Month 1

One month ago today, on relative terms, I was in a Boeing 747-400 cruising at 35,000ft high over the Pacific Ocean. In reality, Friday, February 12 never took place because we crossed over the International Date Line and therefore took off from LAX at 11:50pm and landed in Brisbane at 7:40ish am. One of the kids that came on the trip actually had his birthday on the 12th so we like to kid him that his birthday never happened and he's now a year younger.

Continuing on with what has been happening, I absolutely cannot believe that I left home a month ago. It is absolutely insane to think about. Time has been going by so quickly that it is hard to keep track of what is going on, much less keep updated on when I have assignments due. I have always been a good student, but all I have to say is thank goodness my grades don't follow me home because there is so much to do in so little time that school-work may actually have to be on the back burner for a while. This will not make my mother happy but I'm here, 7,000 miles from home, for only 4 months so I am going to make the best of these 4 months and see and do all that I can before I have to come back home. Speaking of home, I actually miss it more than I thought I would. Now I'm not saying I need to hop on a plane and head back to the states right this instant, but I can definitely see the stages of culture shock taking place. The first week in Cairns was the Honeymoon stage: everything is perfect, nothing can go wrong, and you just want to see and do everything. The second stage is withdrawl: you begin despising the people, you don't understand why they do what they do, and you just find the culture to be "not cool." One example of this is the whole "no worries" part of their culture. When you try and talk to someone about a problem or issue that you have, and they can't help you solve it and then still say "no worries" when you leave, it is kind of annoying. It is like, "yes I do have worries thank you but thanks to you nothing was done about it." Just one of the things that will take some getting used to. The third stage is the adjustment stage: this is where you get in a routine and begin to understand why people act the way they do, and you are used to how things are in the new country. I believe I am somewhere between the second and third, if not completely in the third stage. Our first day in Brisi, culture shock began to set in. We had been so babied in Cairns, everything was planned out, we didn't have to buy anything, and surviving on our own wasn't an issue. When we had to make our first shopping trip for groceries, and it lasted for nearly 2 hours and we realized how expensive food was, reality began to set in. Not to mention that, while most Australians are friendly and helpful, there are those with such a negative view on America that some of us have began telling them we're Canadian when they ask, only because they treat Canadians so much better than they do Americans. One good thing about this country is that none of their food appears to be processed or have any types of preservatives in it. You literally have to put bread in the refrigerator because it will go bad sitting on the counter.

Other than the cost of living, and being away from those that I love and can confide things in, everything has been going great. I have made some really good friends here that I plan on keeping in touch with after we get home. While Australia is beginning to get better, there are still the small things from home that I miss: popcorn, nachos, my dog, wings, driving, the motorcycle, and, yes, mom and dad and the rest of the fam. :) It was really good to finally be able to Skype with mom and dad yesterday, since I have not seen them for a month and only been able to fbook chat. Mom went a little crazy and started screaming into the mic though so that kind of hurt... While part of me really misses home, the other part of me wants to make Australia the time of my life and I plan on doing that. One thing I have to look forward to now is a trip to New Zealand from April 2-12. I will be there about two days before the rest of my group and a day later so hopefully there'll be some time for a little on my own exploration. As of now, the only thing we know for sure is that we will be flying into Christchurch, on the south island, and we will be renting a camper-van for 7 days as we travel around the island. Hopefully it is a fun trip that will aid in breaking up the monotony of going to class during the week. I will try and do better at keeping this updated; it just gets hard between class and work and going into the city and all that. I realize people are interested in what is going on and I do not want to feel as though I am letting y'all down by not keeping this updated. I hope everything is good on the home-front, if the grandparents read this then thank you for the cards and letters you have sent-it really means a lot to hear about what is going on.

Well it is about time to get ready for class at 10:00. It will be 7pm eastern time when I am in class, just to give you a little aspect of the time difference. The plan is to go to a rugby game tonight so hopefully I will get some cool pictures to post on fbook of that. Good-bye all, I am doing well and hope y'all are the same in the states.