Last week was a bit of a blur as most of it was dedicated to my Middle East Politics simulation. As much as I hoped that wouldn’t be the case, it filled pretty much every second of my life. I counted at the end, and Barack Obama (my character) had received just fewer than 600 emails and sent a little less than 300. That’s a lot for 10 days! I was SO ready to be done with that project… although I did learn more about the Middle East in those 10 days than I have in the rest of my life. It is one of the coolest projects I’ve ever done. The simulation officially ended on Friday morning and then every team presented their position paper on joint panels at our simulation conference. People came dressed up as their character and we had some great debates. It was funny because there were a lot of players that aren’t in my tutorial so they didn’t realize I was on an exchange from the States. One girl told me afterwards that when I’d starting speaking, she’d thought, “wow, good accent!” I told her I’d been practicing for a while… I just wanted to stay in characterJ. Well, although the sim did pretty much control my life all week, I was able to have a little bit of fun. Monday was my friend Marisa’s birthday. She invited me, my roommate Stefanie, and another of our friends Christie, as well as a few of her Australian friends out to dinner. We went to this really cute Italian place and had a great time. Her Australian friends were so funny, especially about the fact that we were American. Her one friend Dani kept saying, “oh my gosh Marisa, you are so AMERICAN!” It was funny. Also, highlight of the night… splitting a piece of tim tam cheesecake with Christie…. SO GOODJ. On Tuesday night, I went to a “welcome” dinner at my church. It was fun, the food was good, and it was nice to see my church friends mid-week. On Wednesday night, we had a great house dinner! It was the first one we’d been able to have for about a month because of Easter break and then crazy school schedules. It was nice to make intentional time for one another again. Camille said it best when she asked “when’s family dinner?... oops, I mean house dinner”. We really have become a family. On Wednesday I cooked. We had burritos with homemade guacamole and then cookies for dessert. I had intended to make chocolate chip cookies, but mid-baking, I realized I didn’t have any vanilla. The dough tasted bland so I improvised and just added some cocoa powder and they ended up being delicious chocolate, chocolate chip cookiesJ. Thursday evening was spent preparing for the sim conference on Friday and when that was done on Friday at noon, I was FREE!! I decided to devote the rest of the day to celebratingJ. I came home and saw my friend Kim was on skype and we had the BEST skype date! It was so good to catch up and just talk and laugh together. After we skyped, I decided that I wanted to bake and I was going to attempt some homemade bread and since my chocolate craving wouldn’t die, I decided to throw in some homemade brownies tooJ. In order to bake, though, I had to walk to the store in the worst storm. It was totally worth it, though. I got all the ingredients I needed, came back, and then baked and watched a movie for the rest of the night. It was the perfect way to end a crazy two weeks. On Saturday morning, Camille and I woke up early and caught the tram downtown and then got on the bus to Phillip Island. Phillip Island is famous for their “Penguin Parade” – a whole colony of little penguins comes out of the ocean every night and heads for their burrows. At the Penguin Parade, you get to watch them come out of the water and then wander the boardwalk and follow them as they find their nests. It’s really cool and they’re SUPER cute. Also on Phillip Island is a wildlife sanctuary where you can go pet and feed kangaroos. Camille and I went there and it was so fun! The kangaroos are so cute, but a little aggressive. They know all about the food bags that you’re carrying and will do pretty much anything to get another bite. This includes punching other kangaroos out of the way, standing up as tall as they can to get their heads closer to the food, and grabbing you with their tiny arms. At times, I was a little nervous, but once you start feeding them again, they were as sweet as can be and even held my hand while they ate. It was such a cool experience! Because the penguins only come out of the water at sunset, and Phillip Island is about 3 hours from where we live, we decided to stay the night. We chose a cute, little hostel called the Chill House were a few of our friends had stayed before. It was the best! We were the only ones there because it is the winter season and so we had free reign of everything. Camille and I went to dinner after the penguins and then just went back to the hostel and watched a movie before going to bed. It was super “chill”J and just a really great night! Sunday was fairly uneventful except for the fact that I got to sleep in! Monday I spent working on two more projects. I had to do a presentation on Iran for my Middle East Politics class and most of my preparation was spent making cookies and frosting them with three stripes to look like the Iranian flag… hopefully there were points for creativityJ. Tuesday was spent finishing my last paper (I am officially done with all schoolwork until my finals in three weeks!) and then I went to a Hillsong Church Conference worship service. It was incredible! Such a great night!! Today (Wednesday) has been fairly routine (class, gym, etc.), but tomorrow I get to fly to Sydney and stay with Holli for the long weekend! I’m SO excited!!! Today I was at the gym and ran into a friend I don’t see very often. We small talked a bit and she reminded me that we both leave in a month! I can’t believe how fast my time here has gone. I love it here and I’m still enjoying every moment. Life is goodJ.
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