school's in session!

I made it through the first week of school! All my classes seem like they are going to be really good! Here's what my week looks like:

Monday

8:45am-noon "The View from Australia" 

(this past Monday, since I have all afternoon off, a couple friends and I went to the botanical gardens and sat and did homework in the south pacific sunshine. It's almost surreal sitting in the middle of beautiful gardens and being able to look up and have a perfect view of the Sydney Opera House with the Harbor Bridge behind it!)

Tusday

9am-noon "Faith and the Contemporary Artist"

2-5pm "Romans"

Wednesday

9am Piano lesson

10:45-12:35 "Contemporary Christian Music Ensemble"

1-2pm chapel

Thursday

no classes!!! 

(Thursday was a beach day this week! It was so beautiful sitting by the ocean doing homework)

Friday

9am-? "The view from Australia"

Saturday

9am-12:30 service project- Hillsong Street Teams

Today for class we learned about the Rocks. This is the oldest part of Sydney where the Europeans first settled. It is such a pretty place! All afternoon our assignment was to explore the Rocks district and read about all the history. The more I see of Sydney the more I like it. The only problem is that I'm beginning to think it would take a lifetime to see and do everything there is to see and do in Sydney.

the pictures are ones I took of Sydney from the ferry coming back from Manly Beach. Sorry there's not more pictures. The internet is being slow today.

weekend adventures!

Hi! I have been so busy doing fun things before classes start that I feel like I could update this blog a couple times a day and still miss heaps of things!!! Yesterday (Saturday) ended up raining so we didn't go to the beach. Instead Laura and I explored around our suburb a bit. It's a nice little suburb with lots of cute little houses, a busy downtown with cafes and shops, a large park, and a huge shopping mall. The picture on top was in the park. I think we've seen about four different weddings in the past couple days.

I'm getting over the overload of everything being new and different than I expected. My host family is turning out to be very sweet and I'm enjoying getting to know a bit of Greek culture too! They run a Greek Christian outreach TV program and they are very busy people.

Last night I watched the Matrix with Anthony. It was filmed in Sydney so Anthony kept pointing out where the different scenes were filmed and I was like, "hey! I've been there!!!" 

Today Anthony took me and Laura to Hillsong Church in the city. It was amazing!!! It met in Capital Theatre today for a trial. I guess they need more room to expand. After church Laura and I made some new friends our age: a girl named Paivi who's from Finland, Florance from France, Miranda from Mexico, and Ashton and Kieth from the states. The cool thing about Sydney is that it is extremely multi-cultural. It was a beautiful day so we all went and got Australian meat pies. Kieth, whose a chef here in Sydney, took us to the best place to get them. They were pretty good. After that we walked along the harbor, explored the botanical gardens, and ate ice blocks (popsicles). My feet hurt from walking so much and I've got a bit of a sunburn from being out in the sun all day but it's been good.

These are a couple guys that were pointing the way to Hillsong (this picture is for you Leslie ;). I've got more pictures but they are having trouble uploading. I'll put them up soon. 

more from Sydney

It's late again! I have been so incredibly busy seeing the sights and learning the ropes of the school that I haven't hardly had time to sleep. Today was a long day! I've been all over Sydney riding trains, catching busses, and walking tons of miles! It's gonna take a while to figure out how to do this whole public transportation stuff!

Tonight a bunch of us went out on the town and experienced Sydney at night! It's such a beautiful city day or night and the weather was perfect!

The picture below is of my house. The family is Greek and they act Greek, cook Greek, and decorate their house Greek. Just picture "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" and you'll get an idea of what I mean. It will take some getting used to.

My host brother, Anthony, is great! He plays soccer and likes to tease me and Laura, my roommate. He's been giving us tips on getting along in Australian culture and has been helping us work on our Australian accents- I think we're getting pretty good! Anthony is really funny and having him around makes living at this house a whole lot more enjoyable.

I made it!

I'm finally here!!! It's after midnight here and it's been a super long day. We've started orientation and today our group got to explore Sydney. It was fun and I saw so many amazing places that I forget half of where I went! So here are a couple pictures and a few things I've discovered:

1. Australia is VERY far away and takes a very long time to get to

2. The birds are lovely here, the geckos adorable, and the spiders huge

3. Not only do Australians drive on the opposite

 side of the street, they also put the driver on the opposite side of the car (right, I knew that ;)

4. Obama is popular with Australians

5. Australians eat 6 meals a day: breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner, supper. it goes something like that.

6. My host family is VERY very Greek

7. It's extra warm, sunny, and tropical in Sydney

8. There is no such thing as drop-bears and you don't need to put vegemite on your head to keep them away.

9. There were two shark attacks in Sydney last week

10. More will come later...

2 days...

43 hours. I'm very sick of packing and very sick of waiting. 

For those of you that asked... here's my mailing address for while I'm in Australia:

Wesley Institute - ASC

PO Box 534

Drummoyne NSW 1470

Australia

packages get sent to a different address:

Wesley Institute - ASC

5 Mary Street

Drummoyne NSW 2047

shorter=better

i've been told that shorter blog posts are better. i'll see what i can do. there are only a few short pages left to read in my australia book and a few short days to finish packing. living in australia is going to be a blast! i can't wait for the semester to get started!!!

my flight from detroit takes off in less than 140 hours. yes, i am that excited about the long wait almost being over that i am counting down the hours!