My American Adventure

Time started: 00:54

Place: My room, (Wattle Park)

Weather: Cold

Mood: Reminiscent

I came back from the United States a couple of weeks ago.

I was there for a month to visit Levon and meet his family. I had the time of my life.

His parents were so friendly to me. I felt like I was part of the family straight away!

Their home was beautiful. They lived on top of a hill at Pismo beach that overlooks both the mountains and the beach.

The time that Levon and I had was fun and very revealing with the fact that we are both definitely in love and compatible.

We had serious talks about how to progress our relationship. There's no doubt the next few years will be hard still being apart but we can see the end of the long distance relationship now. We're going to make it work.

USA is a pretty awesome country (but I've only been in California and Washington). However, Australia wins hands down for being a better country to live in.

I'll go through what I did in the States.

His parents took me to some of their favourite places to dine. My first impression on American food was they were overwhelmingly huge! Take away...or should I say "food to go" was a constant term used in post-dining out experiences.

Went skydiving with Levon and his mother. There's really nothing to be afraid of with Skydiving. It was the most amazing thing ever and the view was absolutely stunning! I'd definitely do it again and highly recommend it with EVERYONE!

Levon and I flew up to Washington to meet his extended family and friends. Washington is amazingly beautiful and green. I met his family up in Lacey and his friends in Olympia and Tumwater. I fell in love with his cousin, Daniel's Border Collie x Australian Shepherd named Mika. I spoke Cantonese to his aunt Maggie and his grandmother. It was a riveting experience. We watched a baseball game in Tacoma and went up the Space Needle and Pikes Markets in Seattle. It was a very inviting and laid back place. Besides the dismall weather, it was a wonderful place to be.

San Francisco is a colourful city in every sense of the word. It has colourful buildings, colourful culture, and the language they used was also colourful.

Yosemite Valley was more beautiful than I could imagine. We had an awesome tour guide named Karen who was genuinely very friendly and excited to be our tour guide. She knew what she was doing and she really wanted us to have a good time. It was nice meeting the other campers too. There were two Kiwis, a British family, and a fellow Australian. I took about 700 photos in the valley. The views were breath-taking. The hikes were hard but we did ourselves proud at the end (even though we were unable to walk without wincing in pain for a couple of days after).

Monterey & Carmel was probably beautiful if it wasn't for the appalling weather and tour guide. The tour guide loved the sound of his own voice and spoke of nothing of interest. He even described toilets...or should I say "restrooms".

We headed back to Pismo Beach just to relax from all the touring we did. I met a lot of his parents' friends for 4th of July and witnessed spectacular fireworks and the patriotism of American residents.

The last leg of my journey involved going back down to the LA area. We first went to Disneyland for 14 hours trying to do as much as we can. It was undoubtedly fun even though I didn't really have an interest to go in the first place. All the rides, shops, costumes were very finely done with an uncanny, exceptional attention to detail.

I met up with my friend Catherine who was an exchange student a couple of years ago. It was good to catch up with her. She showed me around Huntington Beach and the South Coast Shopping mall. We chatted and reminisced about Australia.

The last day involved seeing the Hollywood sign, walking the star walk down Hollywood Boulevard, and killing time in a bowling alley before my flight.

Levon and I held each other for an hour crying at the airport...

I stopped by in Melbourne before heading home to spend time with Rebecca and her family. It was good to see William all grown up. The last time I saw him (besides before going to the US) was about a year ago when he was just a few days old! It was so nice to spend time with the Colliers and just do fun things with them like baking, watching movies, playing Munchkin and going out to nice places for food.

I'm pretty sad to be back. Back to reality. Back to depressing Adelaide, and university.

If possible, I'd turn back time and re-live my month in the USA to be with Levon in a heartbeat...it sucks suddenly being alone and without him again...

I have the future to look forward to though, and now I just have pleasant memories and a couple of thousand photos. One thing is for certain...he is in my future and we love each other. I guess that's all that matters.

Time finished: 01:17

Mood: Content

Tick...tick...tick...tick...

Time started: 21:04
Place: My room (Wattle Park, Adelaide)
Listening to: Clock ticking...
Weather: Cold enough for me to whine.
Mood: Lonely

I haven't updated this blog for 4 months...
Here's a brief update:
I've moved out in April and I'm loving my new place. The family I live with is lovely too.
I had my 22nd birthday. I can't remember what I did to celebrate...nothing much.
Last semester was the hardest semester I've ever encountered in my tertiary educational life...but I got through it, barely.
Levon came to visit me for three weeks last month. They were the happiest and most natural three weeks of my life.

Well it's been a week since I said goodbye to him and since I've arrived back to Adelaide to continue with uni.
I'm alone in my room, missing Darwin, missing my parents, missing my friends, missing him...and I've realised that the ticking of the clock is the loneliest sound in the world. It is reminding me of all the spaces between. It is reminding me how long it has been...how much further away those times have been...and how much longer it will be...
I'm feeling a bit empty right now. Uni and uni friends are keeping me going, helping the time pass by, but I still can't help feeling really lonely and empty inside. I'm relying on the ticking of the clock to motivate me...
I have no problem picking my spirits up when I'm with my friends but when I come home to a room with an unmade bed, overloaded laundry basket, a piano with sheet music sprawled all over, and the deafening silence accompanied by the dead-pan, mechanical ticking of the clock...I can't help but feel I'm alone again and I start missing the most important people, places, and things in my life.

Tick...tick...tick...
I don't even want to think about how many more seconds it will be til I feel alive again...

Time finished: 21:22

First Week Back with Tonsillitis.

Time started: 21:37
Place: My room (In Adelaide)
Listening to: "Looking For Water" - David Bowie
Weather: Cold...
Mood: Lethargic.

I didn't have a great week back in Adelaide. The night before my flight, I came down with tonsillitis so flying was hell. I felt like vomitting, I had a fever, and my throat hurt like hell. Luckily Jasper was on the flight with me. It was stupid that Jarrad wouldn't pick us up from the airport either but I don't really blame him since we arrive at 6:35am. We caught the taxi all the way home and thankfully the fare wasn't as bad as I anticipated it to be.

On Monday, our first day of semester 2, I began with a piano lesson with Lucinda. We went through my Italian Concerto by Bach and the lesson seemed mundane but I guess I was feeling really under the weather. Keyboard musicianship looks really hard this semester and I have a feeling I'm going to struggle. During Technique and Repetoire Class, I had an asthma attack and missed out on 3/4 of the class and wound up at the health clinic at uni. The doctor gave me some ventolin and prescribed me some antibiotics because he said I have tonsillitis. As soon as I went home, I slept until late in the afternoon on Tuesday. I was so incredibly lethargic.

On Wednesday, I had uni again. The History lecture was all about Beethoven. The course outline didn't really explain much either. Chauralation was cancelled because our conductor Carl was sick which sucked because Chauralation is fun. It's also good too because I didn't have a voice. Pey Shin, Sam, Fei and I spent our two hours worth of free periods at the Backstage café just sitting together and chatting about stuff. It was good to hang out with them again :). Then we had our Theory lecture and I missed practically the entire lecture because I had another asthma attack. Paul, a classmate of mine, was very kind to come and see how I was going outside and offered to call an ambulance but that was unnecessary. He took me to a water bubbler though and I was very grateful for his kindness and concern. Later that day I discovered that my glasses broke. One of the lenses fell out and I couldn't find it anywhere so that meant I needed new glasses. I made an appointment with the optometrist after class.

That night I experienced excruciating pain in my left ear and I couldn't sleep all night. In the morning my ear was bleeding and I decided it was best for me to not go to uni for that day. My left ear has felt blocked and has been buzzing ever since. So yeah...that was my first week of uni and I feel like I've missed out on so much already. I'm not having a very good to semester 2 at all...

On Friday, I had a better day. I went to meet Riana and Helen for lunch and it was lovely to see them again. Jarrad and Jasper tagged along but I think they were bored. Later I met up with Sam to exchange burnt discs, then I shouted him laksa because I said that I would if he passed theory last semester. Then I had my optometrist appointment, got my eyes tested and picked two pairs of glasses (buy one get one free :D). I can't wait for them to get done because apparently they look good on me =P. I always look like a nerd when I wear glasses and I hate wearing them. I might wear them constantly this time.

My weekend consisted of just practising a lot on the piano. I'm proud of my efforts for the weekend. I practised 6 hours per day and I was feeling a little better with tonsillitis. It was a pity I got Ryan and Jasper sick though. Right now I'm trying my hardest not to get Jarrad sick...

Today I was meant to go to uni but I had an asthma attack last night and didn't sleep so I felt absolutely awful when I woke up and didn't go to uni again. It was a bad idea because I'm going to miss out on next Monday's lessons too since I'd be in Darwin for my cousin's wedding. I'm having such an awful start to this semester and I'm already feeling overwhelmed...
Well...today I was bored and decided to bake pandan cake again. This attempt was a much better success compared to when I made it for Jarrad's birthday. The only thing wrong with it is I added a bit too much cream of tartar so it's a bit on the sour side, but aside from that...it tastes pretty good :D.

I fly to Darwin on Thursday evening and I can't wait to spend a few days in Darwin again where it's nice and warm. It's freezing cold here and I DON'T LIKE IT!!! I'm concerned that it's going to disrupt my start to this semester even more though...and I hate being sick...I'm wondering if I'll ever get better...damn my immune system...

Time finished: 22:00
Listening to: "La Cerca" - Sparta
Mood: Worried...