Empty Apartment

I hated living in the dorms so my 2nd year in Australia I decided I would find a place to rent. I went and saw about 15 different places, and yeah, I was pickier then than I am today, but I did put in quite a few applications and just didn’t hear back on any of them. S’s parents were nice enough to let me live with them for about a month. I finally ended up living in what we think was probably a converted garden shed or green house. I was too picky in the beginning and ended up with the crappiest place I had ever seen. It was a “studio” apartment and it was pretty miserable going. At this point I was getting serious about school (which by the way confuses people here as school is ONLY grade school and high school and college has to be called uni for anyone to know what you are talking about). S, the Red Head, and I went camping again and S and I went to lots of shows together. It was nice to have a real bed to sleep in with S, rather than the single bed that is universal to all dorm rooms. I went home on the winter break to a beautiful Californian summer. Mom, Dad, Nae and I went to Yosemite for 5 days or so and it was good fun. I hadn’t been to Yosemite in probably 10 years, then I went twice in a year, but it is such a wonderful place that I could go twice every year. Dad drove back home and Mom, Nae and I went to Santa Cruz. But first we did an overnight trip to Berkeley so that Nae could see Radiohead and we could visit our Mexican sister, BCova. I got to go to a baseball game with my Dad (Go Angels!) and that was fun. I love the Angels and I love that it is something that my Dad and I bond over. I headed back to Australia and to face the rest of the winter. I hated where I lived, it was tiny, falling apart, there was cockroaches (just a fact of life in most homes in Australia, no matter how clean), and I had noisy neighbors who were just study abroad students who lived like 10 to a house and were constantly rotating in and out. The one redeeming factor was that I had a really cool young couple living right across from me and they had a cat Chloe who became as much their pet as mine for the time I was there.

A Long December

After my parents left, S and I just continued to get closer. Bun was in love for the first time, too. She was really missing her family though and couldn’t wait to get home. She started getting depressed and though she didn’t want to leave Gangles, she also, couldn’t see herself living in Australia for any longer. She stopped going to classes and I very rarely saw her. I think Gangles was the only one who saw her frequently as she moved in with him basically so not even her roommates saw her anymore.
S told me he loved me after we had been dating about 6 months. It happened at the end of a long night out on the town for Gangles’ 21st birthday. I was in love with S at this point, too, and so excited that he had said it.
I asked S to come to California at Christmas time. He was excited as he is a big movie buff and wanted to see all the things they show in movies for real.
I left in November and went back home to work at the surf shop I had worked at for a few years before moving. I missed S like crazy, but also enjoyed seeing some old friends and coworkers. S got in like 2 days before Christmas. I was working so Mom and Nae picked him up at LAX for me, but there was a problem. First, S didn’t have our address and you need one for the Customs forms so they can track you down if they need to while you are in the U.S. Secondly, Nae and Mom couldn’t find him so it took a couple hours to track him down in the right terminal! Off to a great start! I was so excited at work all day, but my manager wouldn’t let me go home early as it was a very busy time of year obviously. I rushed home afterwards and they weren’t home. I paced until they got there. Then he was there and I didn’t know how to act. I was so awkward. I stepped on his foot when he came in to give me a hug and a kiss. We had an amazing time together. It was S’s first Christmas ever, as his religion doesn’t celebrate Christmas, and he ripped through his presents so fast and so excitedly! We went to the San Diego Zoo with my Mom and Nae (Dad was working), we hit up Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm, saw all the people from the travel group S had met while they were in Sydney, we drove up to Yosemite just the two of us for a few nights and it was beautiful with snow on the ground and S was just amazed by the place. We then went to Santa Cruz to visit Nae and S fell in love with the area. He loved the coast line and the sea lions and Pizza My Heart and Saturn Café. He loved staying at the Hilton in a suite with my Mom and the free breakfast that came with it.
Once again, my parents proved their awesomeness when I told them I wanted to do my whole degree in Australia and they agreed to pay for it all. I even got to go on a business trip with my Mom to Singapore for a week before continuing on to Sydney.