Dad's Visit and Exams!

Hi! I’m done with exams!! It feels great. No more thinking or working until next semester, I get to completely enjoy all of the rest of my time here. Well, except for the fact that I’m meant to be writing a paper right now, I shall get it done soon no problems. I haven’t updated in awhile, I’ve been so incredibly busy. Dad was here and we did a bunch of stuff, then it was time to study hard core for exams, and then taking them all. It’s been hectic, but still good. So I reckon this post will be ultra long! So be prepared, brace yourselves, get comfortable, you may want to grab some popcorn, or maybe it will take a couple sessions, whatever you feel is necessary. On with the show.

Have I mentioned how much I love this place? This semester has been absolutely incredible, and I wouldn’t trade a moment of it. Everything really feels like it was meant to happen, at least in some capacity. The good and bad that has come from the last semester were all meant to be for at least that moment and so much came from all of it. I have learned a million things and changed in a million ways, though I still remain the same in a way, if you can understand that. I’m not sure what my life holds for me when I return, but I guess I just have to take it as it comes. Right now, I’m taking in as much of this wonderful country as I can. It’s weird how much my heart can feel for this country, the land, and the people here. I’ve grown so attached and so close to so many people. I’m going to miss every little thing, and mostly those little things you know. The boys throwing things in the hall or yelling or playing Age on the computer, and Kiri asking me weird things about America, Lee’s stupid sayings and hilarious one liners, high/lows at dinner every night with our caf group, running into everyone on campus and say how ya goin before stopping to chat for awhile. I don’t know, there are so many small things that I think, I’m not going to ever do this again, and it makes me so so sad. I love this place more than I thought I ever would, after only 5 months! I will definitely be coming back a few times, but not knowing when is really hard. I will be losing part of my heart when I leave here, leaving it in so many places and with so many people, it’s insane really. BUT, believe it or not, I am excited to be coming home at the same time. I can’t wait to see everyone, and to have some of the comforts I’ve lived without. It’s a strange feeling. I am a little terrified of coming back, not to sound bad, but there are so many factors. Will I be able to keep the person I’ve become when I go back to ‘normal’, how will I deal with things being normal when I’ve grown so much, will I be able to go back to all my friends like we used to be, will I keep in touch with everyone I’ve met here, how can I keep parts of this culture alive in America, will I be able to fully enjoy myself or feel guilty for that, how do I keep the balance, what will it be like going back to Manhattan and everyone. I don’t know, those are a few of the things I think about. There’s no place like home though, and I am looking forward to so many things that come with being home, mostly all the people. There are just a lot of roller coaster emotions right now. So forgive me if I seem sad sometime when I get back, I really am happy to be coming home, I’ll just be sad to be leaving at the same time. Anyway, enough of that for the moment, I still have a week left with all these people and three weeks left in this country!! The reflections will have to come then!

I’m not sure where to begin, I guess where I left off and go chronologically, always a good bet. I have so much to remember! So I was heading out to pick up Dad and Barbara on Sunday two weeks ago! I went into town and grabbed some KFC before walking up to the Gull bus station to catch that into the airport in Melbourne. I hadn’t been into a KFC here yet, but I just wanted some chips for a snack. I found out they have this special seasoning on their chips here, and it’s amazing! Anyway, I had to wait awhile for the Gull because the bus schedule into town and the Gull schedule don’t match up perfectly. Neither did the Gull bus schedule and Dad’s plane schedule. I mostly slept on the ride up there. When I got there I wasn’t real sure what to do, I’ve never met anyone at an airport before. I checked the arrivals and it took me awhile because for some reason, Dad’s plane arrival was listed on a screen separate from the others with gray instead of red at the top and it confused me. But I found it and which gate it was coming to and such. So then I went through security no problem and went to find the gate. It felt weird, because at home I don’t think you can do that without a boarding pass. I had awhile to wait so I studied a little bit of the notes I brought with me. I actually saw their plane landing and then saw it pull around the corner into the gate a few minutes later! That was pretty cool. I got up and waited for awhile, anxiously awaiting. Then I saw Dad and felt so happy!! We went off to get their luggage, which took awhile for some reason, and hire a car for the few days. We got all that worked out and were on our way. Dad had driven some when they were in Cairns which was really good since Melbourne’s pretty busy, but he did fine. We went back to Geelong, with me as the navigator. I had never driven from the airport to Geelong! I’ve been on the Gull, but it takes a different way because we stop in between! But I got us there fine, it’s pretty much a straight shot down M1, the highway between Melbourne and Geelong. First they checked into their hotel since it was later and some places close their reception early here. Then we figured out a place to eat dinner, I took them to the Wharf Shed Café down on the water. I’d only been there once with Mom, but it was delicious! Plus it was close and the waterfront area is so pretty any time of day. I hadn’t been down there at night actually so it was really cool to me to see all the lights across the harbour and such. Anyway, dinner was good, I ran into one of my friends from uni there, too! I felt so cool that I can actually run into someone I know in the town of Geelong! So they drove me back to uni and we set a time to meet in the morning. I hung out with housemates a little bit before packing and going to bed.

Monday morning I got up bright and early to get ready to go on the Great Ocean Road! Dad and Barbara came to pick me up about 8am and we were on our way. Again, I was supposed to help us get started without ever driving but again I somehow did it right. I don’t know roads around here since I don’t drive, but I remember what things look like and where we turned when we were with whoever, so it works out okay. So, we got to Torquay fine but missed the turn to go to the beaches so we just kept going until Bell’s Beach a little ways down. This is the famous surf beach that I went to right at the start when it was hot. It was still really pretty and the surfers were still out there even though that water had to be frigid! We got back on the road and headed on with our journey. Our next stop was Airley’s Inlet for a quick break and to try a custard tart that was delicious. We continued down this beautiful road before stopping at one of the pull off stops to take some snapshots and enjoy the beauty. Soon we were in Lorne, the little town I stayed in for three days for orientation. I love that little town, it’s so cute. We took a few pictures there and kept on. There were a few pull off spots we stopped at along the way when it looked spectacularly pretty. The whole drive is really great, but I think the prettiest is between Lorne and the 12 Apostles. Every view was new and breathtaking. It doesn’t get old. We stopped in Apollo Bay for a quick lunch of meat pies. That was a nice little town as well. I love it when they are literally on the beach with one main strip, it’s just so cool. After that the road headed more inland rather than right on the coast. We went through some forests and saw some beautiful countryside full of cows and sheep. The land is pretty hilly in there and it was gorgeous. We took a detour to go check out this light house and that was a cool road. The whole way was tree lined with huge gum trees and then you enter this fenced off area with a sign, Give Way to Stock. The cows were all eating right on the side of the road, literally. We got down there though and you had to pay a fair bit just to walk and see the lighthouse, with nothing really there. So we opted out and headed back on our way. After a few more stops to take in God’s wonders in the beauty of nature, we arrived at Gibson Steps. This was the start of the places I stopped off at on that orientation trip. We walked down all those steps to the beach to have a look around. It was quite chilly and windy, it had been raining off and on all day as well. Though at times the sun would come out. The weather really wasn’t bad at all, it didn’t affect anything too much. It was strange though because last time I was there I was in shorts and a t-shirt, this time I was in jeans, long sleeves and a jacket! We had a look there before heading back up the long flights of stairs. Just down the road a bit was the stop for the 12 Apostles. We spent some time there, taking in the views and admiring it all. They are quite amazing really. There are quite a few stops right along that area so we stopped at most of them. Loch Ard’s Gorge and London Bridge were among the stops. The London Bridge had fallen down. It used to be two arches with the land above connecting all the way to the land. Now it’s only one arch that isn’t connected to land. That was interesting. There were so many arches along the way, they are pretty cool. The coast is just beautiful and the water the whole way is this brilliant blue. The waves were pretty big that day so that was pretty as well. We kept on driving for awhile since the sun was starting to go down. We did make one more stop at the Bay of Islands. They were pretty spectacular. I hadn’t gone that far the first time. It was like the 12 Apostles, but smaller and a lot more of them. That was pretty awesome looking. From there we drove until we came to Warrnambool where we found a hotel for the night. We then got Subway for dinner with a bottle of wine and a Vodka Cruiser and watched some TV before calling it a night.

Tuesday was another exciting day. We woke up and checked out of the motel and went straight to the information centre to see about whale watching because it was supposed to be easy there at this time of year. The lady said the whales hadn’t arrived yet this year though. So we went out to another lookout thing to snap some photos before heading further west. We stopped at Tower Hill Reserve that was an old volcanic crater. It was a one way road you drive on the whole way through to see the land and look for koalas and kangaroos. We saw quite a few so that was exciting. We got out of the car and got fairly close to a couple kangaroos before they noticed and hopped off. We also saw a couple wallabies and emus as well. We went back through a second time to climb up these stairs and get a better view. That was the steepest hill I’ve ever seen in my life, it was bigger than the one up to the dorms at KU!! But it warranted spectacular views. After this we headed off to Port Fairy to check out what was claimed to be a quaint little town. That is just what it was. We stopped for lunch at Rebecca’s Café. I’m pretty sure that was the best sandwich I’ve ever had in my life. The meal was so delicious, finished off perfectly with ice cream, and the town was precious even though I hate that word! Stuffed, we hopped back in the car and turned around to head east towards ’home’. When we went back through Warrnambool we drove through the Deakin campus there, taking in the two buildings on campus with the overly large car park. They did have some really nice residences however, called mansions. I am certainly pleased with myself for choosing Geelong campus however, especially for the accompanying town. We drove back inland because it’s much faster and easier to drive, but still pretty since a lot of that land is farmland and such. Terang was one town we passed through and that was exciting since my friend Lachy is from there. I shot a couple pictures out the window and showed him so he told me where he worked and lived in relation to them. It was pretty cool, I got to see where he goes every weekend! When we arrived back in Geelong it was about sunset so we went to uni so I could give a tour. It was pretty short and simple, as campus is fairly small. My favourite part though was getting to show off the back four lakes at sunset. That is my absolute favourite part of campus and especially at sunset, it’s just gorgeous. So then I showed off my unit as well. Two of my housemates were there, Katie and Kiri, so that was nice. While we were here they booked a hotel for the night in Geelong and we planned the rest of the week. I had the evening to myself so I went down to caf with friends and prepared myself for the rest of the week. I packed up a duffel bag Dad brought to take back with him to help me out with getting everything home so that was good.

Wednesday was another wake up early day. I caught the bus into the city so we could leave for Melbourne. I wasn’t sure how parking worked when we got into the city, so it took awhile but we found some cheap parking out at Queen Vic Market since it wasn’t on that day. So we caught the free city circle tram from near there and rode it around awhile to see some of the city. We got off to find a café to eat at. Again, without knowing much this took a little while but we found a great little place and enjoyed some lunch before catching the city circle tram back to the car. We found our way out of the city and onto the right highway to take us on our way down to Phillip Island, on the other side of the harbour from Geelong. (Melbourne’s at the “top” of the harbour sort of, Geelong’s on one side, and Phillip Island is a little further on the other side.) I slept the whole way down there instead of studying, whoops. We bought the tickets for the Penguin Parade at the visitor centre when we picked up some information. Then we headed across the island (it’s pretty small) to the Nobbies, just some big rocks out there. It was getting to be sunset so it was absolutely gorgeous. That’s how it was when we went there as well. We walked around a bit and took lots of photos before heading a short distance to the spot of the Penguin Parade. We got there a little early so I looked around at the little area they had telling you all about the little guys. There were viewing window things of some burrows there and there were a couple penguins in there!! So I cheated the no photography rule, because technically it’s not until you get out of the little building, and took some photos of the little guys! They didn’t turn out too well, but still, pretty cool. So we found some great seats and waited for the Little Penguins to waddle their way up the beach back to their homes! It took a little while. They were just as adorable as last time. I love animals, they always make me so happy! They were pretty cute, but we didn’t watch a whole lot of them come up the beach because when I asked the ranger a question she suggested going over to this other viewing platform where you could see them all right next to you on the ground. I was asking her how old they were and she told me they live to about 7 or 8, although one guy they had way outlived that recently. I can’t remember for sure, so I hate to say it if I’m wrong, but I think she said he was 22, and it was crazy. Anyway, so we headed over there and watched them all waddle by for quite awhile. They were pretty noisy and a bit rambunctious. I cheated again and took a video, in my purse, just to get the noises they were making. We enjoyed that awhile before heading out. We drove over to the big town on the island called Cowes for some dinner. I’m not sure if it’s because it’s winter or what, but most of the places were all closed! We only had a few choices so we went to this Italian restaurant and it was wonderful. Then we decided to leave as it was getting later. We weren’t sure where we were going to stay the night, but planned somewhere between the island and Melbourne. Well, driving back we saw one place but they didn’t have vacancy, and other than that there wasn’t really anything on the highway. So we drove all the way back to St. Kilda, just a suburb of the city, and stayed there. I whipped out my computer and showed off a few hundred of the pictures I’ve taken here so far before going to bed.

Thursday came and we got around and headed into the city for my last day with them. They got checked into their hotel and parked the car before we caught the city circle tram again towards Queen Vitoria Market. We checked that out and walked around a bit. Then we went to a neat little souvenir shop a block or so away. It was getting lunch time so I decided to show off Nando’s! It’s this fabulous sort of fast food chicken place. They have fresh, delicious, grilled chicken burgers and wraps and stuff like that. So then we caught the tram back so I could pick up my back pack from the night before and head on my way. We had to wait a long time again before the tram came back around because it was having problems. Luckily I still made it to Southern Cross in plenty of time, no record breaking running this time! I had more than enough time to buy my ticket and say goodbye and such. It was kind of sad to be saying goodbye again. It’s only a month though, now less! It was so fabulous to get to see my daddy in Australia! I’m so incredibly lucky to have been able to show off this fabulous life changing experience of mine with both Mom and Dad, that makes me so happy. I appreciate them coming and I’m lucky they both could!

On the train ride back home I spent some time studying and looking over different travel stuff trying to figure out what I was going to do. I got the bus back to uni and was here by 4 so I could go in and talk to the STA travel people about things. Since both of the Southern Tours of New Zealand were closed I looked into the Northern Tour. The guys helping me, Cam, told me it was open with a few seats left. I couldn’t decide, I wasn’t sure I really wanted to, so I told him I’d risk it and come back when they opened in the morning. I just had really been wanting to visit the South Island more, and the flights were so much cheaper there because you could take JetStar there. So I pondered it and looked at some other books they gave me with tours within Australia and such. It was hard to decide what to do when you have limited time, money, and want to do so much, but have restrictions of a tour as well. Anyway, I decided not to do the Northern Tour because I didn’t think it was worth it, as much as I desperately want to see New Zealand. I found a tour to Perth and that area though, which I also really wanted to do but didn’t think I would be able to! So, I figured that out. I also did some laundry, caught up on emails and loading all the pictures to my computer. I chatted it up with some of my housemates and studied quite a bit before calling it a night. When I got back I also checked my mail and had gotten a card from both Talicia and Grandma and that was super exciting. I had also gotten an invitation to my housemate’s 21st birthday but unfortunately it’s the day after I leave! I was sad about that, here their 21st is really big and they have these great big nice parties with all their friends and family and people give speeches about them and they have pictures and everything, it sounds so fun and I haven’t been to one! Even in a semester you can’t do near everything!

So Friday I went in to STA travel about 10 to book that other tour. He laughed when I changed my mind again, the same guy worked with me for everything and he was so nice and helpful. He was in training still so I helped him learn a lot since we were doing so much! So I booked the 5 day tour around the Perth area in Western Australia. He helped me book hostels for the night before it starts and the night it ends as well, as it’s early in the morning and late in the evening. So I got all that booked and figured out and paid him and got my vouchers and was ready to go! How exciting! It felt so good to finally have that figured out and finalized! It took about two hours to do everything though. They all told me they were trying to keep me there as long as possible because not many people came in during study week and they were lonely, ha. This tour was cheaper than the New Zealand ones and the flights were much better, and then I can have more time for more things as well. I went back to my room and looked up some flights, did a bit of research and decided to plan out even more of a trip! I booked all my flights right then. After Perth, I’m flying to Adelaide for a couple days, then flying to Canberra for a couple days, and flying back to Melbourne to meet up with Loretta and her sister on the Fourth, two days before we head home! So that means I will have been to every state and territory in Australia, how cool is that!? I got some pretty cheap hostels in the centre of town as well, so that’s cool. For all of that it will be about the same amount of money as the 6 day tour to New Zealand, so that’s pretty exciting!! I spent the rest of the day planning all that out and studying a little bit as well.

Saturday I was planning on studying the whole day, however plans change here and that’s the way it goes. Nick had sent me a text late the night before asking if I wanted to see the Dalai Lama in Melbourne on Saturday. I had remembered he was coming but forgot when and everything. He was supposed to come to Geelong but cancelled. So of course I had to go, it’s the Dalai Lama, how often do you get a chance to go see him talk!? And it was free! So we missed the bus into town to catch the train in time, so got a taxi to the bus station and caught the train into Melbourne where we waited around for quite awhile for Nick’s friend who is at the Burwood campus. We all met up and grabbed a tram that went out to where the talk was at the Optus Oval. It took so long since they stop everywhere, so we were a few minutes late, but it was okay. We went in and sat down on the grass in the middle. It was pretty cool, there he was way up there, a tiny little man! He was fairly difficult to understand. I got almost every single thing he said, but I did have to listen hard. His English was a little poor, but he knew that so it was kind of funny. When he couldn’t think of a word he’d try to explain it and there was this translator who usually got it and would say the word and he’d be like, “ah, yes, (whatever the word was)” It was pretty cute. He was funny about it all, and he was making himself laugh too. He had some really good things to say though. I wrote some of it down so I’d actually remember more of it. He talked for about an hour about compassion and attachment and showing concern for others and things of the like. He talked about how now with the world getting smaller and everything, destructing your neighbour was really like destructing yourself, somehow it will come back to you and affect you as well. He suggested we all need to seriously consider the welfare of others and show compassion and warm heartedness to everyone as we are all connected, it’s not us and them anymore as everything has repercussions through the whole war. I really liked the point he made that he wasn’t talking all about religion. He said you can be happy without a religion and such, but you are nothing without compassion, you can’t be happy without giving and receiving that. I think that can resonate with a lot more people. I thought he was a great preacher though. I never thought about it like that. He said compassion makes your brain function properly, it brings you inner strength and allows us to solve conflicts peacefully. Love and compassion and having a sense of concern for others is what will get us through this life and can make people truly happy. I like to agree with that. Anyway, it was worth it, now I can say I’ve seen him talk in person and really learned something important. It was very frustrating leaving however. The trams were only coming every 15 minutes and they were jam packed with hundred more people waiting. We had to wait for two trams before we could fit into one, and we were in there like sardines. (Or packed in like pickles, if you’ve seen Ellen! Ha.) So we got on that tram, and had to get off and walk a ways to Southern Cross. We were booking it though, I’ve never walked so fast, and I had my heavy backpack with me as well! Unfortunately we missed the 5pm train by about 2 minutes, we heard it pulling out. So that meant we missed the last bus back to uni and would have to get another taxi. Frustrating! So we went upstairs and grabbed some Nando’s for dinner and chilled out awhile before going down to get on the 6pm train a little early. We got good seats and waited to leave. I did good and studied quite a bit the whole way there and back on the train. That helped me a lot. When we got back to Geelong we had to take a taxi back to uni, but it was okay, it was all worth it especially considering the talk was free! I tried to study some more and such when I got back. I didn’t last very long though. Last weekend and the beginning of the week I was starting to feel sick so I went to bed early.

Sunday wasn’t a much more productive day, but it was alright. I went to the grocery store hopefully for the last time. Now I only have a week but I may have to go get some more milk and juice, or just live without for a week. Anyway, that was a good thing done, but time not studying. I got a fair bit done later in the day. I got on a role with my finance studying and just went to town. That’s such a wondrous feeling when you get smart for a couple hours and remain productive, it was a miracle for me really. When you haven’t taken an exam in 6 months, it becomes very hard to condition your brain back into study mode! I can’t really remember much specifics of this week beyond this point. It’s all a jumbled mess. I know my emotions were crazy, I had a million different things running around in my head all week. I stuffed my head with so much information, having three exams in three days. On top of all that was thinking about my trip, planning what to do with the rest of my time here, thinking about how sad it is to be at the end and almost leaving everyone here as well as the internationals, constantly reflecting on my time here and how I’ve changed, being excited about going home for different reasons, being scared of going home for different reasons. There were so many thoughts and such jumping around up there! I studied a whole lot, probably more than for my exams at home. That should be the case though as these are much harder. Tuesday was my first exam in Business Communication and it was fairly easy. It was part multiple choice, 5 short answer questions and a big part of document analysis at the end, but it was all open book. The class was easy and I think I did really well on the exam but I still studied hours for it. Then Wednesday morning was my International Economics final that I was pretty scared about. On Tuesday afternoon Loretta and I went to the library to study together and we were productive for three hours! That helped a lot, but we got fairly distracted later talking with all her housemates. I got very anxious. That exam was all questions, four questions with many parts, that you had to work out and explain, it was a lot of graphs, math and explanations and interpretations. Some of it I knew really well, and other parts were quite difficult and I’m not sure I did it right. I studied with my neighbour and Brandon for finance on Wednesday night and that helped a lot as well. Thursday was my finance exam in the afternoon. It was all working out problems too. There were 11 questions, 5 of which were 10 marks each and the other 6 were a total of 20 marks. It was a lot of math and explanations and interpretations as well. That stuff is challenging! Again, I felt fairly confident going in, although still very nervous, but some parts were really difficult and I’m not sure I did it right. However, I’m confident I passed all my exams which is technically all I had to do. My bus comm exam was worth 30% of our grade, very low. However, finance and econ were both worth 70% of our overall grade! You can see how that could possibly make me anxious?! It was all good though. The hardest thing I think was adapting to the change of testing environment. It was so strange to me and a bit intimidating!! They give all the exams wither at 9:15am or 2pm and they are all in the KD Stewart Centre which is the gym on campus. There are just a few hundred desks set up in the gym and in a smaller room upstairs and you are in an assigned seat number you have to look up on the list. So there are a few different tests being given in the same room at the same time. The teachers aren’t there, it’s just a whole bunch of really old people walking around watching you. They give a little speech before the exams start about the rules and such. Then you get 15 minutes of reading time where you can’t use any calculators or lift up your pencil at all. Then they announce when you can start writing and you have to first fill out this exam attendance sheet on your desk that they check against your id that you have to leave in the top right hand corner of the desk at all times. The old people walk by and check your card against the sheet and you. So taking exams is hard anyway, but with all these different factors it’s even worse! The magpies were soooo loud outside as well! It bugged me! I’ll miss them though. It’s distracting being in such a big room with everyone, and people are always getting up and leaving when they’re done. Also, some exams are two hours, others are three. All of mine were three. So when time was up for the two hour exam the guy would announce pencils down and tell everyone to stay seated while the materials are collected. One time someone stood up and the guy yelled, “candidate 330 please sit down!” It was scary, how did he know his number so easily?! We were just numbers, that’s a bit disconcerting. Anyway, it was very distracting when they announced that and then everyone got up and left. It threw me off. Also, nobody could leave before 45 minutes into the exam, and in the last 10 minutes of the exam. When you were finished you had to raise your hand and they came to pick up your stuff. Also, if you had to use the toilet, you had to raise your hand and someone would come to you and as you got up would look really worried and signal back to the guy at the back with a big t, like when they signal a timeout in sports. It’s scary! Then they follow you out the gym to the toilet to make sure you don’t cheat. It was very strict and intimidating in there. Also, just little things for me threw me off, like the multiple choice answer sheet looks different than the scantrons I’m used to, even though it’s basically the same, it’s just a little difference. You also have the exam booklet, and then have to answer everything in a separate booklet with just paper in it. I’ve never done that. The multiple choice sheet said use a #2B pencil only and I was like, what’s that, is that what I have, I don’t know, it’s #2, but is it B? Ha, just stupid things but it’s still a difference! Anyway, that was interesting.

Every day I went to lunch at caf since I have so much money on my card, I really treated myself and ate a whole bunch of food! I went to B Bar three days and I hadn’t ever been there for lunch! It was really good food, it’s more expensive and they actually serve you compared to caf downstairs where you pick up a sandwich or something. It was really good value though, I still only spent about $10 every day for a full meal with chips and a salad and a Coke. Anyway, that helped relieve some stress as well to eat with my friends, also to eat at caf every night. I spent plenty of time talking with people through the week to keep me from going crazy. Everyone was studying and such though so I couldn’t do too much. After my exam Thursday I felt so relieved, it was awesome to be done. I don’t know anyone else who is done, they all have exams this week as well! So that’s kind of hard for me because I’m done and ready to do stuff but everyone else is still studying. It’s been good though, people takes breaks and such. Plus I do still have that stupid paper. I didn’t do anything at all but relax on Thursday night and Friday morning. Thursday I went over to Loretta’s to share what was left of my cheese dip. I made it earlier in the week from what Dad brought me and all my roommates tried it. They all thought it was so strange but really good. Heck yes it is. So Jared got to try some too, he liked it of course. We ate cheese dip and watched a whole DVD of Friends, good times.

We’re almost caught up, people!! Hang in there!

So, Friday I went on to campus for lunch and then Loretta and I went to check out the tiny little merchandise shop they have but they didn’t have a whole lot. I may go back and get a sweatshirt, we’ll see. I went with her to try to sell back her books, but they don’t do that as much as we do, and unfortunately she couldn’t sell back any of hers. Believe it or not, even if they do take it back, they give you even less for it than we do back home! I had to put a few more dollars on my card to get me through another week of internet and got some money out of the ATM to last me as well. It’s hard right now to be living off as little as possible since I just have to lose whatever I don’t use, in all areas, including food and such as well. I got to talk to Grandma for almost an hour as well!! That was really nice since I hadn’t talked to her in awhile. Later I went back to STA travel because I talked to Donald and he didn’t have anything planned for after school and decided he wanted to go to Perth with me. So I went with him so he could book it as well. That should be interesting. It was good to go back in and talk to those guys again. I had some questions about the luggage anyway so that was good. I went to the library after that to get some books for this paper and then ran into a bunch of people on the way back and spent some time talking with all of them. I got back and didn’t do much. More of my housemates were here this weekend than usual. Most weekends it’s just me and Tom! So it was more exciting and I talked with them awhile and watched some TV. Kiri made some homemade pudding as well. I think that’s just another thing that is a difference in what we call things. I was eating some instant pudding a couple weeks ago and they didn’t know what it was, it came from the supermarket! But they call it mousse. So this pudding she made is what I would call lava cake, it was baked and like a cake sort of on top with the sauce pudding stuff underneath. No matter what it’s called it was absolutely delicious!!

Today hasn’t been productive as it should have been. My paper is coming so slowly. I just don’t want to do it! I did get some laundry and cleaning up done, and I actually went to the library for some research. But there I ran into Marc and we talked for awhile, then I followed him back to Nick’s and we all talked for awhile as well. I’ve been writing this blog all day as well. It’s taking me forever. I hope you understand that although I do this for my purposes as well, it really does take a fair bit of effort from me to keep it updated! This right here is like two papers! If only this could be my paper! Too bad I didn’t write about Australia being the Lucky Country. Hmm. Well, that pretty much catches us up. There were lots more little things in there, but you get the gist.

So, I’ll let you go back to your lives now after that time consuming experience. Just think how long it has taken me to write! I hope you’ve enjoyed it. I really hope you all are doing well and enjoying life. I’m loving it here more than I can express in words. And I’m feeling so many things that I really can’t express in words either. I can be ready to come home at times, sometimes I get a little lonely, it will be nice to go home to people who have known me longer than five months! But it is still incredible here and it makes me so happy. Let me know how you are. Hopefully I’ll get another post up before I leave for my trip in a week, and then before I get home! But I look forward to seeing all of you. Enjoy each other and all the blessings you have around you. Now here are some words that have especially meant a lot to me lately, as well as the whole semester. I have such a huge list of these!

• There is no growth without change, no change without fear or loss, and no loss without pain. ~from The Purpose Driven Life (This semester has definitely equalled growth, and it was for sure scary, and so some pain had to be thrown in.)
  
• Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not depend on your own understanding. ~Proverbs 3:5 (I know I can’t depend on my understanding, I have none!, I have definitely needed the Lord to help me with that!)
  
• Each of us was born with wings and has the ability to go farther than we ever thought possible, to do things beyond our wildest imaginings. ~Barbara Stanny (SO true, look at me!)

Love always, Alissa

I figured out how to do pictures!! Whoa! Okay, I'm not going to get carried away, you'll just have to wait til I get home to see the other 14,000. But here are a few in case you forgot what I look like!

Me with the Opera House and Bridge in Sydney.

Me at Wineglass Bay in Tasmania.

Mom and I at Uluru.

Dad and I at the Twelve Apostles.