Bittersweets...

I can’t believe this semester is over already. In less than 48 hours, I will be boarding a plane to leave Australia. These past few days have been very surreal – I’m not exactly sure what to think or how to feel. Everything just seems so…strange. It still doesn’t seem real that I’m actually in Australia let alone getting ready to leave it after a four-month stay.

I came to Australia thinking this country would be pretty much the same as what I’ve been used to back home (except for the cool accents of course). I was mentally prepared for the language, the hot weather (which I surprisingly didn’t get to experience until the last week or so…), the greener lifestyle, and being the butt-end of a lot of jokes just because I’m American. What I wasn’t expecting was all of the different cultures I’d experience while being here. I wasn’t expecting to hear so many different languages or see so many different faces just walking down the street near my home. I wasn’t expecting to be the whitest person riding the bus or train at any given moment. I wasn’t expecting to feel in the minority in such a westernized culture. But most of all, I wasn’t expecting to walk away from this experience with the most important thing I’ve learned be about cultures and social injustices…

The only reason I chose to come to Australia over other countries was the simple fact that Wesley Institute has an art/graphics program; however, God wanted me here for a much different reason. Being in Australia wasn't about art at all (I hardly learned a thing graphically); rather, it was about learning something much more valuable - the importance of embracing differences, of asking hard questions, and of looking at things from a multitude of different perspectives. Because of Australia, I’m much more aware of my own assumptions towards minority groups, the Church, and towards myself. Allow me to present to you a little analogy… Before coming here, I often looked at life through a pair of binoculars – everything was close-up, but I never truly saw much of the whole picture. Now, however, I have a wide-angle lens in my back pocket. This new lens allows me to see more of what’s actually around me, the culture and the injustices among many other things. However, this lens doesn’t give me the focused gaze of the binoculars. This is why both lenses are needed, each to be used in their own turn.

Another concept I learned is that having identity and having roots are very important. I think a lot of people (including myself) get caught up in the ‘nomadic’ lifestyle – lots of travel, always wanting to see new places, experience new things, never really wanting to call any particular place home or get too invested in those around me. This type of lifestyle isn’t really nomadic though - it’s more monadic. A nomad is a member of people who have no permanent home – a member of people. Their roots are in their people. A monadic is a lone traveler. They have no people. They have no home either. Especially in the western culture, this idea of a monad is very real, although the term nomad often masks it. No wonder so many people are lonely. No wonder suicide rates are so high. No wonder so many marriages fall apart, so many lives are fractured. This picture of a monad is infecting our minds. We try to do everything ourselves. We try to go through life proving that we can survive on our own – we’re too strong to need anyone else, too strong to need community. But this is such a lie. Satan has a foothold in so many lives because of this mindset. I’ve felt it before, I’ve struggled with this idea. So what do we do? How do we fight this when we live in a world where our past is forgotten and or community is fractured? Relationships are lost, and life is a lonely existence at times as a result. All I can say is that we all have a story, and we all have a history. Explore it, and share it with one another. It’s only by digging in deep to the community around us that we’ll ever truly feel a sense of joy and purpose. God created us to journey through life together, never alone.

After this experience and after all of the traveling I’ve been blessed to do this past year, all I want to do now is stay in one place for a while. I want to put down a few roots and really invest myself in the culture that’s already around me, the culture I often overlook. Because I’ve been away from the American lifestyle for an extended period of time, it has allowed me to take a more critical view of what my life has really been like – the ideas and values I hold, stewardship, etc. It’s allowed me to gain a deeper appreciation for the life God's blessed me with, the life He’s offered me to enter into. So where am I going to go from here? What’s the next destination for me? That’s easy – home. I’m so excited to see what adventures await me in America.

All that’s left to say is that I hate goodbyes. I really hate goodbyes. But I also can’t wait to see all of you again!! Life is full of bittersweets...

Flutag and the Neighborhood...

the biggest burger of my life (i reckon it was a lot bigger in real life. honest!). it's got an angus beef patty, thick slices of bacon (the real stuff, not the fake crispy american version), lettuce, tomato, cheese, bbq sauce, egg, pineapple, and beetroot (LOVE beetroot. it's nature's candy). that combination sound a bit odd to you? trust me, it's amazing...

the city skyline behind the Red Bull Flutag (German for "day of flight) event in the harbour. what's a flutag event? well, it's where a group of four (usually men) make a homemade man-powered flying contraption to launch off of a 6 m deck into the harbour. most of them nose-dived. it was hilarious (especially the part where they dressed up in funny costumes and did weird dances for the performance part of the judging score...). look it up on google if you want more info...

this one was a cadillac cow car that exhausted orange smoke. it was pushed and "driven" into the harbour by the four "fat elvises"....

this one (called the "crotch rocket" fashioned after the australian budgie smuggler) actually got a little bit of distance. the record of 63 meters was set in minneapolis when they held the flutag event last year i believe. however, none of the australian aircrafts got even remotely close to this record....

I realize it's a little late for this, but welcome to my humble abode. this is Gail's apartment complex where I've been living at these past four months...

view of the gym/tennis courts/pool/sauna area that's opposite our building...

here's our veranda. we're on the ground floor...

a typical scene around the neighborhood. lots of trees, bushes, and power-lines..

annnnd here's Wesley Institute. yes, this is pretty much the campus in it's entirety. the student center is the little building in the middle. i'm taking the photo from the veranda outside the library...

and here's the opposite side of the campus. the library is on the left and the theatre/chapel is straight ahead. dance studios, music rooms, and some theology classrooms i believe are on the right...

these are my favorite trees. the purple blossoms are just lovely...

If I didn't already mention it, the flutag event was this past Sunday afternoon. Do you know what else was this past Sunday? Free slurpie day at 7-11!! Since Australians put the day in front of the month when they're writing out the date, Sunday happened to be 7/11... which translated into free slurpies for everyone! After the slurpies, a group of us went to the Hillsong Live Album Recording concert in the city. That was free as well :) So basically when the next live Hillsong album is released, I'll be on it. If you listen real carefully, you'll probably hear me clapping (and maybe even the occasional holler as well...). It was a great way to spend my last official Sunday in Australia. In fact, I think it ended up being my favorite Sunday spent in the land of Oz...

Rotten Eggs...

This will probably be one of my last posts - perhaps they’ll be one (or mayyybe two) more after this if you’re lucky =). Anyway, I just want to say thanks for reading these. I hope they’ve been both enjoyable and informative (with a little bit of humor of course). On Sunday, November 14^th I’ll be boarding a plane to leave Australia. Leave Australia….that’s such a weird concept to think about. Australia has become my new reality because I’ve lived here for the past four months – life back home seems more like a dream, a distant memory to some degree. Even talking with friends and family from home doesn’t always seem real. I’m sure once I return home, Australia will feel like the dream. Either way, I hope they’re both dreams I never forget.

I’m not quite sure how I feel about leaving. On one hand, I’m very excited to get to New Zealand and then return home; but I also get very melancholy when I think about leaving this country and these people who I have become close to (especially my host mum – she’ll always be my Australian mom). Whenever a Qantas plane flies overhead, I experience heaps of different emotions – happiness, sadness, anxiousness…. It’s time for me to go though. I have no doubt about that. This has been one of the best experiences of my life – it’s definitely been hard, but it’s also changed my life for the better. Australia has altered the way I look at things, the way I see situations and events, the way I go about my daily life, and how I see other people. It’s all a bit hard to explain at the moment, but if you’re interested (and have heaps of time) ask me about it sometime. I’d be more than willing to share it with you.

Anyway, next on the horizon for me is New Zealand. I’m so incredibly excited for this. We all have a week yet of “class” once we hit Kiwi soil – a week of experiencing and participating in the Maori culture that is. Sounds like a pretty good class, eh?

November 20^th brings about the official end to my study abroad experience. After that, I will be flying to the South Island of New Zealand for a 19 day adventure tour – lots of hiking, cycling, sleeping in tents, glaciers, kayaking, rafting, maybe some skydiving… The South Island is where all the action is. If you didn’t know, New Zealand is home to extreme sports. It’s actually the birthplace of a lot of them, including bungee jumping and zorbing (look up zorbing sometime on google if you’re bored. It’s quite hilarious). Did you know the first person to ever summit Everest was a New Zealander – Sir Edmund Hillary. Also, Sir Edmond Hillary was the first person to drive a vehicle to the South Pole – he drove there on an old Ferguson tractor nonetheless. These people are intense, and they definitely have a love for sport! After all, they were originally a warrior culture…

Here are a few interesting things about New Zealand that you may not already know:

-New Zealand is also known as Aotearoa – it’s the Maori name for this small country. The Maori culture is very much a vital part of everyone’s day-to-day life in New Zealand. It’s an example of how things could have gone had relations between Native people and white settlers been different in places such as America and Australia. Here, there’s more of a unity and mutual respect/love for each other. The Maori language is even equal to English.

- Auckland, one of the most well known cities here, is only about 7 miles wide. In those 7 miles you can find almost 50 volcanoes.

-New Zealand is home to 90 million sheep and 4 million people… (I love that statistic, by the way. It’s probably my favorite).

-3 main fault lines converge right through New Zealand – that’s why they have so many volcanoes, mountain ranges, earthquakes, and dramatic changes in landscape.

-New Zealand is known for its black sand. Beware: you MUST wear shoes when walking on this sand – it’s crushed lava and will give you blisters if you’re not careful.

-There are no major mammals here – they’re all birds. A lot of them are huge (the Moa was about the size of a giraffe, but it’s extinct now…sad). Most of these can’t fly. When you think about it, there’s really no reason to fly anywhere because New Zealand is so small. Oh, and the Kiwi is the only bird with nostrils at the tip of its beak…

-You may smell rotten eggs when you’re near Rotorua in the North Island. Don’t be fooled though - it’s due to all of the sulfur from the hot springs. There probably aren’t any eggs involved.

On December 9^th, I’ll be making my way back up to the North Island to join my parents for a few days. I’m not entirely sure what we’ll be doing, but hopefully it will involve some volcanoes/thermal springs, glowworm caves, and more Maori culture. I’m not exactly sure which part of my New Zealand trip I’m most excited about - jumping out of a plane in the South Island or hanging out with my parents in the North. Seriously, it’s a toss up. December 17^th is the day I’ll officially return home to the States with my parents in tow, just in time for the Christmas season. I’ll only be home for about three weeks though before my final semester at IWU begins January 11^th…

By the way, can you believe it’s already November! It seems especially weird for me because it’s transitioning into summer over here. Where’s the cold weather? the snow? What happened to fall? I missed my favorite season… Random fact: After all of this is over, I will have spent half of my year in the Southern Hemisphere (Mozambique, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand) and half in the Northern Hemisphere. That’s crazy! All I can say is I’m ready to be in one familiar place for a while! Enough of all of this traveling.

Madonna's Bra, Beaches, and Old Folk...

The Seven Bridges Walk...

Here's a map of the entire route (almost 18 miles). Canada Bay (on the far left) is close to where I live...)

The view from one of the bridges we crossed. The city was our starting point...

This is the ANZAC Bridge (short for Australia New Zealand Army Corps.). It's more affectionately known as the Madonna's bra bridge...

All of us on Madonna's bra...

View of the Harbour Bridge from the road...

View of the city from the Harbour Bridge...

Harbour Bridge architecture...

The Australian Hotel - it's now a restaurant in the Rocks (and the place where I tried the kangaroo and emu pizza)...

The Bondi to Coogee Beach walk (3 km)...

Australian "bowling" we saw along the way...

Fish cleaning station at one of the mini beaches (this one's for you Jay and Shannon)...

I love the signs they have on their rubbish bins...

See the signs saying no dogs. See the little dog in between the signs saying no dogs...

I loved the colors of the water - that's what I thought the Great Barrier Reef would look like...

Bondi Beach...

Bianca, me, and Ange on the walk...

us again...

I had my last service placement day at Saint Mary's Villa on Nov. 28th. It was a bit sad to say goodbye. I'm going to miss a few of them...

Meet Filomena. She was my service placement supervisor at Saint Mary's (she's also the one who took us out for BINGO at a club early on in the semester). And in case you're wondering what the big gold horseshoe is doing in the photo...last week was the Melbourne Cup - it's only the biggest horse race in Australia. Pretty much everything halts during that time so everyone (even school kids) can watch the race...

This is Paolina. She speaks mostly Italian but knows a little English. In fact, quite a few people at Saint Mary's speak English as a second language - it was kind of cool.

Tricia and me taking a photo with all of the walkers outside the chapel (it was time for the communion service)...

Budgie Smugglers and Other Interesting Things...

Here’s something I don’t quite understand. They have prices such as $14.99, $19.99, and $127.23, but they don’t have any pennies. Every time you purchase something that’s not a multiple of 5, you lose a few cents. $29.99 really means $30 – that’s just plain false advertising.

The Australian dollar is the strongest it’s been in the past 27 years – it’s practically equal to the U.S. dollar now. Go figure…the semester I choose to study in Australia the exchange rate would be about equal. Oh well.

Lawyers are called solicitors here.

As the temperature continues to increase, the amount of little geckos and giant snails increases as well. Seriously, these are the largest snails I’ve ever seen. They just wander around the sidewalks in the morning. There’s one that I always pass in the exact same spot on my way to school. I like to think it’s the same snail :) Since I’m on the topic of snails…they have a carnivorous species here. That’s probably one type of snail you don’t want crawling on your hand, just saying. Oh, and speaking of carnivores - back in the day Australia used to have giant carnivorous kangaroos.

They have incredibly huge bats here. They’re like oversized guinea pigs with bat wings that come out at dusk. I love it. They’re especially plentiful in Cairns by the Great Barrier Reef – hundreds and hundreds of oversized rodents flying overhead.

Spring has brought with it an array of different blossoms. As I walk to school, I come across a multitude of flowers with just as many pleasant fragrances to match, some of them familiar but most foreign. There’s one particular tree that is in bloom right now – it has the loveliest purple buds. Gorgeous. And I’m sure you’ve all heard of the birds of paradise plants – their flowers are quite unusual, and they’re all over the place here. They’ve been flowering since we got here mid-winter, and it never gets old to see them around (although I still always think they look fake). Speaking of odd flowers, there’s this one type of lily called the gymea lilly that can stand up to 20 FEET tall (I posted a picture of it a bit earlier). It looks like something that’s straight out of Jurassic Park… Actually, a lot of things here look pretty darn prehistoric.

Most Australian yards are packed with flowers, small bushes, and miniature trees, which means there’s hardly any grass to mow (it depresses me a bit actually. I like to mow. I like to mow a lot). However, those that do have lawns big enough to trim usually do so with an electric mower. I’ve never seen anyone mow his/her lawn with a push mower that’s plugged in before, but now I can say I have. It was quite the sight – I did a double take the first time.

Some interesting things about the Australian language: when you read an Australian newspaper (or anything printed in Australia for that matter), you’ll notice that they randomly decide to switch out z’s for s’s…realize is spelt realise, analyze is analyse, criticize is criticise, etc. Here are a couple other odd spellings that always catch me off guard whenever I see them: tires = tyres, pajamas = pyjamas. When Australians speak, they tend to drop off r’s except for when they say the word idea. For whatever reason, they decide to tag on an r to the end of it = idear. I’ve never heard them do this to any other word, just this one. Kind of interesting.

Whenever students dress up the statue of John Wesley on IWU’s campus, those in power shake their heads in disproval. However, if IWU were in Australia, this is an activity that might actually be encouraged. For the past month, Sydney has dressed up its statues/monuments/memorials in ridiculously looking outfits. Why you might ask?...I have no idea. There’s probably somewhat of a “good” reason behind it all, but I like to think they just decided to add a bit of humor to the streets one day.

Since the weather is practically perfect for going to the beach (minus all the rainy days we’ve been getting…), I’ve spent a few afternoons chillin’ near the ocean or walking along the coast. Yesterday (Saturday) a few of us did a 3 km coastal walk between Bondi and Coogee Beach - saw some pretty amazing scenery and happened to spot a couple whales hanging out off the coast as well! That was awesome. One thing that wasn’t so awesome though was seeing all of the budgie smugglers. Let me educate you a bit on the Australian ‘budgie smuggler’…basically it’s a speedo. It seems to be mostly a generational thing, an older generational thing that is. Typically, you’ll see most of the old men sporting the budgie smuggler. Not exactly the most pleasant thing ever. It’s kind of awkward actually. I’m going to stop talking about it now.

The Sydney Opera House seems to be a good topic to switch to. Last weekend they had an “open day” at the Opera House, which meant we got to walk around the place for FREE. Practically nothing is free in Australia, so when something like this comes along, we definitely try to take advantage of it. The "open day" was really awesome though – we got to walk through the different halls/theatres and snoop around backstage a bit. Quite interesting. They even had mini performances in the different halls – a lady singing an opera song in the opera hall, someone playing the organ in the HUGE concert hall, a sound check/voice performance in the drama theatre, an acrobatic show in the studio… I think overall I spent about 3 hours exploring the place. I do want to say one thing though – I think the Opera House is very overrated. In fact, I think it’s kind of ugly. Even though I think it’s odd looking, it doesn’t lessen the fact that I still wanted to see a show there. This past Wednesday night, Bianca (my roomie) and I went to see an evening showing of Our Town. Loved it! Even the fake American accents were good. Our Town is separated into three acts that pretty much follow the stages of life: childhood, marriage, and death. The last act was my favorite – it commented on how humans are troubled beings who go through life never truly seeing (or taking the time to see) what’s right in front of them. A very thought-provoking play indeed.

Since today is Halloween, a few of us decided to do a 28.5 km (almost 18 mile) walk supporting the fight against breast cancer to celebrate the holiday – it was called the Seven Bridges Walk because, like the title says, it took us over seven different bridges in the Sydney/suburbs area. Two of the major bridges were, of course, the Sydney Harbour Bridge (which is about 3/4 mile long in itself) and the ANZAC Bridge (aka “Madonna’s Bra” Bridge – I’ll make sure to post a photo of this bridge so you can see why they refer to it as this). The walk was great – took us through the city, some residential areas, and even had a few kilometers of bushwalking (aka hiking). It only took us 5 ½ hours to complete it – long day but well worth it in the end.

I have exactly two weeks left in Australia. Two weeks. That’s it. I can’t believe it – it’s gone by so fast. Honestly, I’m ready to leave Australia, yet I still have mixed feelings about it. Australia has sort of become my new reality – I’ve been here for so long and have gotten so used to how life is here that I’ve found myself beginning to forget what life was like back home. It almost feels like my home is just a dream world right now – even talking to my friends/family seems somewhat unreal. I’m sure once I return home, Australia will seem like the dream. As far as readjusting to the States goes, I think I’ll have a fairly hard time. For one thing, having my car back and all of the freedom that will bring will be a definite shocker. I’ve become so accustomed to limitations and having to plan (and wait) in order to get anywhere or do anything. Another thing will be trying to process and make sense of everything that’s happened here – all of stuff I’ve learned about cultures, social justice, and myself.

Well, I guess that’s it for now. Happy Halloween everyone!! In case you’re curious, Halloween isn’t that big here. A few people get into the holiday, but most just see it as the end of October. Not much trick-o-treating here!