers do.

So, today I got a a rather interesting email. It went a little something like this:

“Dear Amanda,

I am pleased to extend you an offer to join the Teach For America 2009 corps! This offer to join Teach For America reflects both your outstanding accomplishments and your potential to move students to achieve. In order to secure your place in the 2009 corps, you must complete matriculation forms on the Applicant Center on or before Friday, December 5 at 5:00 p.m. ET.

Effecting dramatic, measurable gains in students’ academic achievement is an incredibly challenging pursuit given the obstacles facing students and teachers in our nation’s lowest income communities. You have demonstrated great potential to excel as a teacher despite these challenges and to ultimately assume great influence in our country. We now invite you to make this commitment and take our effort forward.

Congratulations again, and welcome to Teach For America.”

Of course, I immediatley logged on to see my regional placement, because that would be my deciding factor. And, in all ironies of ironies, it said this: 

“Congratulations! We are pleased to invite you to join the 2009 Teach For America corps and are excited to assign you to teach secondary English (grades 7-12) in Los Angeles.“

Yes. I’ve been assigned to go back to where my epiphany happened. A day after I had a hour long conversation with my mom about how I should just move to LA to try out the entertainment industry again. A day after I started making myself feel alright about just going there for the spring to see if I could make this film and tv thing work. I mean, I have a degree in it. Well, I will in a month and a half.  All of that happening in response to my growing suspicion that I bombed my TFA interview. Apparently not. 

I just got back from getting drinks with the 5 (out of 25!) people who were accepted from my school. It was really selective this year. That made me feel good. The other girls made me excited. They made me think I could do this. They made me think I’m probably going to do this. I mean…I feel weird saying no after the ridiculous application process. Maybe that’s their whole trick. God, I had decisions. I also hate not knowing what I’m doing with my life.   

Stay tuned for a possibly life changing decision by December 5th at the latest.

Today I was talking to my mom, and I jokingly suggested we take the Joe Biden train from Wilmington to DC on January 20th to go to Obama’s inauguration. I’ll be home by then, I thought. (Well, at my parent’s house…) What else will I have to do? Then I started thinking about that fact…

I’ll be home by then. I’ll be done with college. I’ll have already turned in my last assignment. Moved off campus. Attended my last college party.  I’ll have already traveled to and from Australia and experienced a once-in-a-lifetime trip with two of my best friends. Maybe I’ll have already held a koala or spotted a kangaroo. (God, I hope I get to hold a koala.) I’ll have already spent a week in LA, double checking my decision not to move there and pursue a job in television. I’ll already know if I’ve been accepted into Teach for America or if I’m going to be applying to grad school. I’ll probably know if I’m moving back to Boston in the spring or if I’ll be keeping my sister company in New York. I’ll have a much more clear picture of my life…well, my life for the next two years. 

I guess all this still seems so far away to me now, but thinking about that date – January 20 – really made me realize nothing is very far away. This semester is almost over. My life is about to be drastically different. At least Barack Obama knows how I feel.

Hello? Remember me? The owner of this little space on the internet? Yeah, me, who has trouble prioritizing blogging over things like homework, actual work, seeing friends, and um…sleeping? Yeah, that’s me. *waves* 

I hate neglecting this blog, but I’ve been so busy, that I seem to not only always have something to do, but I also seem to always have two things to do, thus I always feel guilty no matter what I’m doing. What fun! Case in point, this weekend, my mom is coming to visit, which I’ve been excited about for a while, but it is also the weekend I planned to go see “Title of Show” with my friends in New York. Way to write things down, Amanda! So now, I have to find someone to take my place in New York, because I would feel like a total bitch ditching my mom to go see a show. Boo. 

But this week has been eventful in many ways. Some of which I shouldn’t really talk about here…but I might…eventually. Stay tuned. (Please note: this is a time I wish I was an anonymous blogger. I finally get good stories, and I have to censor them. Double boo.) 

So without further ado, I present to you….a bulleted list. (Get excited!)

This week I…

• Had a phone interview for Teach for America that I thought went alright. It wasn’t my best phone interview ever, but I definitely didn’t bomb. I was tentatively hopeful. Well, today I found out, I got invited to an in-person interview! It’s the final step of the whole admission process and consists of teaching a 5-minute lesson and a personal interview, among other things. The interview is in two weeks, so now on top of all my other fun school work, I get to think of things to teach other people. That’s a good thing, right? Right. 
• Had a fun girls night out. Jillian and I had a ridiculously delicious dinner at Tremont 647 in the South End. My dinner consisted of a mouthwatering flank steak with pistachio pesto, roasted vegetables and HUGE rosemary tater tots filled with fontina cheese. Yeah…it was insane. I also had this beautiful pink gin cocktail. It’s my new favorite thing, basically ever. We then had to waste some time before our friends got off work, so we decided to go up to Top of the Hub, the restaurant/bar at the top of the Prudential Building to get a drink and gawk at the view. It was beautiful, and as an added bonus, we got to ride down 52 flights with three middle-aged drunk women who claimed to look like Jackie O and asked us for cigarettes. They also remarked that we looked like sisters since we had the same hair color. Good times. The rest of the night was spent at various bars on Boylston, where I overheard many drunken 20-somethings discussing their financial portfolios. I felt mildly out of place, but I’d been drinking since 7, so I managed. 
• Went on a 1AM run to IHOP with my friends. I even got to drive there in a Blue Prius! My main hobby in LA was counting Prius’s as I drove to work (one time, I saw over 70 in a day, and on my way from San Diego to LA, I spotted OVER TWO HUNDRED!) It was like a dream come true – my life coming full circle. We also discovered IHOP is the place to be after 2AM, as its the only place open after 2. Damn Boston bars and their early closing times, not that we’d been at a bar. We’d just been hanging out…and decided to drive to IHOP. At one in the morning. I know what you’re thinking: you wish you could hang out with people as cool as my friends. 
• Bought an AMAZING winter coat. I had an hour off of work, decided it was freezing, and ran two blocks to the Shops at the Prudential Center for some power shopping. I hit (in ONE HOUR) 344, J. Crew, Banana Republic, Saks 5th Avenue, Gap, and Free People. I, of course, found a coat at the first store I went to (344), but had to check everywhere else to make sure they didn’t have anything better. They didn’t, so I ran back to grab the coat. I even got $25 off for being a student. Power shopping win! It’s soooo pretty, and I’ve been wearing non-stop, possibly even when sleeping. I wish I were joking.