2/3rds way though...

G'day Mates!

For you regular readers out there (both of you), you should be pleased to know that the Blog you have faithfully been reading is now becoming famous. It made it's first appearance in the press, with many more to come, I'm sure. Here's the link: http://clause.apu.edu/april22/arts_culture/article4.html After the fame I've received from this article, I'm sure there will be some band-wagoner readers (Maybe 1?), but I vow to you original faithful, I won't forget you.

Anyways, I'm officially 2/3rds of my way through my trip. It's weird, Studying Abroad was something I was looking forward to for such a long time. Although coming here this semester came about as a rather last minute thing, I knew I was going to study abroad at some time during my college career since probably my Junior year of high school. Now it's weird to actually be living in something that I have looked forward to for such a long time.

After returning from our Easter Break trip, I went to class for two whole days, and then went out to see more of Australia. During the month of April, I sat in class for a total of three days. Ahh, what a tough life! On Friday the 24th our group of 27 Americans, 3 leaders, and one bus driver departed in search of the "Outback." It was the time of my life! We spent all day Friday traveling, slept in a hotel, traveled most of the Saturday and arrived at Trilby Station Saturday evening. Trilby Station is a sheep farm of 220,000 acres. Because Australia has been going through a severe drought recently, Liz and Gary, the couple that owns the farm decide to expand their revenue stream and opened it to tourists. They had cabins for all of us and Liz cooked absolutely delicious meals. There were very hospitable, welcoming and patient as they continuously answered questions from a bunch of ignorant Americans. We were there Saturday evening, Sunday, Monday and departed Tuesday, arriving back in Sydney Wednesday afternoon. I could easily have spent the rest of my semester in the Outback without any hesitations. It is a land vast beyond description. There are places where if you stand on your tip-toes, and look far enough, you can see the back of your own head. We were staying right by a river, but once you got a little distance away from there, the dirt turned red and it was stunning. Because it was technically class, we did spend some of the time learning about the land, but we also swam, told life stories around the camp fire, went kangaroo chasing, had amazing mud fights, and slept under the stars. While we were there, I also picked up a new addiction: playing Settler's of Catan. The last night we even stayed up until 4 A.M. playing and then woke up at 6:30. But it was worth it because I won the final two games, so I went to bed a happy man!

Last Saturday Charlie, Becca, and I (fellow Americans) went out to Emma's house (the one who generously let me experience my first Australian car accident) and had a great time celebrating her 21st birthday! We spent the night there and after eating a delicious breakfast returned to the city.

Although a few of us spent quite a bit of time together before, during the Outback trip it seemed that the group grew much closer as a whole. As a result, pretty much every night since then a big group of us congregates at someones home stay and we all hang out, watch a movie, play cards, any excuse to spend time together. It truly is a beautiful community.

This weekend the Indigenous film festival is being held at the Sydney Opera House. Friday night many of us went to see (I went to nap through) a series of 8 short, ten minute films. It was definitely one of my favorite times spent in Sydney: being together as a group hanging out, being/napping in the Opera House, and the best part about it was that it was free! As an added bonus, they had an after screening party where they served appetizers and drinks, also free. Woohoo!! Saturday ten of us spent the day at the beach, and then headed back into the city to see more of the film festival that evening.

The rest of the month should be pretty busy with school projects, yuck! Oh wait, that's the whole reason I'm here. Sometimes it's easy to forget, don't tell my Dad! Australian classes are much different than classes in the U.S. College courses in America often are full of busy work, small papers, and many assignments. Here, classes are completely different. In my Romans class, we have three papers due the entire semester. One being 20%, one being 30%, and one being 50% of my grade. In my Theology class we have two exams throughout the course, each worth 25%, and then a paper worth 50%. So there is not as much to keep me busy during the semester, but a lot more effort has to go into the papers, because that is the only thing my grade is based on. It is weird to think that everyone else at APU is already finished for the summer when I'm really just getting into the heart of my projects.

Well since it is 8:45 P.M. here Sunday night and 3:45 A.M. there on Sunday morning it is officially Mother's day both in Australia and in America so, Happy Mother's day Mom! Thanks for bringing me into the world, I guess I should thank Dad too, because it couldn't really have happened without him. Anyways, hope you have a great day, sorry I'm not there to celebrate with you! Love you lots!

Just to put your minds to rest I’m still alive and kicking. Haven’t found the love of my life, I haven’t gotten anything pierced and haven’t injected ink into my body.

Love to all!

-Ben

A Blog or a Book??

<---The five of us: Heather, Jenna, Ben, Sarah, Amy

Well I am officially 66 days into my trip with 59 days left to go until arriving at LAX. I just returned from Easter Break on Saturday (4/18) and it was absolutely amazing. Four other Americans and I went on a trip over most of Australia’s Eastern coast. We were supposed to leave Sydney Airport at 8:10 P.M. on Friday the 3rd, but our plane didn’t wind up leaving until about 10. It was about a three hour plane ride up to Cairns, where we spent the night, and then the next day we drove about an hour and a quarter up to Port Douglas, which was definitely my favorite town I’ve been to in Australia. It is a very quaint, lush, quite, flat, beach town. We spent Saturday wandering around the town and Sunday we went out to the Great Barrier Reef. The Reef was stunning but a little disappointing after seeing all the pictures and how grandiose it was made out to be. I think my expectations were a little bit too high, but nevertheless, the reef was spectacular. Monday we went up to Daintree Rainforest. We went on a few boardwalks through the rainforest, saw where the beach and rainforest meet, but the best part was going to the “Blue Hole,” this little place we were told about by the captain boat that took us to the reef. It’s a small stream that runs through the rainforest and the water gathers at a certain spot, creating a watering hole. The water was spectacularly blue, the bluest water I’ve ever seen. We had it almost exclusively to ourselves; we were there probably 3-4 hours and saw 6 people the entire time. By far my favorite spot we visited!

Tuesday we went back to Cairns, hoped on the Greyhound bus, and started our trip east, back to Sydney. We purchased a bus pass that allowed us to have unlimited stops on our trip from Cairns to Sydney. Our first stop was Mission beach, where we had a seven hour layover. The beach stretches for absolutely miles, as far as the eye can see, beautiful white sand, turquoise water, palm trees, and we passed probably a whopping twenty people. We hoped back on the bus and headed for Townsville, spent the night, and jumped on the fairy to Magnetic Island on Wednesday morning. Spent the day touring Magnetic Island, then hiked about 45 minutes, found an exclusive bay, and pitched camp. The view was stunning, we had a spectacular bay all to ourselves. We went for a night hike, looking for Koalas, because Magnetic Island has the largest concentration of wild Koalas in Australia. Unfortunately, our Koala hunt failed that night and had to be postponed until the next day. Waking up on a island, with your own secluded bay and a beautiful beach just meters away sounds amazing right? Wrong. Okay not really, but it is currently Stinger season in the state of Queensland, with thousands of Jellyfish that can kill you within minutes. So when you go swimming, you either have to wear a wet-suit or a singer-suit. Unfortunately, we had neither, so we weren’t able to enter the water, or at least enter the water and live to tell about it! Anyways, Thursday we went for a hike and stumbled upon a Koala and her baby. What a sight!

Friday we jumped back on the Greyhound and went on an eternal bus ride (26 hours) down to Noosa. We arrived at Noosa around 3 Saturday (in case you’ve lost track, it’s currently the 11th) afternoon and set out to find a church for the next morning, Easter Sunday. We found one a little bit out of town, and found a great spot in the bush were we could pitch our tents just a little bit behind the church. After pitching our tents and going through a stroll through the bush, we decided to head back into downtown. Now the excitement begins (cue dramatic music) As we were waiting at the bus stop, some teenage boys, waiting at the bus stop across the street from us, decided to have some fun at the expense of the Americans. The four boys crossed the street, formed a circle around us, and started swinging their fists. I decided I didn’t really like the shape of my nose; Michael Jackson’s looks much better, so I allowed the bloke to slam his fist into my face. Wasn’t that nice of me? Then I decided I didn’t really like my “I ♥ APU” T-shirt and wanted it turned into a tank top instead. The bloke seemed to read my mind and kindly obliged with my wishes as he grabbed my shirt and ripped a nice hole down one of the sides. Unfortunately, he didn’t finish converting my shirt, as he generously went back to trying to give me reason to reconstruct my nose. Well, by this time, I came to my senses and realized that plastic surgery might be a bit too costly for my budget, so I decided to scratch that plan and beat feet out of there. Not knowing the town, the girls I was traveling with and I just started running, thankfully we soon stumbled upon a convenience store. We called the police and while we were waiting for them to show up, our four lovely friends from the bus stop came in the store just to make sure I was fully satisfied with locations of the rest of my body parts. Although I profusely told them I had to interest in having any more of my face rearranged, they didn’t believe and decided to wait outside for me. Thankfully the police, Constable Ian and Constable Bryce, arrived within 20 minutes or so but by then the want to be plastic surgeons were gone. The police made sure we were okay, asked where we were staying, and after realizing we were staying just down the road in a tent, they tried finding alternative sleeping arraignments. Because Noosa is a very popular tourist destination, and it was Easter, there was no room in the Inn, so we started looking for a stable (it worked for Jesus, right?). The police found a caravan park with some empty space, but Ian offered for us to stay at his house for the night. He called a taxi and sent us home to his Fiancée and two kids. We arrived about 8:30 or so that evening and spent the rest of the night getting to know the family: Ian, Tracy-lee, Cheyenne (16), and Shiloh (13). What a wonderful family!

Sunday morning Tracy-lee drove us to Church, and when we returned home, she said we could stay another night, but only if we eat dinner with them. It was a tough decision, but after giving it all the consideration it deserved (about 3 seconds) we all quickly agreed. That afternoon our group took the kids on a hike through the Noosa Headland and returned to eat Easter dinner with the family. Ian cooked us delicious spaghetti. After dinner, we spent the night fellowshipping around the table, Telling stories, exploring differences and similarities about our countries and lots of time laughing. What an absolutely beautiful experience! Monday our new family dropped us off at the bus station and we went our separate ways with hugs, smiles, and any thanks!!

We went down that evening to Surfers Paradise, spent the night, saw the beach in the morning and departed for Byron Bay, the most easterly point of the Australian mainland, where we spent Tuesday night and Wednesday night and left Thursday. Thursday night and Friday we spent in a small town called Urunga with miles of desolate beaches. We rented a little cabin Thursday night and spent the night relaxing by playing cards and watching Toy Story 1 & 2. Oh the life! We were back into the state of New South Wales, so we were able to swim without having to worry about Jellies! Woohoo! Friday night we hoped on the bus at midnight and arrived back in Sydney at Central Station around 9 Saturday morning. Saturday and Sunday were spent relaxing, going to church and recovering from such a magnificent trip.

One of the highlights of the trip was the food. We all brought peanut butter, jam, and bread, which made up our lunch and dinner and for breakfast we ate dry cereal. For a little bit of variety, we collected coconuts from the beach, pealed them, cracked them, and then indulged! What a treat! Another special food that I tried was jellyfish. The captain, who told us about the Blue Hole, and I were standing at the back of the boat, on the reef, and I was asking him about the Jellies. He dared me to eat one, but I wasn’t that stupid; I waited until he ate one and then I ate one. Delicious!

Well, here are some “Aussie-isms” that Constable Ian taught us.

Useless as an ashtray on a motorbike -- useless
Face like a dropped pie -- ugly
Go off like a frog in a sock -- have a tantrum
Chuck a wobbly -- have a tantrum
Off with the fairies -- a bit vague
Fit as a Male Bull -- buff and strong

Just to put your minds to rest I’m still alive and kicking. Haven’t found the love of my life, I haven’t gotten anything pierced and haven’t placed Ink on my body. Oh, and just in case you were curious, yesterday I finished turning my I ♥ APU t-shirt into a tank-top.

Love to all!

-Ben

Just to put your minds to rest...

Whoops! After posting my blog, I received a message from my wonderful friend Hilary Hall (Thanks!) informing me that I forgot to "put your minds to rest." So, before any rumors get started, I’m still alive and kicking, have not fallen in love, and I don’t have any piercings or tattoos. Also, (Nana, you'll be happy to hear this) I buzzed my head this week, so all the blondeness is gone. Okay, that's a lie, it's more of a mix, there are still blonde remnants sitting atop my head.

Love to all!!

-Ben

The "Big Bang"

A tradition started about a month ago called, “Thursday Nights with Emma.” Emma and Alice are students at Wesley Uni and were some of the first Aussies to welcome us off the plan. They helped orchestrate some of our orientation activities and were very warm and friendly in welcoming us to Wesley. About a month ago we had a movie night at the school and afterwards Alice, Emma, Ty, some others and myself went to 7-11, grabbed slurpees, and headed down to the bay. That Thursday was the beginning of a wonderful tradition. Unfortunately, we broke tradition and decided to hang out on a Wednesday; bad plan. We went to Salvos (Salvation Army) and went Op-shopping (Opportunity Shopping/Thrift Store). After a great time of trying on various “flattering” outfits, we decided to go try another op-shop. Alice had to head back to Uni so Charlie, Ty and I jumped into Emma’s car. As we turned onto Paramatta Rd, the main road heading into Sydney, Emma, for some reason, decided we should make new friends. As the BMW (of course, it would be a BMW) came to a sudden stop in front of us, Emma’s car also came to a sudden stop, as it tried to crawl into the BMW’s trunk. After successfully navigating the two kissing cars onto a side ride, we surveyed the damage and declared both cars not much worse for the wear. The BMW came out of the scrapple the best, with just a few dents, dings, and scratches. Emma’s hood got a little bent out of shape, her lights popped out and her bumper needed a little TLC. Since the accident, I’ve only had to see a psychologist eight times and I don’t think Ty’s been to the chiropractor for neck work more than fifteen times or so, just kidding, everybody was fine and thankfully suffered no ill effects from it. But we learned our lesson the hard way; do not break tradition. Tradition was hanging out with Emma on Thursday nights, not on Wednesday mornings, and we paid dearly for that mistake. However, I did just return from “Thursday Nights with Emma”, a group of 10 of us (our largest group so far) got slurpees and went and sat by the bay and it was a delightful time. So, I know it’s taken a long time to get to the question you’ve all been dying to ask, but yes, I found something at the Salvos store; an over-the-shoulder sling bag for $4 AUD.
Anyways, just wanted to check in and let you all know that I’m doing well. Tomorrow after class marks the beginning of our epic two week Easter Break, so although you may have to wait awhile to read the next entry, it will be well worth the wait as it documents the best spring break in the history of spring breaks. Actually, the stories probably won’t be that exciting, but who knows, maybe the pictures will be!

Love to all!

-Ben

One Month Later...

Well I have now been here over a month. I am more than ¼ of my way through the semester here. Wow, there is so much to say, but so little time to write it all down. Since my last update, the two weekends prior to Canberra have been spent camping on the different beaches and backpacking through various towns. Sydney is a nice city, but once you get outside of it, the country is absolutely beautiful. We slept and swam on beaches that had brilliantly white sand, turquoise water, and were practically empty. Many people have asked if I’ve been getting homesick, but so far I’m doing very well. That’s not to say that I don’t miss home and all of you, I do, I miss you a lot, but I love being here while I have the opportunity. I think a big contributing factor to not being homesick is having a great group of friends here, the group that I go on these weekend adventures with. There are 6 of us and when we go, we really don’t have a plan, we just go and see where we wind up, what we experience, and then make our way back home. These have been by far some of my favorite times down here.

In fact, 5 of the 6 of us are going on Spring Break together. Our plan is to fly from Sydney to Cairns on April 3rd, go to the Great Barrier Reef, the Rainforest, and then hop on a Greyhound bus and make our way back down to Sydney, making numerous stops along the way, and ultimately winding up back here before class starts at 8:45 on Monday the 20th. I’m really excited for this trip; I think it will be an amazing experience!

<--- See how studious we are in class?
As for classes, they are all going well. In Australia, they do not have many assignments due throughout the semester; rather they have 3-4 major assignments that decide your grade. Unfortunately two of these assignments are due right after I get back from spring break, so I’m trying to finish those before I leave. In my Romans class, there is a student who is from Ireland and grew up there, but has lived in Australia the past 20 years of his life. He has by far the coolest accent I have ever heard in my entire life. He is incredibly hard to understand, especially when he gets excited, but an Irish/Aussie accent is quite interesting to hear.

This weekend we went down to the capital of Australia, Canberra (pronounced Canbra). It is about a four hour drive south-west of Sydney. Our house parents dropped us off at school at 5:30 on Friday morning and the 30 of us departed by bus for Canberra at 6:00. As with any road trip, we had to stop at McDonald’s on the way and use the bathroom. We spent Friday going to the New Parliament House where we saw the Senate, the Great Britain High Commission, eating lunch at a park, and going to the Indonesian Embassy. The design of the city is quite interesting and very symbolic; the New Parliament House has grass on its roof, accessible to all visitors, to show that the people are above the government. Also, the War Memorial is located directly out the front door of the parliament house so that the government will realize the decisions it makes can cost somebody their life. We arrived at our Youth Hostile about 5, ate pizza, debriefed for an hour and a half, and then had free time. Many of us went swimming, sounds great, doesn’t it? Well, the water was nice; it was the size that was a problem. The “pool” was a little bigger than a wading a pool, but not much. We spent the rest of the night playing cards and then retired for the night. Saturday was a whirlwind tour through all the hot spots we missed the previous day. We saw the Portrait Gallery, the National Gallery, the National Museum, and the War Memorial. Although all these were interesting, the War Memorial was exceptionally fascinating. The exhibits were very intricate and detailed and seemed to make it come to life. We then got back on the bus, and headed back to Sydney, after a required stop at McDonald's for dinner of course.

Here is some more Aussie slang for those interested:

Click – Kilometer
Op Shop – Thrift store
Togs – swim suit
Ute – truck
Arvo – afternoon

As I told you in the last blog, Aussie’s don’t pronounce the “R” at the end of a word and instead make it an “A”. Well, just to confuse you a little, if a word ends in an “A” you add an “R”. For example, “The other day I came up with the idear to go to the park.” To give you a real life example, my Roman’s lecturer was talking the other day about Priscillar and Aquillar.

Well, I think that is all for now. Just to put all your minds to rest, I’m still alive and kicking, have not fallen in love, and I don’t have any piercings or tattoos, but yes, my hair is still bleached.

Love to all!

-Ben

Wasting time? No way!

Well, week two has come and gone. And what a week it was!

Tuesday (January 27th): My first day of classes with Australians. From 9:00-12:00 I had Theological Foundations, there are about 25 students in the class, 20 or so Aussies. The “lecturer” informed us that the Theology department was having a luncheon for all of its’ students and everyone in the class was invited to attend. Free lunch?!? How could I pass that up? Oh the joys of going to a small university. So one of my fellow Americans, Ty Tuin, and I went down to Doytao Thai and had some wonderful Thai food for lunch (coincidentally, I’m pretty sure it tasted better because it was free). It was a neat opportunity to be able to interact with fellow students and also the lecturers. There were only about 20 people there altogether.

Wednesday: Thankfully I was able to work my schedule so that I have all my classes on Monday, Tuesday and Friday. It makes the middle of the week wonderful! I mean, err, it provides me with plenty of time to study and prepare for my classes. So, in order to get some good studying in, my roommate Charlie and I departed for Manly Beach. To get to Manly you first have to make it into downtown Sydney and then take about a 30-minute ferry over to the beach. The water was absolutely spectacular. Crystal clear, warm and best of all, free of jellyfish and sharks! While we were there, we met up with one of my friends, Liz, from APU who is also studying in Australia but at a different uni, right next to Manly beach. We spent the afternoon with Liz at the beach then she took us to her “school” and showed us around. I put the word school in quotations because her school is a castle! It was absolutely stunning. Then Wednesday night we took the ferry back to Sydney and went to an Ash Wednesday church service at St. James in Hyde Park. It was a High Anglican church and was very interesting to see how they performed the service.

Thursday: Believe it or not, Thursday was actually devoted, in part, to homework. Surprising, isn’t it? Then in the afternoon I went to my service placement project. We are required to fulfill 35 service hours as part of one of our classes. We are assigned to a ministry but then it is our responsibility to schedule the hours and accomplish them. My ministry is Wesley Youth Services. They have many different services and ministries but the part I am assisting with is the after school care program. Pretty much I just spend three hours hanging out with the kids, playing the games they want to play, and building relationships with them. It was definitely an enjoyable three hours and the youth seemed to warm to me fairly quickly. I did get my first taste of Rugby League. It is a very altered version of American Football. Although we played for probably a good hour and a half of so, I never quite got the rules. If I had the ball, I would run forward. If someone else had the ball, I would tackle them, it seemed pretty straight forward to me. I think the kids got quite a few good laughs watching the “clueless American” try and play their game.

Friday: On Friday’s we are all together as an ASC group and have “class.” We spent our class in downtown Sydney at a historical section called The Rocks. It was where many of the first Europeans lived and settled, right next to Sydney Harbor. We were given a list of about 20 things and we had to go through the Rocks and find them. As we learned, The Rocks used to be a very sleazy part of town, but the city has down a great job of revitalizing it, and now it is quite a quaint little community. After spending the afternoon on The Rocks, 8 of us went over to our Director’s house for “Family Night.” There are three family nights throughout the semester and each person can sign up for one. I signed up for the first one, figured I’d prefer to make my “family” know rather than later. We made tacos, ate, cleaned, sat around talking, and played some games. It was quite an enjoyable time, and the food was absolutely delicious!

Saturday: By far my favorite day down under. A group of 8 of us set out for the Blue Mountains. About 2 hours by public transportation west of Sydney. Upon arriving there, we really had no idea what we were getting into, we simply figured we would take it as it came. We walked down to Echo Point and from there caught our first glimpse of the famed Three Sisters. “Great,” we thought to ourselves, “now what do we do?” We followed a little path, away from the three sisters, off of the lookout that headed down into the valley and figured we would see where it would take us. Best decision we’ve made so far! We spent the next 5 hours or so hiking through beautiful, lush forest. We passed picturesque lookouts, luscious green trees, and spectacular waterfalls. After reaching the bottom of the valley, we figured we would just go back and hike up the way we from which we came. Then we spotted and map and saw we could hike through the valley, up “The Giant Staircase,” and arrive in the three sisters. Giant staircase, that’s for sure. It was about 30 minutes hiking straight up stairs. After taking thousands of pictures looking out from the three sisters we decided to call it a day and head home. On the train ride home, we reasoned that we had such a wonderful day, why should it end there? So 5 of the 8 of us went home, grabbed a change of clothes, a sleeping bag and met at the Wharf. From there we departed to Manly Beach and spent the night on a more exclusive beach called Shelly. Although we didn’t get much rest, we had a fantastic time!


Sunday: When you think of sleeping on the beach, you think of awakening to the peaceful sound of waves crashing and the beauty of the sun rising. Wrong. I woke up to at about 5 a.m. to Jenna repeatedly jabbing her finger into my chest hurriedly telling me there was someone coming to get us! I looked up and saw this dark figure with a long pointy stick hastily walking towards us. But then he turns on a dime, and just as quickly heads the opposite direction. After the blur wore away from my eyes, we realized it was just the trash man picking up rubbish from the beach. Apparently he thought there were 5 large lumps of trash on the beach, but after closer examination, he decided to let us stay. After our little scare, and a little more shuteye, we returned home, did some homework, and departed for a commissioning Service for the university held in Sydney.

Monday: Bummer. Monday means classes, classes mean no exploring; rather it means sitting in a classroom, staring out at the warm sunshine, glazing at the brilliant blue sky, and awakening from your daydream of lying on the beach when the teacher announces pop quiz. But there is always time for fun, even on school days. As we were sitting around the dinner table, we were joking about what color to dye my hair. Clare, the daughter in the family we are living with, is a professional hair stylist. Well, you know what they say about how there is a little truth in every joke. I guess that’s true. I’m still not quite sure how it happened, but somehow my hair is now bleached blonde. After my new makeover was over, 12 fellow Americans came over to our flat and we hung out and watched a movie. For being a lackluster day of classes, the day surly did end with a bang!




Tuesday: Just another day of classes. I got quite a few funny looks and stares because of my new hairstyle. There is one Aussie girl, Alice, who thought my hair was the funniest thing. At first she told me she was glad to see me because I put a smile on her face. Later she confessed the reason that I put a smile on her face was simply because of my hair. Thanks, Alice.

Here is some Aussie slang for those of you out there who want to have a conversation when I return:

Pram - stroller
Back of Bourke - a very long way away
Footy - football
lolly - candy
Joey - baby kangaroo

Now, you may be wondering if I’ve been learning anything while I’m down here or if I’m simply just having fun. Well, here is something that God has taught me over the past few weeks. During my time in Australia, I have realized that I have a very limited amount of time here. I am here for 4 months, approximately 120 days. Of those 120 days, I’ve already used 13. Although 107 days may seem like a lot, I know they will fly by. I want to make each and every one of them count. I want to be able to look back on my time here and be proud of everything I was able to accomplish. In the same way, I know that my days on earth are also numbered. I also need to make sure that I make each and every on of those days count, not simply because I am in Australia, simply because I don’t want my life to pass me by. Donald Miller states in his book, Blue Like Jazz, “I believe that the greatest trick of the devil is not to get us into some sort of evil but rather have us wasting time.” There is so much to live for, so much to accomplish, so much to enjoy. I want to make every single day count and enjoy use all the time I have, that it may bring glory to God.

Just to put all your minds to rest, I’m still alive and kicking, have not fallen in love, and I don’t have any piercings or tattoos, but yes, my hair is bleached.

Love to all,

-Ben

One week later...

G'day Mates,

Wow! What a crazy 5 days it has been already. How the time has flown! Well, quite a few have been asking how my time in Australia has been, and instead of telling and retelling (or typing and retyping) the same stories over and over, I figured I could just direct everyone to this site. All 27 of the people from the States who are also participating in the Australian Studies Centre (ASC) program with me met at LAX, which made it nice and easy for me. Our plane departed at approximately 11:45 P.M. and we landed in Sydney at 9:45 on Wednesday morning. So here are the adventures that I have experienced so far:

Wednesday: We met up with the ASC director at the airport and were transported about 30 minutes over to a suburb called Drummoyne, where our “uni” (University) is located. We had some orientation sessions, catered food from a local hotspot, and played many get-to-know you games. The Townsends, our wonderful homestay family, came to pick up my two roommates and myself and we departed for their house, about a 15 minutes car ride from the uni. Their house is a beautiful Victorian style house, about 120 years old. Mrs. Townsend led us through the side gate, into the backyard and introduced us to our home for the next four months, our own granny flat! It is set back from the house about 30 meters. I could not have dreamed of a better situation. The three of us have our own room, bathroom, kitchen (with a fully stocked fridge, of course), and plenty of closet space to share. Our “house” even has a porch with chairs, a couch, and a dartboard. Amazing!

Thursday:
We met at school, had a few orientation sessions, and departed for downtown Sydney about 1 o’clock. The 27 of us, plus a handful of Aussies helping out, were split into groups and sent on a scavenger hunt through the city. It was a great, quick, way to see the many sites the city has to offer. After the scavenger hunt, which my time won, we were taken on a harbor cruise through Sydney Harbor. We passed everything that one would think of when they think of Sydney, the Opera house, the Harbor Bridge, well, I guess that’s all that people would think of when they think of Sydney. Then we were taken to a Mongolian BBQ restaurant (all you can eat) and had a fantastic dinner there. After that we were on our own, free to go back to our houses or free to stay in the city. Of course we chose to stay in the city. Graciously some of the Aussie students who helped out with the scavenger hunt let us join them and we all went for our for ice cream, at none other than good ol’ Baskin Robbins.

Friday:
After two adventure days, I guess we had to do something productive. Friday was spent entirely in the class room going through orientation information and instruction. Our family said they would pick us up from the school at 5 when we were supposed to get out, but we out 2 hours early and we figured we could use our unlimited bus pass to make it home on our own. Wrong. After taking a detour, figuring out how to get back, and sheepishly making a phone call, the family picked us up about 5:15. Whoops! We hurried home, packed and left for a weekend canoe trip in none other than, get this, Kangaroo Valley.


Saturday:
I know, the answer to the question you’ve all been waiting to ask, yes, we saw Kangaroos Saturday morning when we got out of our tents. We spent all day Saturday canoeing down the river with 10 boy scouts and their leaders. The lake and the surroundings were absolutely stunning.

Sunday:
The canoeing continues….and then arrival at home about 10:15 P.M.


Monday:
My first day of classes. All the classes at the uni are once a week, three hour classes. I had a class on Australian culture and history called “The View” from 8:45-12:00, it is a class that taught by the ASC director filled with only ASC students. Than had a short break, ate lunch on the “grassy knoll” and had photography. I was definitely looking forward to having a class with Aussie students, that’s the main reason I’m here, to see how their culture operates. Unfortunately, there were only American students in my photography class also. So tomorrow starts the first day of classes with true Aussies.

Here is some Aussie slang for those of you out there who want to have a conversation when I return:

Fairdinkum – true that.
Servo – service station.
Heaps – a lot
Septics – Americans
No worries – you’re welcome

Also, Aussies don't pronounce the "R's" at the end of words. Such as corner would be sound like cornah.

Well, that is it for now. Just to put all your minds to rest, I’m still alive and kicking, have not fallen in love, and I don’t have any piercings or tattoos. That should put a few of your minds to rest! All in all, the few brief parts that I have seen of Australia are quite stunning. In many ways it is similar to the US, but also in many ways it is quite different. It is definitely an interesting adjustment, but a very smooth transition so far.


Love to all!

-Ben