Settle, Gretel…

you know, I’m rather comfortable here…. the food is excellent, there is always entertainment, classes are quite awesome so far (I started Thursday), and all the while, Australia seems to be going to hell in a hand basket! (politics wise, at least)

not very much incentive to come home. no siree.

My agenda today is an interesting one, but has been stomped on thus far by the fact that it is really quite hard not to stay up until 3 am talking to the people who pretty much seem to be constantly hanging around in our common room.

for the meantime, things that have happened are;

I moved in to my new and proper room for the semester…. things are in DRAWS. it is MAGICAL!

behold, my corner of the room thus far (I plan to paint it all different colours. if anyone has any ideas, stupid or otherwise, let me know :))

glow sheep are up!

as are love letters that I have been sent…!

and this is the other sie of my space. check the awesome hat that I got in the free pile!

a great thing that this house has is the free pile. They’re all about the recycling, the reusing, the not throwing things or people away. So whenever you need something, the first place to go is not Target, or Walgreens! No sir! Go free pile hopping! Every co-op has one. Trash or treasure, opp shop style, they can be alternately awesome and completely unhelpful. Im simply pretty sure that they will help me accumulate clothes quicker and more cheaply than I had ever thought possible!

Today I went to Lindy on Sproul, Cal’s weekly swing dancing event. interesting, dancing on concrete, but lots of wonderful people there! I immediately set to work teaching them things like “TOV“, how the opposite to concrete is anti-concrete, and “hooray!”

they perhaps didnt learn as quickly as S.C.U.M* would have, but they were most enthusiastic, so joy abounded! Also, I have had an offer to help teach the Berkeley swing dancing subject, also known as a Decal Course. isn’t that ridiculous! they get ACTUAL UNIVERSITY CREDIT to learn swing dancing. as a SUBJECT. the jealousy! if ONLY! amazing 🙂

later on: my first cleaning challenge…. the BATHROOMS. *dramatic music, wails of terror*.

I got my scrubbedy dub on 🙂

and fulfilled a challenge from home :D!

see if you can spot my excellent sharpie pen work! 🙂

so the bathroom is sparkly, and tonight we have room to room! this is a party where everyone opens up their rooms with a different theme, and people go from floor to floor, acting like responsible adults, meeting each other in a non rowdy and drunken way. then we all sit down and have tea and biscuits that are not dodgy!

hooray! now I’m going to go make some jelly (jello) shots 🙂

if anyone wants to send me anything, the official address is:
Vivi Kalman, room 301, Casa Zimbabwe, 2422 Ridge Road, Berkeley, CA, USA 94709

*Swing Crew UniMelb