Hello.

Firstly, senior year is great. I'm still a caffeine addict. I'm doing double English, which I love, except I have to keep fighting with the head of curriculum to stay in the same english classes. They keep moving me around like some kind of grand tour and I'm about to be transferred out of my ideal, absolutely arcadian, edenic literature class. Again. Rest assured I am not going to be moved without a fight. Preferably with big words and flowery sentence structure.

Apart from that? Not much. Fallen prey to the Ikea nesting instinct and that great big new Ikea superstore that just opened up. Don't judge me though. I have yet to buy a hovertrekke personal exercise machine. Or a kilpsk personal office unit. And whoever can place that allusion wins eternal... something.
I have, however, got a brand new room with lots of needless, yet so well and functionally-designed furniture items. I'm also getting three walls painted "China White". And yes, I chose it just so I could tell everyone that my walls are covered in China White. (fttdn: China White = slang for very pure heroin.) We all had a good laugh over that one.

My baby sister's birthday today. Got her a tragus piercing the other day, ended up informing the parentals about it yesterday. My mother, turns out, didn't yell. Much. In fact, she thinks it's not too bad. She does keep calling it a "haggis", as in "Hey Jen, nice haggis" however, but you can't blame her for trying.

Conclusion? Everything's changing. But I'm sure it's all (or at least, mostly) for the better. At least for someone.

Mannnn... Busy busy busy. No time for even thinking about weird vexels. I hate having a really great weekend knowing that the next one is going to be shite...

Today I had to go to a half-day induction for my new Christmas job at Myer (in addition to my cafe job which I am lovingggg, especially the part about managing the cafe aloooonnnee and being able to hang out in strange places very late on school nights. And weekends. Blisssssss)
Anyway... 3 hours of operating a cash register! Anyone up for that? The first 15 minutes were thrilling, kinda went downhill from there. And that was only the half day... next week it's a full day of cash registering and customer service. The sides of my head hurt already from smiling.

Saw the red bull air race today, also spotted Wil Anderson in boost juice, which was pretty cool. Walked around the ENTIRE foreshore with a friend, the whole 10 or so kilometres, in Lace up knee-high boots. My feet were BLEEDING (Although I must say... fashion over comfort. Because when I look good, I feel good. About me).

30 degrees outside and we decide to buy... coffee.

A friend who's been staying at my place for the past three days woke me up last night by throwing a remote control at my face. I'm sure it was accidental (I HOPE it was accidental...) anyway, smoothed out (at least a little bit...) the massive Hungarian kink I have in my nose that I've had every since I was born. Score! Imagine getting into a fight and coming out with better jowl definition or less wrinkles...

In conclusion, Fortune cookie wisdom for the day:

Tipsy friends with heavy objects and good aim = cheaper and faster alternative to plastic surgery.

Ok, That's it, I'm back.

Hopefully to update a bit more. School's crazy as usual, add to that having 2 jobs for a few weeks while I figured out WHO exactly was employing me...
The cafe I was working at got sold. Bummer. My old dear boss got me a job at an ice cream shop a few doors down. Yeah, Ok, I got 50% off as much ice cream as I could stuff into my face (which turns out is a lot, even with a discount...) but I was working pretty much all my spare time on the weekend (granted, I was rich for several weeks from all that extra pay).
So when the new owner of my old cafe offered me my job back, I took it and I love working there. We don't do bubble tea anymore, and I have to say I have a better understanding of some of the stuff in the shop even though my boss doesn't listen to me, but I'm back amongst everyone I know which is great.
I went to the big trade fair launch of my friend's small business yesterday and bathed in some nice comments (the most common being "why is there a pirate ship on her head?) about my design which was on display and on sale. Fun Fun Fun.

So for the moment, everything is calm, I don't have to worry about calling people up to quit jobs and exams are still lightyears away.

*opens up photoshop...*

Firstly, a big thank you to everyone who faved or commented on my new piece. You should have seen me when I logged on and saw 700 messages more than usual in my message centre!

Exams are here, and in a weird way proving to be much less stressful than I thought they would be. Not that I've had any yet. But still, my point remains valid right? Right?
I very much like the fact that, for the next 2 weeks, I can go to the city when I'm not studying. And the second that last exam finishes? I am throwing myself into that bubble tea cafe again and working as many shifts as I can. Because, bizarrely, nothing calms me down more than working. Perhaps it's because I have the ability to know what I have to do, and then do it. And I get to talk to people. All I know is that I would most likely die without my job.

In other news...
There is not allowed to be any other news while exams are on! I must study!

Laurenne!

How long has it been since I visited Deviantart? Too long.
Feels like I'm visiting my old neighbourhood or something...

So, I went to France. And now I'm back.
And if you don't believe me, I have photos to prove it.

Paris was amazing, it was the best birthday I could hope for. I even got to visit Montmartre.
The family I stayed with in Avignon spoke no English. Rien. And so I learnt to adapt, and speak French all the time. And I loved how they called me "Laurènnnne". Like a sexier version of how you pronounce the "Lauren" in "Ralph Lauren". They spelt my name wrong, all the time, too. But dammit, I'm keeping the extra "NE".
Laurènne.

Of course, there was still a language barrier. And most of our conversations at dinner time were sparked by news events.

News: "The presidential elections will be held in 3 weeks"
Family: "So, Laurènne, who IS the president of Australia?"

The worst was when the news reported that they had found a Frenchman in Guana after so many weeks of him being stuck out in the bush.
And so, the conversation opened (in French, of course) with
"So, Laurènne, If you're stuck in the bush in Australia...."
I knew it was coming.
"...Is there much you can eat?"

That was on Wednesday. And between Wednesday and Saturday afternoon, when I caught the TGV train to Lyon, I was Laurenne. The Australienne. Qui mange les Kangarous!

Lyon was amazing as well. I loved my host family so much. Alex, my host sister, and the parents were so lovely (and so were the other two younger girls that returned to Lyon the day before I left. I fell in love with them instantly). Biggest news was that the father, being awesome as well, and also being a train driver for the TGV trains (they go between North and the South of France, at 300 km/h) drove the family and me up to Paris for two days. Simply because I said I liked Paris. And I even got to visit Montmartre again.

And I got to sit in the driver's compartment.

It has to have been the best 3 weeks of my life so far. And now, I miss it like crazy.
And I'm even contemplating living out the rest of my life, cliché-style, in Paris.

This is to be done with the help of my job at the cafe.
I also got a job at a pet shop.
But the pet shop burnt down before I could actually start work.

No kidding either.

Peace

Laurènne