Heading Home...and how to get there...

Wow it has been a while.  Life is as crazy as ever.  Since my last post I have celebrated my birthday, had many adventures, and had to put a blanket on my bed to ward off the now cooler nights.

My Birthday was amazing!  I had a wonderful weekend in Brisbane for Rotaract training.  I spent time with friends, who spoiled me with wine and chocolate cake, went to the XXXX factory, where I saw how they make lots of beer (Australians drinks lot's) and just had a generally good time.  Each time I have been in Brisbane it has been raining, which makes it remind me of Seattle, but I don't like it quite as much.  I spent my actual B-day in Bundaberg, where I received lot's of cards, emails, facebook posts, calls and flowers as well wishes.  My host family had me over for dinner, where Rachael the 4 year old wished me happy Birthday about 25 times.  It was perfect. 


Life here has been really good in general.  I am starting to be able to cook again with out messing everything up, grocery shopping isn't quite so overwhelming, church feels familiar and homey again and I feel like I am starting to get into a routine with things.  I have switched over to medicare and Australian drivers license.  I have friends. I have been spending lots of time at the gym, and when I am not there I tend to be working on something for Rotaract or talking to a certain someone.  So I guess I really do live here. 


In a week I head out to visit home.  Before I go I will be spending 4 days at camp, which is good because my productivity seems to be weening every day, especially considering the gorgeous 75 degree weather. I have my tickets printed and my travel insurance purchased, and souvenirs all packed away. 


I am excited but also nervous. I am afraid I won't want to come back, I am afraid it will make me feel even more homesick.  On the other side I am worried that it won't be as great as I remember in my head, and that I will be disappointed and not refreshed.  That I will find that I have changed too much and don't click with my friends or family.  Silly I know, but I can say that I am at least very excited to find out one way or another how it goes.  
<3 Beth

Settling In

Ever since my arrival it seems that everyone wants to know if I am "settling in."  My response has been a consistent yes, but I always sort of wondered what exactly they meant. I think that now, three months after my arrival I am finally starting to understand what they mean, and I am not sure that I like it.

Settling in has meant many things.  The first of which seems to be finding a house, and getting everything unpacked to a place where it gets to stay.  My suitcases are hidden away, and I have stuff in cupboards and shelves around the house.  Although my bed is incredibly uncomfortable, it is still a home, and more than that, it is my home.

Settling in has meant major purchases in this country.  The first of those has been a bike, followed by a car, and hopefully shortly a lawn mower. Some of the little things signify settling in too.  Such as needing to buy toothpaste here.  When you go on vacation, you take it with you.  You don't buy nail clippers because you don't have time to both loose the ones you brought and have your nails grow long enough that you need to purchase new ones.

Settling in  has involved getting involved with activities outside of work.  When people take 6 months trip for a mission trip or whatever, they go for a purpose, a task and that is what they do.  Here, I have come to work in a church, but because I am here for so long I have become involved with a Rotary Group, which I am now Vice-President, a Tennis League, and am hoping to join the Bridge Club. I am setting up a life.

Settling in means having to host people for meals and parties.  I know this seems like an odd thing to say, but in my first month or so here, I received many invitations to meals and BBQ's, which was wonderful.  Now that I am "settled in" I get to invite people my direction.  My home.  What's more, I actually have people to invite.  I have 10 people coming over for a Cinco De Mayo party on Saturday, not only am I hosting, I have a circle of people to host!

Settling in has also meant making commitments here in Australia. As I realize that I am going to be here for a while, I can't just stall my life; I have to live my life like I would anywhere else, and part of that includes commitments and attachments.  The most significant of these commitments is that I have made in starting to date Marc here.  It means if I just run off, someone might just care.

Settling in has been great.  It has given me routine.  It has helped me to feel like I am on my feet again.  I feel like I have found a part of me, that I didn't even know I had lost while in Tacoma.  I have found an energy and a happiness, that I realize now was most certainly gone.

Settling in here is also one of the scariest things I have ever done.  It means I am starting a life, a full and happy one, somewhere very far away from home. Far away from friends and family who mean the world to me.  From the people who have supported my life and made it even possible for me to have to confidence to step out on this adventure.  It makes me homesick in a way I have never been before.

So for those friends and family reading this, when I say I miss you, I really do mean it.  Even with all the adventures and great things here, even if I stay here for a while, know that I couldn't be here without you.  Without your support you've given me to help me be the person I am today, and without the constant support while I am here I couldn't settle in.  So keep calling, keep sending mail, emailing and posting on my facebook, I sure do appreciate it!

A Few of my Favourite Things

First off, Tim Tams.  These are a cookie, or as the Aussies would say, a biscuit like an Oreo on chocolate crack.  It is two chocolate biscuits with a chocolate filling in between, and then dipped in chocolate.  They are so amazing.

A close second in the chocolate world is Cadbury Marbled chocolate.  This is a mix of milk and white chocolate marbled together, with a hazel nut praline filling, which is fabulously soft, but not creamy.

I have also found a new soda to enjoy.  It has a variety of names, but it is sort of like carbonated lemonade.  Sadly it doesn’t have caffeine and does have calories, unlike the must missed diet Pepsi, but it is still quite enjoyable.

Meat pies it turns out are also amazing.  They have a million types, but I am a traditional girl and like the beef pies.  They are pretty much beef and gravy in a pie shell.  They make a great, and cheap, lunch when you forget yours at home.

I have also discovered a love of roasted sweet potatoes.  Now I can’t say whether this is a pallet change, or if the Australian sweet potatoes are better.  I do know that I have not developed a love roasted pumpkin, it still grosses me out.

Along the non-food lines, the weather here is unbelievably beautiful.  We are now in what is considered fall, which means 80 to 85 degree sunny and not so humid days.  This is the type of weather where you feel like a part of your soul might be dying as you sit inside, and then you remember there are several months of it to follow, and you realize that this might just be paradise.

Also the hats here are fabulous.  Everyone has a hat!  I need to get a hat, preferably pink with some sort of kangaroo on it.

I have a new Australian TV show addiction.  It’s called Dance Academy, and it is a really overly dramatic soap opera about a group of 18ish year olds studying to be professional dancers.  It is on every day too!  What’s not to love?

BBQ’s.  I have been to 4 BBQ’s since last Thursday.  The Australians, being the social beings they are, just invite people over, or to the beach and you all bring your own food, and just hang out with people while you eat.

The people here have been so warm and accepting. It helps everything be more of the glorious sort of adventure, and less like the movie Behind Enemy lines. J