An Update for the Week...

I apologize for my lack of blog entries as of late: I’ll try and catch up on the happenings of last week.  Last Monday morning I got back from Cairns and STRUGGLED through the day.  I was so tired, getting back from the airport at 7am, showering and then going to Uni for a full day of classes.  It was rough, but I made it and got everything in order for the rest of the week.  On Tuesday, I had my first presentation in any of my classes.  (They LOVE presentations hereJ).  My topic was “Congress” - it was for my American Foreign Policy class.  I decided that I would do a case study of Charlie Wilson (a Texan Congressman that essentially acquired all the funding for the covert operation of funding Afghan troops in their war against the soviets during the Cold War).  I wanted to show that in some instances, Congress could prove to be a major player in foreign policy.  It was really funny, though, because in order to pursue a topic that wasn’t directly from our textbook (aka, something that was interesting), I had to get permission from my tutorial leader and the unit chair for the entire subject.  It was strange.  Apparently, creativity is not encouraged – at least in that class.  Regardless, I got permission and my presentation was excellent, if I do say so myselfJ.  We had a really good discussion afterwards and people seemed genuinely engaged – proJ.  After my classes for the day, I got to skype my parents for a little bit and then headed to the church near my house to get my weekly fill of piano and singing.  After that I went home and started homemade chili for our house dinner.  It was “American food” night and so my roommate Stefanie (Michigan) and I made chili and cornbread.  It was DELICIOUS!  Everyone really liked it.  Wednesday was a pretty chill day, class in the morning, the gym and a shower, then lunch with one of my church friends.  We ate at Einstein’s, our student-owned bar/bistro on campus.  It was really good.  I had another class in the afternoon and then came home and worked on a big paper that was due Friday.  On Thursday, I finished my big paper in the morning, went to class, went to zumba (it went better the second time around) and then went home for Girls’ Night.  Christina and Marisa (two of the girls I went to Cairns with) and my two girl roommates (Camille and Stefanie) and I all had virgin strawberry daiquiris, chips and guacamole, and chocolate chip cookie dough.  Once we were sufficiently stuffed full of delicious “American” food, we started the Hangover and laughed until our stomachs hurt from that.  It was a great night!  On Friday, I turned in my first Australian school assignment (my big paper), wrote my next big paper (not due until next Friday) and went on a great run through the Gardiner’s Creek Reserve.  It was beautiful and filled with people walking their dogs.  I’d go again just to walk past all those cute pupsJ.  It reminded me of the dog-walking scene from the cartoon version of 101 Dalmatians.  Once I got back from my run, I got showered and ready and went to a triple birthday party for some other exchange students I know.  It was a really fun night.  Saturday consisted of catching up on correspondence, research for my next paper, finishing my reading for my classes this week and then an impromptu, super fun night with my roommates.  I was doing reading in the front room because my bedroom started to feel like a prison, and slowly each of my roommates joined me.  Stefanie was making dinner, Camille was reading a magazine and Michael was on his computer, but we were all in the same room, listening to music, talking occasionally and just enjoying each other’s company.  It was REALLY fun.  “Pretty Woman” was on TV that night and Camille and I (and kind of MichaelJ) watched that.  I’d never seen it all the way through – it was really good.  All in all, it was a really fun night and great bonding time with Michael and Camille.  On Sunday, I got up, was super confused about daylight savings time (we “fell” back – it’s fall here, which is still really weird for me), skyped my parents, and then went to church.  I wasn’t able to go last week because I was in Cairns so it was really nice to catch up with all my church friends and see everyone again!  I loved it.  I also tried my first “pav”.  Some of the middle school aged girls of the church were having a bake sale after the service to raise money for African orphans.  It was greatJ.  Anyway, “pavlova” (Australians shorten everything) is a BIG deal here!  They love it.  Essentially it’s a meringue dessert, topped with tons of whipped cream and fruit.  It was REALLY good!  I don’t like vegemite, but I like pav, so hopefully they’ll still accept meJ.  After church, I went to Uni for a little while to work on some more readings and research and then later that evening, got picked up by some church friends for a social outing with all the young adults from church.  The pastor is new and wanted to get to know this group better.  It was a really fun evening!  We went to this little café/bistro place and got coffee and fries and just talked and laughed for a couple hours.  It was really great.  I LOVE my church friends!  It’s always after being around them that I really start to feel the time crunch of my remaining months here.  I come home in about 2.5 months!  I can’t believe how fast the first two months went – I know the next two are going to fly by as well.  But I’m trying not to focus on that.  I’m just living life and loving every secondJ.  Life is good.