Only One More Week of Class

May 30 9:45am

Sunday morning here in Brisi, and with it comes church. I awoke slightly (1 hour) before my alarm was set to go off this morning so, rather than just lay in bed, I got up, made a spot of tea, and had breakfast. I then checked the news for a while and I decided that I would update my blog before we leave at 9:50.

Last night was interesting. I was in the library when I get a call from my roommate Justin and he said there was someone who just rang our buzzer who said he was a friend of my family. I had no idea what he was talking about, as far as I knew, there was no one living in Brisi that my family knew, but he said there was someone here who said they came looking for me and that I should come back straightaway. So I practically ran all the way back from campus, thinking to myself who on earth this could be. For a fleeting instant, I had a vision that it was someone from the courts here to subpoena me for some unknown reason. When I got back, there was someone sitting in our dining room, and I still had no idea who it was. Once we got to talking, I found out that he and his wife had met Jerry and Sharon Ryan and their family when they were living in New Zealand a year or two ago. Now that I actually had some background information, things got better and I finally understood how this guy knew who I was and where I lived. We talked at our place for a few minutes, and then he said his wife was cooking dinner and I was welcome to come back with them if I wanted to. By now I was rather interested, so I went back to their house where I met his wife. It was a nice evening; we talked about New Zealand for a while and all the glorious wonder of that beautiful country, and then they showed me some pictures of Jerry and Sharon and other people that they knew while they were there. Dinner consisted of BBQ chicken, pumpkin, potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, gravy, and a veggie mixture. Dessert was apple pie (I think but I’m not sure) and ice cream. For a minute, I imagined I was at Granny’s during the summer months, and had to take a few minutes to think about all the people back home (and all the pie I would have access to upon my return). We talked for a while longer after dinner, where we had tea and chocolate and just spent a little more time getting to know each other. It really is amazing how small the world is. When I went to college, one of my now best friends used to grow up watching Buckeye’s games at my cousin’s, cousin’s house, and now, in Australia, I meet someone who met a family from tiny Holmes County in New Zealand. It really is remarkable the people you can meet by venturing outside what you have always known. So, continuing on, after tea they drove me back home, with a parting gift of a raspberry tart I think you would call them, and well wishes for the coming weeks as I finalise my time here in Australia. And so also, I went from thinking I was going to court, to having a fantastic evening with Laurie and Jeanette Parkinson.

This week also marks the final week of classes for me down here in Australia, and the final week before Brett gets here. I will only have two tutorials to go to this week, one where I will get a paper back and the other where I have a quiz. My Thursday classes are both done and over with so I’m not showing up to those. Saturday we will then head down to Gold Coast, and Sunday, Brett’s Australian adventure will begin with a flight to Sydney. I am still not entirely sure what we will be doing in Sydney; with such a short time, I imagine we will spend most of our time just taking in the city and visiting the Sydney Opera House. I know that is the one thing we will do, because what else do you think of when you think of Sydney but an opera house? Next Tuesday, we will fly back to Brisi and then Wednesday morning we fly to Melbourne. I have a little bit better idea of what I want to do down there, as I have already been there once and look forward to going again. The only problem is, it was rather chilly down there when I went five weeks ago, so it can only be colder now. I have a feeling it will be worth it; however, and Brett and I will have a car and drive Great Ocean Road for approximately a day and a half to two days, ending in Mt. Gambier before taking the inland highway back to Melbourne, where, luckily, I know all the cool stuff to see and there are also some things I did not get to do last time that I look forward to doing this time. In 21 days time, Brett and I will be making our way to the airport one final time, only that time, we will not be heading back to Brisbane. There is so much to say on the matter, but I do not believe there is any way to put it into words. It is mostly a lot of feeling and emotion, but I am determined to make the next three weeks be as enjoyable as possible, not worry about the small stuff, enjoying the little things, taking part in the big things, all the while looking forward to seeing my friends and family again.

26 Days and Counting...

May 25 1:45pm

Ok so it’s been a little while since my last post, but things have been kind of busy and I just now finally got some time to sit down and reflect on what has been going on. The past week I have had three papers to write, so things have been a lot calmer school-wise over the past few days. I had the apartment mostly to myself over the weekend, and everything was very quiet. It was weird not having all my friends here, but at the same time it was nice just to have a quiet relaxing weekend. Friday or Saturday, I can’t really remember at this point, there was an awesome thunderstorm during the evening. One of those thunderstorms that make you just want to sit out on the porch and watch the lightening and the rain and listening to the sound of the rolling thunder. Seeing the lightening flashing off the downtown skyscrapers was really cool, and then watching the clouds rolling out as the rain died down. Saturday morning, one of the guys from church got married and I was invited so I went. It was right on campus just off the Great Court so it was an awesome location. It was a little different type of wedding, he is from India and she is from Columbia so that was funny in itself. One thing that was different were these long, flowery, garland type things that they put around each other’s necks. That was an Indian tradition that was incorporated into the wedding, and then they presented both parents with flower baskets and then touched their feet. I’m not sure what it was supposed to represent, but it was one of those cool things that you’d only see at an Indian wedding. Sunday, I got up and went to church, then came back, made lunch, watched a movie, and took a nap. Everyone got back around midnight then.

Sunday marked the beginning of my last four weeks down here in Australia. I really can’t believe I’m inside a month now, time has gone so fast. I’ve been here for over 3.5 months, and have less than 30 days left down here. Coincidentally, today is also day 104 in Australia, out of a total of 130 days. I just cannot grasp the fact that my time here is quickly running out. It’s weird though because 2-3 weeks ago I couldn’t wait to get home. However, things have been getting steadily better, and now I’ve found myself in a bittersweet situation. On one hand, I’m really starting to enjoy my time here again, but on the other hand, time is winding down so I know I’m almost home and that idea is also very rewarding. All I can do is make the best out of these last four weeks. Just two more weeks of class, including this one, then Sydney and Melbourne in one week with Brett and then back here so I can study for my psych final, then leaving for home two days after my final exam. That really puts things in perspective. I’m sure though that the morning of 20 June will be a good one for me. We’ll head to the airport at around 7:30 to get there by 8:00 before taking off in the classic Boeing 747 back to the US of A. Huh, well that’s about it. Things have been relatively quiet, and I’m sure will stay that way until 5 June when Brett arrives. Then that next week will be very busy, running around Australia's three biggest cities.

Essay Writing

May 18 8:08pm

Well it is a late Tuesday night and I finally finished my psychology essay. This means that I now have all my essays written that are due tomorrow: 2,500 word anthropology and 1,500 word psychology. The past few days have been extremely exhausting, with long, long hours in the library. I am really looking forward to Thursday afternoon when I’ll be done with all my assessments for the week. Then I’ll only have two more assessments until my final on June 17^th. So after this week, things will hopefully be calmed down school-wise for a little bit, at which point I will return to the books for a few days and review everything from my psych lectures over the semester. Other than that there’s not a whole lot to say I reckon.

Cheers.

Three Weeks till Brett Comes...School Really Takes More Time Than I Was Planning On

May 14 8:23pm

So over the past few days my spirits have genuinely lifted. We did our group project on Thursday and, once again, my question was not chosen. However, I learned my lesson last time and did not do all the work that I put into the last one. Last night, instead of studying for my psychology quiz that I had today, we went to the premier of Robin Hood over at Southbank. In order to compensate for that, I got up and hit the library right after my breakfast of eggs in a basket. I spent the morning going through the possible questions with my notes from the previous lectures and wrote out answers for each of them. Now I’ve heard of people having to skip a class to write a paper for another class, and that is essentially what I had to do today. While I was studying for my psych quiz, the psych lecture was going on at the same time. However, this really is no big deal as all the PowerPoint slides are online and can easily be downloaded and printed off to study on my own. Right now, it’s a Friday night and I’m in the process of working on my Aboriginal essay that is due Wednesday because I also have a psych essay due the same day. Funny thing is, I am currently being sidetracked by an Australian cooking show so hopefully I can get focused here in a bit.

The past few days have been relatively quiet. Casey and I went to our church’s Wednesday night service this week and that was fun. They meet at one of the other churches in Brisbane so we actually worshiped in an actual building rather than the playhouse on campus we normally use on Sundays. I only wore shorts and a t-shirt because Casey told me it was just like a Bible study type deal, but as soon as we walked in I felt underdressed. It really was like a church service just on a Wednesday instead. Everyone else was wearing jeans and whatnot but it was just the idea of being the only one in shorts that stuck to me. I looked at the calendar today and realized that Brett will be here in three weeks. That’s right, three weeks. I believe it was over a month ago when it was confirmed that he was coming for sure, and now it’s down to just three weeks. Consequently, that also means that there are only three weeks of class left down here before we start the three weeks of finals. Of course, I have the opportunity of leaving one week early due to my schedule, so Brett and I will get to fly home from Brisbane-LA-Chicago-Cleveland. I’m sure mom is happy about the fact that we’ll be coming home together, but it also gives me the opportunity to start working a week earlier than I was planning on. So things have been going well, better than they were a week or so ago, and once I get through next Wednesday I’ll feel a lot better having these two term papers off my back. One thing I forgot to mention was the fact that y’all may have it warmer back home right now than we do down here. During the day it is still quite warm in the sun, but in the evening and during the night it has been getting rather chilly. Y’all probably think I’m crazy calling it chilly down here, but after experiencing 30+ degree weather for the past three months has made the current temps feel colder than they actually are. So cheers to you all, enjoy the warm weather, and have a good arvo/morning!

Getting Through and More Fun Facts

May 10 12:50pm

Last night and today have been kind of rough on me. As I went to bed last night, all I could think about were all my assignments that I have to do, including papers, group work, and an individual problem-based exercise. All this within the next week and a half to two weeks. And then I was thinking about what I was going to do with Brett while he’s here, so naturally I had to get out of bed and start looking at my calendar to start figuring some of this out. Now I have two biggish essays to pound out and do a group project this week. Also, on Friday I have a quiz in my psych class that I just now remembered so that is going on as well. It just feels so overwhelming. The papers are really weighing me down too because I do not really care about the topics that I was presented with in either of them. Well, my aboriginal paper is slightly interesting because it deals with politics and government policy, but I can’t stand the aboriginals so that puts a damper on the whole thing. I just want 5 June to come as quickly as possible, and then I’ll get two mini-vacations during revision week. Sunday, Brett and I are flying to Sydney for two days and then flying back to Brisi on Tuesday. Wednesday morning, we have to get the first train out of Toowong to get to the airport so we can fly to Melbourne for four days. Then we come back to Brisi where we’ll have a day or two before I have to start studying for my final, then there are three days after my final where I will have to get everything packed up and ready to go. Well, two days after my final but my final is around noon so two and a half days I guess. And Skyping the parents and grandparents today really made me wish I was home. However, the total days remaining for me is now down to 41, so I’m pretty sure that time will come before I know it and by then I may not want to leave since all the stresses of Australian school will be gone. But we’ll make the best of it because that’s all we can do with the situations God gives us in our lives. “No worries” really takes on a new meaning when looked at from that point of view. God is in control of what is going on in the world and in our lives, and we need to trust him and whatever he has planned for us. So at times like this when I may be worried about these assignments, I need to remember that we have an awesome God who puts challenges in front of us to get us to work with them. I now know that I need to turn my free time into study time, and that I will get through these next two weeks ok. And if it doesn’t go as planned, well, I guess it’s a good thing my grades don’t transfer back. J.

I think I’ll finish off this post with a little more Australian “Fun Facts” for y’all:

• We think the grooves in the sidewalk are to help blind people find their way, along with crosswalks dinging when it’s clear to go
• Queensland is 2x the size of Texas and 5x bigger than Japan
• Lungfish are unique to Queensland – can live on both land and in water
• Queensland was known as ‘man-jinn’ by locals...it means “shaped like a spike”
• Central streets are named after the Royal Family – female names run parallel to Queen Street and male names run perpendicular
• Brisbane’s last census showed 1.7% of Brisbanites came from indigenous origins, while 21.7% were born overseas
• There are 10 road bridges, 3 railroad bridges, and 2 pedestrian bridges crossing the Brisbane River
• Surveys show 75% of Australians believe in God but only 22% will be in church on Sunday
• Australia is the world’s largest exporter of beef and veal
• Wool is the major export and supplies about 70% of wool used in clothing industry
• About 300,000 aborigines lived in Australia in 1788 when the first 11 ships arrived, speaking over 400 languages
• Australians tried to breed out aborigines by taking babies from their mothers to be raised by white families – continued until the 1960’s
• Gave aborigines full citizenship and voting rights in 1967
• Aborigines unemployment rate is over 50% and they are 16x more likely to be in jail than the typical Australian
• Western Australia alone is the size of India
• Australia is the flattest and driest inhabited continent
• Opals are only found in Australia
• People first arrived between 50,000 and 120,000 years ago
• Bachelor parties are referred to as “Buck’s Nights”
• Motto for Anzac Day is “Lest we forget”
• A fire levelled Brisbane in 1864
• Translink (the public transport agency) has a budget is $956 million/year
• Only 200,000 people live in the NT
• Any time you get pulled over, you can be drug tested and breathalysed
• Bush tucker is a term used to ID Aboriginal food
• City Beach is Australia's only inner-city beach
• There have been 37 armed conflicts over water in the past 50 years
• There are only about 150 historians in Australia, and less than half study Australian history
• Story Bridge is named after John Douglas Story, a prominent member of the Queensland Public Service and is nearly half a mile long

Airplanes!

I had to run back to campus this afternoon, and I realized something on my way here that I wanted to put down quick. As most of you probably know, I absolutely love airplanes, and I just realized today that I see them on a regular basis in my day-t0-day life down here in Australia. I mean our location is prime placement for plane spotting, and I even got to see Qantas' Wunala Dreaming fly overhead the other day. How cool that was. I think the plane itself is rather ugly but it's the only one of its kind so it was interesting nonetheless. And on the walk to campus, you can constantly see them in the skies overhead, and during the day it is common to look skyward and see one of the many Virgin Blue or Qantas jets flying overhead. The other day when I was waiting on the City Kitty, I heard a low rumble and over the horizon came a 747 that had just taken off and was making its slow climb to cruising altitude. It looked like I could just reach out and touch it it was so close. Anyways, just an idea I wanted to get out there. I will miss seeing all the different aircraft overhead at different parts of the day.

Turning 21

May 6 3:20pm

Well I woke up this morning after turning 21 and surprisingly feel slightly older. I have not felt this way on any of my previous birthdays, but for some reason this one feels different. Obviously, when I turned 16 and was able to get into a car and drive by myself I felt slightly different/older but only because I was now allowed to legally drive a car. Now, something about me just feels older. Whatever it is, it feels different and I feel as though my life will take a turn now that I wasn’t planning on but with nonetheless bring something different to my life.

As we are now nearly through the first week of May, that means that there are just over 7 weeks left here until my return home (as of now). The final exam schedule comes out tomorrow and I will finally be able to determine the exact date of my flight home. There are pros and cons to having my final that first week of the exam period. The pros are that I would get my final over with, I would be able to fly home earlier, and I may get on Brett’s flight home (as of yesterday there were still 2 seats left on the flight). The con is that I would have to study while Brett is here. Obviously he would be able to go out on his own during the day as Brisi is a safe city, but it would be a slight disappointment if I had to spend time studying while he was here. Unless my final was early that week and then I’d still have a few days worry-free. However, we will be in Melbourne until Saturday of revision week so if my final would be on Monday, I would have one day to study which may not go too well but is something I’ll have to deal with when the time comes. If my final is the second week, I will not have to study when Brett is here, but will mean I stay here longer which wouldn’t hurt but I have noticed that as the time for my return to the States looms, the more I find myself wanting to just get these last few weeks over with and head back home. Skyping my family on my birthday was different too. Seeing everyone there and hearing how much has changed has made me want to be back there. Alas, there are still several school assignments standing in my way, the most cumbersome being 1,500 and 2,500 word papers for Developmental Psychology and Aboriginal Anthropology respectively. Both classes are excruciatingly boring, and the idea of writing these papers for these two classes puts a damper on the fun I’m having but you gotta do what you gotta do.

Other than that, there is not much new going on. Several people are planning on going to Fraser Island within the next week or so, but with my school work coming due I will not be able to go on that trip. That and I would like to save as much money as I can until Brett shows up to make his time here more fun and more worth it.

The Beginning of May Already?

May 3 3:05pm

Is that date right? Is it really May already? I don’t think my calendar has the ability to lie to me so I guess it really is May. Not to mention the third. That means that I turn 21 on Wednesday. Where is time going? Do I feel 21? Not in the least bit. It almost seems surreal. As my birthday approaches, along with the fast approaching end of the semester, I find myself recollecting on what I have done here, how I have changed, and what I still want to do in the short time I have left. The one thing that I want to do, and so far it has worked out, is fly back to Melbourne with Brett and actually drive the Great Ocean Road. When Brett is here, I will be 21, which means I can rent a car finally. The only problem is, in Ohio, your license expires on your 21^st birthday so I will need to figure out some way to renew it while I’m here. We already have the flight booked down so hopefully that will work out because otherwise I’m just going to be hanging out in the city again for four days.

As I said previously, time is getting short, but that also means that my essays are due by the end of the month. These shouldn’t be a problem for me, as pretty much all my assessments back home are papers of some sort, I will just need to apply myself and maybe make the long trek to the library. One is for my Developmental Psychology class and why I think violent video game should be banned in Australia. I did not pick this topic, it is a general topic given to us in our course outlines. And the other one is for my Aboriginal Anthropology class, which is a complete waste of time but necessary nonetheless. I also have two more short essays to do for my poli sci classes, and two more group projects. So all in all, these next four to five weeks will be really busy before Brett gets here so I’m not sure how much time I’ll have to travel until then. Then when Brett gets here, I will not have anything to do that first week, no classes or finals, but the second week he is here is the first week of finals. I’m still not sure when my only final is, so it could be this week or it could be the next week. This is the waiting game I do not like. If I knew when my final was, I could plan out those last few weeks and also determine if I could head home any earlier or not. Alas, I just checked online and the exam schedule comes out this Friday so I’ll know by this weekend when that will be.

Well that pretty much sums up what the plan is for the next month or so till Brett gets here. The last few days have been life as usual here in Brisi. Class Thursday and Friday, and not a whole lot going on otherwise. We were lucky down here and Iron Man 2 came out a week before it did back home, so y’all who are waiting to see it could get the inside scoop if you wanted too.