our new home

Abby and I were just talking about how after only 4 days, this place already feels like home. It is so comfortable here and we have been exploring every day so we are learning out way around, and loving it! 


Our bags finally got here!! it was so great and comforting to know where all of our stuff was and to actually have a clean pair of clothes to change into.

We are staying with some girls from CRU who we met when we got here and they have been wonderful! They have introduced us to most of the other girls on the staff team, and the summer project that is here right now. Yes, this means that most of our interaction has been with Americans, but the Aussies that we have met have been so friendly and wonderful.

Here are some things that we have noticed that we aren't used to:

-Free wifi is not a concept that has made it down here yet. The mall gets free wifi but its incredibly slow and pretty unreliable. Some houses have internet but its just not as fast as American internet..which is going to take some getting used to.

-Everything is so ridiculously expensive and so ridiculously small.

-Its winter and its cold! That’s been the biggest shock in coming here since my mind still thinks its summer. I haven’t experienced much culture shock since most of my interaction has been with Americans, and the aussies speak English.

-There are so many Asians! So so so so so so many Asians all with aussie accents.

-Very few people have seen feathers in hair before, so mine are getting lots of attention.

-All of the schools have uniforms, and all of the students take the trams to school because there are no school busses.

-The city as a whole wears very dark colored clothes, and even though its winter right now, we’ve been told its like this year round.

-There is no central heating. Just space heaters that you turn on when you go to sleep, and turn off when you wake up. Its like life in the testosterhome!

-Filtered coffee doesn’t exist here and I’ve been told that it would be a good idea to start liking the stuff.

-Students don’t enjoy spending time on campus. They only go for class then go home right away, so they have no student union buildings or places to eat on campus.

-The toilets that I’ve seen don’t really swirl around when they flush. They just fill with water and shoot down so I really don’t know if they flush the opposite way.

-I’ve only seen three types of m&ms: regular, peanut, and CRISPY!!

-Face piercings are very common.

Great news! Even though I’m half way around the world, there are ways for us to keep in touch! Obviously there is skype. I would love to see yalls faces soon! I also got something through skype that allows yall to call me whenever you want. It’s a local American number, so you will won’t be charged international fees. The catch is that I have to have internet to actually talk to you. You can call whenever you want, and if I don’t have internet it will allow you to leave me a voicemail that I can hear when I finally do get internet. It works both ways so I can call yall whenever I want too.  So if you want to get ahold of me call 1-281-617-2556 and if you see this number call you then pick it up because it’s me!

And now we can text each other. Again, I have to have internet in order to receive them, but hopefully we will get our house soon and we will get internet! The number to text me is 857-576-2798.