one of those weeks

This week has been kinda rough. Today was a long day. I left my house at 7:30 this morning and just got back home again at 11pm. It was very hard not to fall asleep during my Romans class this afternoon. It's such a good class but it's 3 hours long and whenever I sit in one spot for too long my eyes start drooping.

While I was in Canberra last weekend I found out that my grandpa died. It's been difficult not being able to be at home for my family. On top of that, today my roommate it sick, yesterday my host mom was sick, and one of my host brother's friends is dying of cancer. I'm realizing that life is one of those things you can't control. You take it as it comes and enjoy each moment for what it is.

We talked about the concept of Kairos in one of my classes. It basically means "a unique moment in time" and it's more formal definition is, "The hour [which] is the God-given moment of destiny not to be shrunk from but seized with decisiveness, the floodtide of opportunity and demand in which the unseen waters of the future surge down to the present." Life is meant to be lived to the fullest. One of my favorite quotes is by Fanny Crosby, "Live in the moment and make it so beautiful that it will be worth remembering!"

Anyway... this week has also had plenty of good moments too! Last night Heather and I went to our friend Ish's house to make dinner. Ish is from Zimbabwe and goes to our uni. I love how there are so many people from so many places. There's a guy in my Romans class who's Irish and he has the coolest Aussie/Irish accent ever! He shared his Moroccan pizza with me tonight. 

God has blessed me with some super great American friends here too. I am with the 26 other American exchange students so much between being in class with them, traveling, working on assignments and presentations together, and that sort of thing. There is a group of five of us that have become pretty close. Tonight we had a Bible study together and it was so good after a long day. For our "fall" break the five of us are going to spend 16 days exploring the eastern coast of Queensland together. We'll be hiking through rainforests, camping, exploring some islands, snorkeling on the reef, stopping at towns along the coast, going to different beaches, and who knows what else! We fly up to Cairns April 3rd and I can't wait!

Sorry this got kinda long. I was typing while I was waiting for my pictures to upload and they are taking a long time so I just keep typing. I'll stop now and add more pictures later because I need to sleep.