Seriously, it IS all about who you know. There's this slightly random old guy who has an office next to the AIESEC office at AU, and the sign on his door says "Asian Ships and Ceramics". He's not there much but he's super friendly, and one day told us about what he did and the connection between ships and cermaics etc etc. So ANYWAY I ran into him at a networking event that AIESEC SA put together just after I came back to Adelaide, and he was really interested to chat, being a bit of an Asia buff. We had coffee this week, and it was so great! He's nearly 75 (I would have guessed 60-65!) and just full of energy and stories and possibilities. He knows EVERYONE who's anyone related to Asia issues in Australia (education and politics and business) and is keen to get me hooked up with opportunities for work or further study or both after I graduate, related to China and/or Japan! Yay! Man, if I have half the network he does when I'm 75 I'll be a happy girl :)

This week I also caught up with some friends from high school. Susie is back from the US for summer vacation, so she, Claire, Julia and I had dinner at Norwood. It was great to hear about Susie's life in LA, she has one year of study to go (like me!) and I think we have some things in common... living abroad with friends, coming back to Adelaide to live/stay with parents etc. It was great to see Claire again too for the first time in a couple of years, and catch up on all of her news. Julia always seems to have lots of news about everyone from school, so she caught us all up on the goss!

Tuesday was my brother Michael's 21st, so Saturday the rellies are coming for afternoon tea, and the guys are coming round in the evening for a party. Man I feel old! Although I finally got my new student card this week, so I went to the post office on campus to get a bus ticket. I asked for a student one, and she asked if that was "high school or tertiary?" MY GOSH, I was ON CAMPUS, I was dressed nicely, and I'm 23! I was pretty offended, and to add injury to insult, she didn't ask me for student ID! Jeez... oh well, I've got quite a few grey hairs these days, and once I get a few more I guess people will stop assuming I'm 16! :)

Bath Saturday night, BBQ Sunday arvo - lazy things that I love to do on weekends and just couldn't in Beijing!

In other news: Ikea is opening a store in Adelaide next year! Ahhh the memories.... induction task force meetings in the restaurant, getting those random Great Wall prints with Justin, clock-shopping with Chrisi, brunch and shopping for Adam with Chris! And since in Aust it's a cheap place to buy stuff (unlike the premium image in China) I might be able to buy more than kitchen accessories, toilet brushes and candles! ;)

Tea

It's been a while since I've bought exciting tea, but I have a bit of a cold, so I thought I'd just pop down to the supermarket and stock up. WOW. I hadn't realised how many types of tea you could get at Coles these days! I grabbed some chai (my staple!) then looked for something new to try. Lipton has this "new" range of black teas with flavouring. I was torn between Caramel, Hazelnut, and Cookies and Cream. Jeez, it was like getting ice-cream! I went for Cookies and Cream cos I just couldn't imagine tea tasting like that. The smell was amazing - definintely cookie-ish. The taste... well, not exactly what I'd expected, only a little different from normal black tea. But lets face it, the aroma is half of the experience :) Then, I started thinking about what I HAD expected. I eat biscuits (not cookies!) and never once with cream - at most, dunked in coffee. Although cream-filled biscuts are good, but it's not actually cream at all.. never mind! Then I had a sudden urge to try eating biscuts with whipped cream..... I rekon it'd be pretty good, based on the ice cream flavour.... till I remembered I was trying to be healthy ;)

Ahhhh well, anyway, next time I'm gonna try caramel. Mmmmm!

Dinner with old friends

Last night I had dinner at Laura's for her 21st. And as I looked around the table, I realised that we all met through our LC - awwww :)

It was a great night, some people I hadn't seen for ages, like Rado and Kim, both back from their traineeships, and Penny, who I hadn't managed to catch up with yet since coming back to Adelaide. Great food and wine, old friends, and discussions about everything from weddings to refugees to nerds and geeks.

Thanks for a great night Laura, I hope you have a lovely day tomorrow and I know you have an awesome future ahead of you!

Hoping for many more evenings of the same in the future....

Catching up

I had lunch with Wai the other day, when he was back in Adelaide for the weekend, and we discussed an interesting topic. When you come back to where you grew up, or lived for any amount of time, who do you catch up with? Who do you choose to call or send an email to?

I remember discussing the same thing with Mel online. People come in and out of your life at various times, and you don't need to keep in contact with them all, forever. In fact it's almost impossible. Sometimes just remembering the times that you shared with them, and what you learnt from them is enough. And if your paths should cross again - great! Some people you always keep in touch with. Some people, you catch up with when you're in the same place, and it's as if you were never apart.

Still, the question lingers.... Especially when everyone has gone in their own directions and it's not as easy as turning up at the pub or at that party.

Signature-less

So, I deleted the signature from my AIESEC.net email account today. It was kind of stupid to have Chinese phone numbers and address, and I don't do any work for AIESEC Mainland of China anymore - transition is finished, the reports are written..

I'm sad, cos the year when I had that signature was so intense and so full of excitement, challenges, learning, laughs, tears, and good times with great friends. And that email signature was the last lingering sign of that year in my life.

But, at the same time, I'm happy, cos when I got mail from Pierre (my successor) today, his signature made me smile :)

I hope that you enjoy your year just as much as I did mine Pierre :)

can YOU help me to find a job?

I have a feeling that most of the people who read this blog aren't in Adelaide, or even in Australia! But I've decided not to take random jobs that I will hate, instead to be patient and temporarily poor, and look for something that I will learn interesting stuff from, and maybe even enjoy. So if you know of any part-time HR or even admin/recep jobs in Adelaide (preferably in town!) then please let me know ASAP and put a good word in for me! :)

Ta, flic

Getting old

No not me, not yet, still sprightly :) But it was Aunty Gwen's (like my third grandma) 83rd birthday on the weekend. We went to see her, and she was complaining that her eyes are no good (she can only read extra large print books), and she can't write cos she shakes too much, and she can't hear cos her hearing aids are broken again...

BUT she had gorgeous flowers and SO many cards! Seriously, there's not enough surfaces in her room to display them all properly. And I thought how nice it would be to be getting older, and not be able to get out that much, but still have so many good friends. Some of those people she has been friends with for soooo long.. and some less time.. but I hope that when I'm old (at least 100, I've decided) and getting frustrated that my body won't keep up, that I'll still have a heap of great friends, some of whom I've known since I was a "young" girl in my 20s :)