D-I-N-G-O! D-I-N-G-O! D-I-N-G-O, A dingo ate your birthday cake!

Chloe is a killer. Yes, Chloe the Cat has killed a gecko and given it to me as a gift. Dang cat. Actually, I may have been involved in the murder. I accidentally stepped on him and think I broke one of his legs, making him easy pickings for the mighty huntress. I feel horribly guilty. And yes, this is Chloe below. 

Hi Guys!

Firstly, sorry for the fail on my part. It’s Thursday and I had every intention to update on Monday. Whoops! But Jesus is a pretty cool guy who forgives, so hopefully you are all with him and will still love me too. ;) In my defense, though, I have totally lost track of days here because of the weather difference (Early Fall so it’s still summer heat as opposed to early spring but still winter chill) and my limited days at school. For example, I missed Ash Wednesday (not as in “didn’t go to church,” as in “it’s Wednesday? Oh, it’s Ash Wednesday?!” Lol) and also didn’t realize that it was St. Patrick’s Day until I saw a green bank display. Thank goodness I was wearing my green scarf and didn’t get pinched! Haha.

This week has been super interesting. I have been busy in classes and trying to pick up on all of the readings. Fact: Aussies do a lot of reading in school and it is incredibly apparent if you don’t do it. There’s not much homework, but the readings…ugh. And one of my professors may have set a record for slides covered in a 2-hour period. 82 slides in 1hour, and 40 minutes. It was impressive and daunting. Haha. I also am already proving to be as much of a geek here as I am back home. I think I was one of the only people in my tutorial/lab section of my class who had read the assigned readings, so the professor kept asking me and one other girl what we thought about it and how we could apply it. Whoops. So much for seeming cool. There’s just too much awesome in me to be cool. Jk. Oh well, I’m happy to be on top of my work—then I don’t stress when things are due. But pretty much everything is Group Work, which I don’t love. I would rather write a paper or report on my own. I just don’t love doing schoolwork in teams. Teams in sports…yes. Teams for why tourists love Tahiti…no.

 I’ve also been playing with my travel dates for different locations around Australia and it sounds EPIC. I just need to buy my tickets and get on the planes. Eeek! I also managed to run into the club signup at the last minute (literally) and found clubs for study abroad students, rock climbing, model UN, ultimate Frisbee, and acting workshops. I think/hope (pray, really) that I’m going to be busy!

So, as I said, I joined the rock climbing and adventure club and went climbing with them this past Friday night at Kangaroo Point. It was so cool! We were climbing from about 8PM to Midnight and had massive floodlights up to light the cliff. Kangaroo Point has (I’m told) 300 different possible climbs ranging in height from 15-25 meters. We had ropes set up on 8 of them and they were each about 25 meters tall. I ended up climbing twice (there were a ton of people there) and had a fantastic view of Brisbane from the top. I also finally learned how to tie a figure 8 knot. I’m very proud of myself and my newly acquired skill. There were also some cool fire fighting/dancing people near us in the park. When not climbing, it was so cool to watch them! As fun as it was, I could definitely feel that I hadn’t been climbing in far too long, my arms hurt so badly the next morning!!! The next climb I can get to isn’t until April, which is kind of a bummer, but I’m pretty much ok with it because I will be with my parents!

I also found a job that fits my schedule down here really well, as in, I can work when I’m free and can be off when I’m busy or travelling. I’m going to be serving and working at the bar at the Saturday horse races. I think it will be interesting. I mean, if nothing else, it’ll give me some extra money for travelling with. Having a job here means finding bank, though, which is a mess all on it’s own. I don’t love figuring out banking rules and procedures. Boo.

In other news, Pastor Neil (the pastor who helped me make my housing arrangements) also gave me the number for another student who goes to Trinity Lutheran as well as Griffith: Jenna. The two of us met up at the Sharks Football Club for coffee and hit it off really well. She’s a bit younger than me, but is really sweet and enjoys a lot of the same things I do, so that’s fun.  We’re currently trying to figure out when we can actually meet up. We’re both horribly busy and that makes it difficult.

I’ve also started to plan a trip with Larissa (the girl from Canada…I think I mentioned her before) down to Tasmania or Melbourne. I think it’ll be a lot of fun to explore with a friend. I can’t wait to see more of this country! It’s freaking huge. Like, I knew Australia was big, but if you look at the map I posted, Australia is about the size of the USA. It really doesn’t seem that big otherwise, does it?  Haha.

As for Merle and the Cat…haha. Chloe and I are now buddies for life. Firstly, the gecko gift, but she also has begun to sleep on the other half of my bed. I am a fan of this. She’s not like Sadie, though. Hmm. Merle asked if I would like to go to the movies the other day. She wanted to see “Unknown” or “I am Number 4.” I agreed and went with her to the theatre. She had looked it up online and had written it down on a page, but I couldn’t help but feel the times looked wrong from what I’d seen in the paper. But I figured that I was looking at a different theatre. We got there and found out that the times were in fact wrong and that the next showing of both movies wasn’t for almost 2 hours. Merle asked what I wanted to see and I told her I was happy with anything. So, she picked. She chose “Hall Pass.” Is that the one about having a week off from marriage, you ask? Yep. That’d be it. Talk about uncomfortable. Definitely not a movie to take the grandparents to, kids. She seemed to enjoy it, though, even though I was really unsure how to feel about it.

Let’s see…anything else interesting to tell you? Oh, I found a Husker’s shirt at the mall the other day. It was unexpected, so I took a photo. Thinking of my lovely friends in New Mexico and Nebraska. There is also a Broncos Football team here (and by football, they mean rugby). It makes me feel at home. And I got a letter from home! Thank you, Lou! I’ll write you back soon! I’m writing to you after this!

I know I’ve talked to a few of you about what my plans are post-Australia, aside from getting back to UCF in August. I’m honestly not sure at this point in time. I have a lot to consider and a lot of options in front of me. But I will let you know when I get it figured out!

So, in closing, Australia is great. I highly encourage you all to put it on your bucket lists. The weather is excellent, the people are friendly and laid back, the animals are cool, the food and drink is good, the news and politics is fairly low key, there is no one claiming that the end of the world will be on December 21, 2012, and they’re pretty far away from natural disasters. Well, flooding, but no volcanoes or earthquakes. As Eeyore so wisely said, “It’s raining still,” Eeyore said gloomily… “However,” he said, brightening up a little, “we haven’t had an earthquake lately.” But really, Australia is better than that. J But...it is raining again. 

All right loves, I am going to leave it at that for this week. Hopefully I will update soon with some fun stories about other parts of this country. Please keep up contact! I love hearing from you and am pretty reliable to write back in the very near future.  So, facebook, messages, email, skype, real mail (!!!), and carrier pigeons are all welcomed/loved!

Love ya’ll!

Leah

PS—My parents will also be here on MONDAY! I cannot wait. We’re going to have an epic trip and see lots of fun things, so Australia better watch out! Haha. But seriously. It will be legend…well, you know the rest. :)