Here I sit in North Ryde, NSW at a sandwich shop that has free wireless internet access. How about that, something that's actually free in this country. Who knew. Things are going okay. I think I bottomed out about 45 minutes ago, but things are looking up again. I think I'm just a bit on information overload. We had our last day of orientation today and we got all our timetable information and all that. Basically they've just been telling us a ton of stuff we need to do and after a while it just gets a bit overwhelming. Like, I fully should have gone to the head of English today to ask him a question and I still could I guess, except I don't have his name with me and honestly I just don't think I have the strength left to get anything else done. I got my ID card, my health care card, made sure my address was right in the uni system, started on getting my ISIC...and I think that's enough for one day.

I feel like I've been doing nothing and everything all at the same time. Orientation can be so slow and it's something to do, but ultimately not much. Everyone just feels like they're hanging in the balance right now. I'm craving routine. Got that everyone, I actually want school to start. I can't wait for school to start. I can't wait to have a schedule and go to class and have lunch breaks and go to student life and just try to settle in. Nothing is settling right now. Everything is up in the air. And the uni doesn't help with this. Yesterday they took us out to Luna Park, which is a lame sorta amusement park right on the Harbour. Lame but still fun. So they give us all (hundreds of us) a ride out, but don't tell us how to get back! And tomorrow they're doing the same thing at a footy game, though I asked this time so at least I know in advance that I'll have to improv my way home! Don't they think we have enough stress in our lives right now. Honestly, we're transitioning to another country and culture. I know things will be difficult and we need to have adventures and find our way on our own...but just give us a damn bus back.

Enough of the vent. Things really are okay. Roommates are fine, I have a group of people right now that I can chill with. They all live in my complex and they're American. I do and don't like that. It's good that we can all support each other and understand what everyone is feeling and what we're used to. But I don't want to hang out with just Americans. I can do that at home. But I keep reminding myself that this is just now, and as school starts and I get involved in stuff at Uni I'll be meeting more Australians. And really, I already know more Australians than the rest of the group I'm hanging out with combined. So what if I already knew them before I came?

There's so much more floating around my mind but I just can't process everything right now. And I think a lot of it is along the lines of vent paragraph and I just don't want to go there. During orientation yesterday they talked about culture shock and it's various stages. First was a high, which they labeled enchantment. Next was an extreme low, which they labeled disenchantment. Despite the past hour, I'm probably still in the enchantment stage. The other stage probably won't hit until I hit mid semester and have all this school work coming up and all I want to do is cry. Or maybe not. Let's try to be optimistic here. But really, I know the crash is coming. And I know an entire series of highs and lows are still to come, but that's just going to be life here. I'll love it anyway though, and I wouldn't trade this chance for anything. So this is me, picking myself up by my bootstraps (so to speak) and saying "keep on keeping on." God's gonna get me there. I'd appreciate your prayers. And I know I have so many of them already because I can tell the difference. Thank you. Until then...

Just a quick one to say I'm here and moved in and all that. Orientation starts tomorrow with a BBQ and tours of the campus and those sorts of things. I've yet to meet my roommates, as both times I've been by (and now, to stay) they haven't been here. So odds are they're out for the night in the city or something and I might not even see them until tomorrow. Pretty weird to wake up with a stranger in your house eh? That's all for me, my battery's running low and it's time for me to get off my duff and make some dinner.

My last full day in the United States. I'm 95% packed and I'm feeling pretty good. I felt a bit queasy this morning but that eventually wore off and now I'm just relaxing with the fam. My Grandma's over here too and she's having dinner with us tonight. We're having tacos because I'm going to have serious Mexican food withdrawals over the next couple of months.

I had a pretty good weekend, and it went really fast. Golf and company picnic with my Dad on Saturday, followed by a movie night at one of my friend's house. So I Married An Axe Murderer is the funniest movie. "Heed! Pants! Now!" So many quotable lines. Sunday was my last day at church and pretty cool. I got to talk with a girl I grew up going to youth group with for a while which was great. We don't see each other often at all but it seems whenever we do see each other we're always able to honestly express where we're at. I really like that. That night we saw The Lion King at the Orpheum in San Francisco. It was absolutely incredible. One of the most amazing things I've ever seen. It was enough to bring me to tears during the opening number. It was just incredibly beautiful, and I can't wait to see more performances in Sydney. The Barber of Seville is going to be amazing.

So that's all really. That's all...yeah right. Tomorrow this blog becomes very literally "leaving it behind." I would appreciate prayers as I'm embarking on almost 24 hours of travel tomorrow morning. I'm feeling fairly confident with a pinch (or more) of dread as well. I'm just going to have to buck up and stick it out. So I guess next time you hear from me I'll be on the south end of this planet. Latah mates.

Okay so I'm really antsy and worked up right now because everyone I know is either asleep or not home and I just want to call someone up and say, "What in the heck is up with my day?" but I can't. And that makes me angry and feel unresolved and now I can't go to sleep. But seriously, what is up today? It's just been such a weird day. Lots of bad things. Not horrible, just weird bad things that have left a foul taste in my mouth. Let us start at the beginning.

Today I went to work to pick up my paycheck. There was supposed to be a BBQ. I show up; no one's at the BBQ. Turns out they moved the BBQ to yesterday. No problem. On to probably the worst news of the day: finding out my grandma rode on a Greyhound 24 hours all the way to Idaho to miss her class reunion by a day because she either got told or had the wrong date. It was already bad enough that she had booked this horrible bus ride without telling us...but the fact she missed the main meeting. Talk about a pit in your stomach feeling. Next weird happening: on my way out to camp tonight there was an accident 30 seconds from my house. They just put in a new stop sign at an intersection and obviously someone ran right through it. Yeah, glad we've made that intersection safer. Last weird happening...on my way home from camp I encounter yet another accident. Fireman tells us after a while that they're moving traffic and it will be about five more minutes. Cool. Ten minutes later. Nothing. Another few minutes, the other side of traffic gets to go. Do we get to go? No. I have no idea why. So about half an hour after I'd first gotten there I finally get to go, and they way they have us go isn't even blocked by anything and I'm thinking, "so why didn't we just go up this road half an hour ago?" I'm not sure. But the accidents just kinda freaked me out. Seriously I think I've encountered one accident like that in my life EVER. Then today on both sides of the same trip I encounter two? What's going on here. What is up with today? I am so glad that it's now tomorrow.

Wow folks a week from tomorrow guess where I'll be headed? Things are coming up fast and I can hardly believe it. I half practiced packed today. I got all the way through my clothes and shoes and decided I had enough room that I should be fine when it comes time to really pack. I fit all my clothes and shoes in my amazing duffel bag ($24.95) so with another bag of my choice to bring I think things will work out nicely. And I figure I'm already not going to be able to carry everything anyway, so it doesn't matter how big my luggage is anymore. It's one of those carts for me all the way.

I have a story from yesterday. It's a cool God story. I told it to the campers last night and they really thought it was cool, and on my way home I realized I had left out a minor but cool detail, so I want to tell the story again! Plus it's just a good one. Each night for the past two weeks I've been driving out to this camp to lead worship. I live about 15 minutes away, and basically where I start driving is where the road gets curvey and somewhat dangerous. So I'm driving out there at about 9pm each night, so it's dark and not the best conditions for driving on a windy road. Sometimes as I leave I say a quick prayer for God's protection as I drive. Last night I happened to do so, and I was on my way. Not too far into my drive I got behind a car who was going a bit slower than I would. Probably only 3-5 mph, so it was enough to slow me down but not so much to drive me crazy. I remember thinking, "well this is good, this car will pace me and give me better visibility etc." After five to ten more minutes of driving we were on a somewhat straight stretch of road, and all of a sudden a fawn starts crossing the road. The car in front of me hit their brakes, and I hit mine. We didn't have to hit them hard and the fawn made it across the road and we were safe as well. Then I thought, "well what if I'd been going a few miles per hour faster...would I have hit that fawn? Would I have been able to stop? Would I have missed it completely?" I don't know, but I took it as God's answer to prayer last night. Here's the part I forgot to tell the campers. The car turned on literally the very next street after this incident. So the car was in front of me to pace me up until the deer, then it turned right after the whole thing. Yeah. God story. That's what I'm talking about.

I'm in a weird mood. AL is kicking butt in the All-star game. HOORAY! Leah if you read this please call me. Late.

God is good. He answers prayer, even the little ones. Just wanted to say that. This weekend we're moving my sister back home. My Mom and I are leaving in about 15 minutes and we're going to help her clean the house today, then tomorrow my Dad comes with the truck and we're bring it all home. Tonight I get to see two of my closest friends from school and I'm very excited. It's been a secret from one of them, and I've had the hardest time not getting all excited about it when I've talked to her on the phone. I can't wait to see them tonight. Pray I don't get lost. I'm out until tomorrow night.

Well, unfortunately I haven't grown since my last post, but I'll let you know if anything changes. In other news, I've had a nice, long weekend. We spent most of Saturday emptying out and painting my sister's bedroom, and we spent the evening of the fourth putting it back. We drove out to see my cousin's new house about 45 minutes away and had a nice afternoon there with some family. It went much better than I expected. Generally this is a part of the family we don't see too much (for a reason) but Sunday was really great and it was good to have some time with them. Yesterday was spent doing practically nothing. I was supposed to be in Monterey visiting a few friends, but things kinda fell through. Okay, actually I cancelled. Long story. So I declared yesterday paperwork day and spent some time getting ID documents together and scanning and making copies and those sorts of things. So now I have most if not all of my documents ready to go.

I had this realization about Australia last night. I've been so busy thinking of all the changes and about moving and packing and all those things that I'd sort of forgotten about school. Well, I didn't forget about it, but last night I realized that my summer is almost over. I'm going back to school in a few weeks, and summer doesn't come again for a long time. That hadn't really crossed my mind before. Granted, this is probably going to be so different and challenging and at the same time not challenging (in terms of hours in class) that it's not really going to feel like school. Then again, I will be writing papers. With weird spelling. That's going to be odd. Organized. That's incorrect spelling, isn't that weird?

Today I was running some errands with my mom and we had to go to this luggage store because this piece came off of one of our bags so she wanted to get it fixed. So as we're walking out of the store we see this huge duffel bag that they have sitting right by the door. It caught both our eyes and it had a sale tag on it, so we decided to take a look. We flipped it over and low and behold $24.95! I was seriously expecting something more around three digits. We checked it out, kept looking at each other in amazement, and eventually figured there was nothing to lose. So now I have this great, humongous duffel bag which I'm really excited about. Maybe that's lame but I've sorta been stressing about packing. This is going to make things a lot easier. Now I'm just going to be careful to spread out the weight so it doesn't get too heavy. I think that's all for now.

Whoa exciting news everyone! I am 5' 6 1/2"! I've actually grown since high school! I always said I was 5' 6" and figured I was probably stretching it, but I've grown almost 3/4" since junior year of high school! This is very exciting to me.